Waking Energy 7 Timeless Practices Designed to Reboot Your Body and Unleash Your Potential

The Way of Nature
Close your eyes and think about someone who taxes your patience, someone you would rather not
deal with if you had the choice. Or imagine how you feel sitting in traffic, trying to navigate a
crowded shopping mall, spending hours in front of the computer, being late for an appointment, or
hearing negative comments. Now consider how these scenarios affect your energy, how even the
thought of them may drain you. They sap your very life force.
And now imagine what makes you happy. Envision someone or something you love very much, a
beloved pet, a favorite memory, or a magnificent place in nature. Think about standing in the middle
of the forest, under a canopy of towering redwoods, inhaling their intoxicating fragrance, or watching
your feet slowly disappear in the sand as the tide rushes in and slowly slides out, the cool water on
your legs, the taste of salt on your tongue. How do you feel now? Nature and living in harmony with
her wakes your energy, empowers you, and makes you literally come alive again—reminding you of
your own life force.
It follows, then, that one of the most powerful and immediate ways to tap into your own fountain
of energy is to get out into the splendor of nature—to witness, experience, and feel the magnificence
of creation. What is without is what is within. This is the fundamental principle, the overarching
philosophy that informs the whole of Waking Energy. There is no separation within ourselves or
between our inner world and the outer one—the great beyond. We are one with nature, with
ourselves, with each other. Separation is an illusion. Just as our body is connected to our mind and
our emotions, we are one with the air we breathe and the water we drink, inextricably connected to
the world around us and everyone in it. Our personal ecosystem depends upon Mother Nature’s.
Waking your energy and fostering your longevity mean embracing these simple, all-pervasive truths.
By getting in touch with the world around you, by turning to nature, you can reveal and connect to
your own energy. Everything that we need to be complete is within us right at this very moment. This
idea is central to the Tao, the Chinese wisdom tradition meaning “the way,” and complementary yogic
philosophies like the Hindu tantra, meaning “to weave, stretch, and expand.”
It all begins and ends with the energy of love, which is the energy that can help you create your
own heaven on earth. Heaven on earth is a place where inner and outer support and mirror one
another, where the earth supports us as we support it—where we develop an evolved consciousness
that lets us know that as we are loving ourselves, our own ecosystem, we are loving the world we
depend upon for our very survival. We need to serve and honor it, to live in harmony with nature and
her myriad manifestations. We are the guardians of those riches. Here is your chance to rise to the
occasion, both of loving yourself, so that you can cultivate true balance, wake your own energy, and
generate the resources to look beyond, and of tending to the earth, the water, and the sky—the most
essential prerequisite to living with integrity and balance.
At the core of Taoism is the teaching that the body needs love from the higher, conscious self both
to survive and to nurture its own energy, which can then be shared. But we can’t share the energy of
love with true integrity until it flows beyond our own needs. The old adage, “To truly love another,
you must first learn to love yourself,” will take on literal meaning in each of the practices you will
learn.
Another essential goal of Taoism is taking responsibility for the quality of our lives, especially by