In a dream earlier this week, my guides demoed an energy technique to get sluggish, stagnant energy moving.

And with the New Moon in Aries today, what better time to kickstart new energetic pathways in your life?

So, in any situation, there’s a flow of energy moving in and moving out, like the tides.

We might think of being “in the flow” as a state where we’re not fighting against this natural movement.

Each situation has its own optimal movement patterns. And yes–that’s patterns, plural.

We don’t need to obsess over finding The One Right Pattern, because life always presents an abundance of options (whether we’re aware of them or not).

But that doesn’t mean all energy-movement patterns are equally amazing.

I’m sure you’ve been in situations that felt energetically clunky: Nothing went according to plan, and you were met with one annoying stumbling block after another.

When we move against the natural movement of energy, it’s freakin’ hard!

Depending on the momentum of the situation, we might feel like we’re rerouting a trickling stream or a full-on white-water rapids of energy.

Can you imagine what it would entail to physically reroute this all by yourself?? I mean…good luck.

And yet, when our conscious and unconscious programming gets added to a situation, this is often precisely what we’re trying to do.

All the while wondering why we’re so freakin’ exhausted, and perhaps even blaming ourselves for “not being good enough.”

Programming, especially of the pesky unconscious kind (pesky because we aren’t aware of it, so it has free rein to do whatever it damn well pleases), attempts to reroute the natural movement of energy.

Now, mapping out all of the energy movements in a given situation would be impossible, but here’s the thing:

We don’t need to in order to get back in the flow. Yay!

Which brings us to my guides’ technique.

Remember what I said about the tides?

In any situation, there will be a mixture of energy moving in and energy moving out.

If we grouped together all of the complex movements of energy, we’d be able to sort them into one of those two buckets.

So, we can alter the energy of the situation, tweaking it until we feel ourselves coming into a state of flow, by shifting how much energy is moving in and how much is moving out.

But what does energy moving in or out actually mean, practically speaking?

Well, an easy way to frame this in human terms is when the energy moves out, we’re taking action in some way; we’re giving energy to the situation.

Energy is moving out, from you to the situation.

When the energy moves in, we’re often resting or simply being, relative to the situation; we’re receiving energy from the situation.

Energy is moving in, from the situation to you.

Let’s look at an example, and you can work along with me by choosing a situation that’s feeling stuck in your life.

Stuckness might be experiencing the same old, same old, no matter what you do; pouring loads of time and effort into something that’s barely budging; or feeling tired of a nagging irritation.

First, I like to briefly describe the situation in my journal…

…just to get it out of my head and onto the page, where I can work with it more easily.

Next, make two columns on a fresh page: Energy Out and Energy In.

Let’s say you’ve been looking for a new job, but it feels like, of the paltry offerings you’re able to find, either they don’t really fit what you’re looking for, or they do, but you’re not able to get past the first interview, if that.

Possible ways for energy to move out, from you to the situation

You could:

Fill out more applications

Reach out to friends and ask if they have any job leads

Follow up after submitting your résumé

Spend time on LinkedIn and Indeed, looking for positions

Brainstorm what type of job you want and where

Possible ways for energy to move in, from the situation to you

You could:

Take a break from filling out applications

Now that your friends know you’re looking, wait for them to reach out if they find something good

Rest or do something fun when you feel like you “should” be online, job searching

Read a fun novel to give your mind a break from thinking about the job hunt

Are you seeing a theme here?

The energy-in options all involve giving the situation time and space to send energy your way, instead of actively trying to force the energy to come to you.

Imagine you’re waiting for an important package delivery, and you have to be home to sign for it. If you’re not there, they can’t deliver the package.

But one day, you get tired of waiting, so you decide–you know what? I’ll track it down myself. Problem solved!

You make a bunch of calls to figure out where the package is and find that it’s currently in transit from Chicago. Perfect!

You hop in your car, hoping to meet the truck halfway. You know it’s FedEx, so maybe if you spot one of their semis on the highway, you can follow it to the next rest stop and intercept the driver.

But then an unexpected snow storm forces you to pull over for the night, and by the time you’re back on the road in the morning, you’re wracked with uncertainty:

Did the driver get an earlier start and they’re already ahead of you, or should you keep driving toward Chicago?

Well, three hundred miles and some backtracking later, plus a couple dozen phone calls with increasingly irritated service reps, and you still aren’t able to intercept the truck on the highway.

You finally head home, dejected and thoroughly worn out…only to find a missed-package slip stuck to your door.

Sometimes we need to press pause on taking action so we’re actually present and available for the energy that’s trying to flow to us.

But if we have unconscious programming that says, for instance, nothing good can come to us unless we work ourselves to exhaustion…

…or we’re not enough unless we’re constantly proving our worth through productivity…

…[insert programming of your choice here]…

…then we’re not working with the natural energy movements, and it’s easy to blame ourselves when things aren’t going the way we’d like, and then go into our not-working strategies even harder.

(Or maybe that’s just me? Anyone?)

The point is, by mapping out a handful of ways energy might move in and out of a situation, we often get an intuitive hit of which direction is being neglected or outright blocked.

And if we can’t even come up with examples for one direction, that’s a handy clue that this flow is being blocked!

Once you have your list, it’s time to experiment.

Pick an option. Before you do it, how does it feel even to consider this option?

Does your body feel relaxed or constricted (this might be subtle)?

Do you find your mind starting to race with anxious what ifs or does it feel inspiring?

Just notice what happens when you energetically “pick up” this option.

Keep doing this until you find an option that feels good, or at least neutral, to pursue, and then do it.

Again, take note of how it feels. Give it a day or two (or longer, depending on the magnitude of the option you’re taking) and see how the situation feels.

Continue to tweak and experiment, moving toward sensations of more ease, relaxation, softness, expansion.

If you start to feel constricted, heavy, anxious, or like there’s an urgency, a need to control or force things…pause.

Experiment with allowing energy to move in, from the situation to you, and see how things shift.

And then, if you notice yourself feeling inspired to take an action–i.e. help the energy move out–go for it.

How do things feel? Check in and keep tweaking as needed.

Less than getting fixated on some destination of energetic perfection, know that as you do this you’re building:

your awareness of energy and how it flows through and around you.

your ability to shift and shape those energy flows.

your flexibility. Instead of requiring life to match your patterns, you’re allowing life to expand and enrich you.

The more you fine tune your energetic discernment with practices like this, the easier it is to shift into flow.

Happy New Moon!