Expansion and Contraction

How many of you have attended a conference?  You come back feeling inspired with new ideas.  Then back into the workplace you go, only to feel the air slip out of your balloon.  Or perhaps you had a remarkable breakthrough in a therapy session.  An issue which had been dogging you for years has surfaced.  You see how it plays into your life.  You walk out of the office feeling you've conquered it once and for all...only to have your button pushed again by a random encounter.  Maybe it was a meditation in which you really transcended your particular suffering, full of love for humankind, only to awaken the next morning to your neighbor's blaring radio and a mind full of expletives.  Why does this happen?  Why can't we seem to get it right once and for all?


Expansion and contraction, my friends.  Both states are real in and of themselves.  But we do experience both of them temporarily throughout our hour, day, lifetime.  Since I'm a Reiki practitioner, I use "energyspeak."  We are energy.  Energy surrounds us, emanates from us, permeates us.  Indeed we are made of energy.   When we become inspired, we expand.  As outer and inner forces come to bear on us, either in the form of illness, weather or past memories, bad habits, our energy contracts.  It is to be expected, even if we do dread falling off the mountain yet again!

But here's the good news.  We never contract to our original size.  Each inspiration stretches us a little further; each set back contracts us a little less.  Perhaps without realizing it, we are growing.  We are changing.  And that in turn affects others.


I have worked in some pretty oppressive places.  Places where negativity abounds.  It is extremely difficult to break out of that gravity and rise above it.  I regularly dwelt in that tar pit myself!  It is even harder to overcome it alone.  So consider the plight of people living in a community like that.  An energetic black cloud holds everyone in thrall.  It may not be that individuals are not trying hard enough to get out of their situation.  What they really need is critical mass to fortify each others' energy in order to overcome together that which holds them captive.


For those of us fortunate enough to live in more buoyant places, there seems a greater awareness for self-improvement, an awareness of community, an awareness of a greater good, an awareness of what is good.  Let us accept expansion and contraction knowing it is part of the human experience, knowing it gives us compassion for others.  Let us also reach out to those who can fortify us like a band of brothers who also strive for inspiration.  In turn let us reach out to those who need fortifying, for how else can they grow in capacity?  Share your expansion.  But as the airline staff will tell you, be sure to put your oxygen mask on first!  Negativity is very slow energy, and it can easily pull you down and suck you dry.  It really does take more effort to maintain positive energy which vibrates very fast.  Help those in need when and where you can.  But always be sure to replenish yourself lest you become depleted.  It helps no one to hurt yourself in service to others.  Know when you need some expansion.  And reach out for it as often as you can.  We will all be better off for it!