I always teach people to see and feel energy in my meditation classes for a couple of reasons. It's a lot of fun, and being able to see it and feel it makes it more real and easier for them to grasp.

Applying this to your martial arts practice (and then the rest of your life) can give you some interesting abilities. When you can feel and see energy it makes it easier for you to be aware of the people around you. This increased awareness can help you sense when a co-worker may be over-stressed and more likely to engage in conflict. It allows you to apply some sympathy and understanding and thereby increase your own effectiveness by avoiding needless conflict and stress.

If you've been doing the exercises that I've described then by this point you've probably had some interesting experiences with feeling your own internal energy and drawing energy into your body. Now we're going to work with feeling external energy. As you progress with this you'll not only be able to feel your own energy, but the energy of the people and things around you. Seeing and feeling energy can also be a lot of fun to experiment and play with. It's especially fun to get others involved.

The following exercises will help you feel your aura, the external energy field that surrounds everything. Everything on the planet is made up of various particles held together by energy, and you can feel and even manipulate that energy with practice.

Exercise 1 - Building an energy ball

Rub your hands together briskly as if trying to warm them on a cold day. Doing this increases the sensitivity of your hands.

Hold your hands in front of you about 6 inches apart. Now move them away from each other until they are about 8-12 inches apart, and then move them back to 2-3 inches apart, just like a fisherman describing the sizes of the fish he caught. As you continue doing this, can you feel a ball or energy building up between your hands? It may feel like a thickness in the air between your hands, or a pressure between them. Play with this exercise a bit. See how big you can make the energy ball. Is one hand more sensitive than the other? Can you turn your hands over and do it with the backs of your hands?

Exercise 2 - Waving the energy

Hold your left hand upright in front of you with your palm facing to the right. Wave your right fingertips slowly up and down in front of your left palm, but without touching it. Can you feel the motion of your right hand across the surface of your left palm? Switch hands and do it again. Does it feel different with the other hand? Is one hand more sensitive than the other?

Exercise 3 - Feeling the aura

Hold your hands out in front of you at arms length, palms in. Now move your awareness down to your palms and slowly move your palms in toward your body. Remember the way it felt when you made the energy ball between your palms? Can you feel the same sort of thickness or pressure as your palms move in towards your body?

With a partner practice moving your hands slowly towards them. Can you feel their aura? Can your partner feel your hands as you move towards them?

Have your partner stand about 12-15 feet away. Now walk slowly towards them. Can you sense their aura as you walk up to them? Can they feel you? As you get deeper into this you'll be able to play with intention and emotions also, but for now just concentrate on feeling the aura.

Some games that you can play with this;

Have your partner stand a few feet away and think angry thoughts. Can you feel a difference in their energy? How about when they think happy thoughts? Have them hide somewhere in the house and, without moving, see if you can sense where they are. Try this in various places around town as well.

Some people have no trouble at all with this while others aren't as empathic and take awhile to learn to feel it. As usual this is all about building up your own personal catalog and learning how things feel.

Just as you can feel energy, a lot of people can also see it. Seeing the aura doesn't seem to be something that everyone can do and those who do seem to have wildly varying abilities. I've known healers who could look at you and say things like "Oh you're blocking some energy here" just because of what they see in your aura, while others can just barely see it.

Personally I'm more of an empath and while I can feel energy from across the room I don't see it that well. This is something that you can play with and if you can do it then it's just another cool tool in the toolbox.

© 2006 Robert Morgen. This article may be used by anyone, anywhere as long as the author's bio and links are included.