| Positive Energy: The Missing
Link in Health and Healing An Interview with Judith Orloff, M.D. by Susan Meeker-Lowry Judith Orloff, M.D., author of the new book Positive Energy: Ten Extraordinary Prescriptions For Transforming Fatigue, Stress and Fear Into Vibrance, Strength and Love, is a board-certified psychiatrist and a medical intuitive, from a long line of intuitives that includes her grandmother, mother and aunts. Judith has pushed the envelope of what a physician can be by integrating her gift of intuition with her conventional medical training. She is the author of two best-selling books, Second Sight and Guide to Intuitive Healing. She was interviewed about her new book, Positive Energy. Your new book, Positive Energy, is very timely. The world seems to get wackier and scarier every day. Judith Orloff: We are going through what I call a "hidden energy crisis." We're inundated by violence in the news, and we're faced with negativity every day. We must learn what drains our energy and how we can protect ourselves! I wrote Positive Energy to give people the tools to cope with it all. You write about the intriguing concept of intuitive empathy. Can you explain how this can help people who have very real symptoms, but the doctor finds nothing wrong. Orloff: An intuitive empath is someone who not only senses energy but also absorbs other people's angst. I've been an intuitive empath since childhood. I couldn't go to shopping malls because I'd get overwhelmed by the energy. I'd walk in fine and walk out exhausted, anxious or in pain. I told my mother, a physician, and she said, "Dear, you just don't have a thick enough skin." So I thought there was something wrong with me. As an adult, I realized that I'm an empath and I was absorbing the energy of crowds. Being compressed in crowds can zap your energy. Are many people intuitive empaths? Orloff: At my workshops on energy, at least a third of the room qualify. Empaths have mystery symptoms that baffle traditional doctors. They are labeled "hypochondriacs" or "crazy" and sent to psychiatrists. But psychiatrists don't know how to deal with the energy component of what's going on. In my book, I describe techniques to center your energy and not absorb it from others. We empaths need to learn this to survive! You also discuss energy vampires. What are they? Orloff: These people can suck the life right out of us. Energy vampires roam our world. People are attacked all the time by energy vampires and mope around exhausted not realizing what happened. What are the types of energy vampires? Orloff: One is the sob sister. She makes herself a victim. She whines and complains, appears helpless. When you present her with a solution, she says, "Yes, but...." Another is the blamer who doles out endless servings of guilt or resorts to verbal abuse. Then there's the drama queen. She exaggerates small incidents into huge dramas. Another type is the constant talker, a chronic motor mouth with no interest in what you're saying or feeling. You can't get a word in edgewise; they stand right in your face, and when you back off they take one step forward. Another is the go-for-the-jugular type who cuts you down purposely. Then there are the unintentional zappers -- your children, your mate, friends. They don't intend to deplete you but they do. How can we deal with family members who drain us? Orloff: The key is to set clear boundaries and practice shielding yourself with white light as a protection. You'll also need to plan regular mini-breaks from intimates. I love how you say that the quality of the energy of all our connections matters. To me, this is how you begin to change the world. Orloff: Absolutely. I'm a big believer in the love that's exchanged in small interactions. How you treat your FedEx person counts. If you hold an elevator for a little old lady instead of smashing it in her face. It's all about service. We live in a world of violence, selfishness and an erratic economy and scary diseases. We also live in a world of love, miracles and healing. I wrote this book is to help people transform the negative into the positive and work towards a better, more peaceful world. In your new book, Positive Energy, you write about something you call technodespair. What do you mean by that? Orloff: Technodespair is burnout from frustrating bouts with technology such as computers, faxes and phones. You get anxious, depressed or fatigued when technology breaks down. As an energy psychiatrist, I know that technodespair is epidemic in our modern world. Have you ever had your computer crash with what seems like your whole life on it? Oh yeah. And it's devastating. I get frustrated and angry and then become afraid I've lost all that work. Orloff: What you experienced is technodespair. Technodespair also happens with things like a repeatedly jamming printer or a mouse that won't work right or a cell phone with bad reception. These relatively minor foul-ups are irritating and can erode positive vibes. In addition, machines give off subtle energy of their own just like people do. I'm not just talking about electromagnetic energy here. Being stuck at a computer all day or spending hours in front of the television can be draining. A section in the book on technodespair teaches how to deal with technology so that you're not energetically drained by it. Yet we're surrounded by technology everywhere we go and it's impossible to function in today's world without it. Some people spend hours at a stretch in front of the computer as part of their job. What can we do? Orloff: First of all, observe your intuitive reaction to machines to determine if you're machine sensitive. Do you get tired, spaced out? Do you feel remote, irritable or edgy? If you are sensitive, you have to reduce your exposure or take regular breaks. Drink plenty of water when you're around machines. Water flushes out the negative vibes. Make sure you get a lot of fresh air, and also breathe and center yourself. Every time you exhale, you exhale negative energy and you need to know that. I love exhaling. It's a wonderful way to let go of negative energy from the body. Information overload is another related problem. Thanks to the internet, voice mail, e-mail, cell phones and faxes, we're constantly processing positive and negative input. At some point we get maxed out, can't take anymore. Again, the solution is to take a mini-technology fast. Get away from the machines. Go for a walk, watch an escapist movie, leave the e-mail for later. What about how we affect machines? It seems that when something goes wrong, the more frustrated I get the worse the problem becomes. Orloff: Absolutely. Some of us get along with electronic devices better than others. I'm utterly convinced that machines register our vibes just as we intuitively register theirs, and that we can break machines with our emotional energy. For instance, when I get angry or upset everything around me seems to break -- the fax machine, the printer, clocks, light bulbs, the toaster -- one by one, they all go down. We need to recognize that we can affect machines with what's called psycho-kinetic energy, which is our mind's ability to affect our surroundings. When we shift our energy, things stop breaking. When I'm frustrated or angry, everything starts breaking in my house-my computer, the toilet, light bulbs, clocks.... But once I shift my emotional energy to be more positive, I can send the throngs of service people home! And we have to be careful not to catastrophize technology snafus, because that compounds the problem. It does. Whenever my computer goes down I'm like, "Oh my God, what am I going to do?" Then I get angry at myself for letting it get to me so much. After all, it's "just a machine." Orloff: Exactly. Feeling as though we're at the mercy of a machine is a setup for despair and I totally relate. As a writer, I know the terror of forever losing my words to some black hole in cyber space. We have to practice self-compassion, center in the now, keep breathing, and ground yourself so you can shift your own energy and then the technology problems always pass. For more information about books and workshops by Judith Orloff M.D., visit drjudithorloff.com. Susan Meeker-Lowry is a Vermont-based economist and ecologist who wrote "Economics As If the Earth Really Mattered" and "Invested in the Common Good." Copyright © Susan Meeker-Lowry |
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April 2004 |
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