ON HEARTBREAK AND RESTORING bLA ENERGY

Using ancient Tibetan methods to call back energies and essence lost in grief and shock

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Recently I was catching up with older episodes of my favorite podcast (WE CAN DO HARD THINGS with Glennon Doyle, Abby Wambauch and Amanda Doyle) and finally heard their interview with science journalist Florence Williams, the author of Heartbreak: A Personal and Scientific Journey.  I’ve always been interested in chronic grief and heartbreak, partly because I’ve been heartbroken all of my life (due to infant attachment trauma) and partly because I wrote a literary novel about heartbreak--which I never quite finished (despite getting a generous advance via the wonderful Dan Menaker at Random House)--and the fact of which (meaning: the not-finishing) can still sometimes bring me into this state of vague heartbreak (more on this large not-finishing topic in another post); and mostly because I currently practice a form of energy-therapy known as bLa massage--a subtle energy treatment from the Tibetan Bőn and medical traditions that helps us call back or restore our lost bLa energy.  While bLa energy is hard to define in Western terms (and often beyond what the ordinary the human mind can conceive), bLa--from the Tibetan perspective--is a sub-branch of a branch of life-force energy that is loosely connected with what we might call our consciousness and/or soul; and it is also connected with what we might call our energy-boundaries or aura; and also loosely connected with what we might call our elemental makeup. And our joy. And zest for life. And our internal lunar energy.  

(See what I mean when I say that bLa energy is hard to define?  Most of us Westerners have not been trained to conceive of the subtle emanations of our energy bodies; indeed, many Westerners might not even understand the concept of ‘energy body’ at all. But we’re getting there.  And my teacher, Dr. Nida Chenagtsang, is doing wonderful work in terms of helping modern humans understand these ancient TIbetan subtle-body teachings.)