We are spiritual essence in a physical body.

Words do not do it justice when explaining what this spiritual essence is made of—the closest word that we have to describe it is energy, yet it is also consciousness.

It has awareness, accumulates information and is on a quest to learn and expand as much as we allow it to.

This conscious energy moves through all living things—both inside and outside the physical body, creating an energy field, a luminous body or aura which is composed of all that we are—thoughts, memories, emotions, wisdom.

We can touch each other at this spiritual level before we even say hello. This is how we know when someone is hiding anger or when someone is upset or happy. We feel the space between us where our energy fields mesh. Our bodies process what we pick up there and make sense of it for us.

The energy field is where information comes from. It tells us things like our mother is on the phone, our best friend is in trouble or someone we’ve not thought about in a long time is about to come back into our lives. As well as our brains processing this information for us, we also use our hearts and our stomachs—our guts— which is where the saying “gut instinct” comes from.

When we have access to our instincts and intuition, we have a powerful system that can help us navigate through life. We all are born with this connection, but over time we tend to move out of our body so it gets harder to read. Our connection to our intuition gets chipped away by life, by the environment, by painful interactions with others. If something hurts us, we protect ourselves by running from it, or from closing off to it. This protection, while helping us in the moment of need, has become a way of life for most people.

Disconnection from our spiritual essence cuts us off from our wisdom, resulting in low self-esteem, low self-confidence and low self-worth. If we don’t have a connection to our instincts, we are not empowered, which leads to a great deal of panic and fear.

There is a way to get this connection back and in doing so it immediately creates a sense of calmness, relaxation, and gradually your confidence comes back too. The first step? You need to be aware that you have disconnected from your essential self.

Take a minute, right now, and ask yourself “How connected am I? Do I really know how I feel or is my brain just telling me how it thinks I feel?”

Try this exercise. Notice how you feel right now. Now breathe. Take four long, slow, deep breaths. Feel the ground beneath your feet and ask again, “How do I feel?” Did you get a different answer this time? Chances are, you did.

If you want to stay connected to your inner wisdom, your power and strength, you need to make a commitment to yourself to do it. It doesn’t have to be all work; it can be fun too—just taking a minute every couple of hours to check in with yourself and ask that very question, “How do I feel?” and really taking the time to listen to the body’s answer, rather than to the brain.

Meditation is wonderful to enhance the connection, as is yoga, Tai Chi, mindfulness, energy healing practices such as Reiki but more than any of these is your intention to connect with yourself.

Take a few minutes now to listen to the audio exercise Connecting to your Power and Strength, not with just your mind, but with your body—with your heart, your stomach and your brain.

Breathe with it, glide your whole self into it and notice how you feel with every breath, as you come more closely connected to your essential self.

Keep your feet flat on the ground and as you turn inward, feel how strong you are, and notice how it seems like all the jigsaw puzzle pieces are floating into place.

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Assist Ed: Michelle Margaret/Ed: Sara Crolick