It has become commonplace to describe energy, people, places and situations as high vibration or low vibration. In these scenarios, typically high means positivity while low means toxic. This is a major misconception that not only robs us of the incredible healing properties of the low pulse of the planet but it encourages us to call names, rather than respond with compassion. Instead of high and low, what we really mean is clear or muddy, flowing or stagnant, cohesive or jumbled. Life is more complicated than high or low. We know this from Mother Nature, our great teacher. Just like a healthy river, energy needs to flow. Sometimes hardship takes us down and we don’t want to get up. We stay down long after we need to. We cannot let go because there is nothing new coming in. With stagnation comes sickness. Sometimes the events in our lives pile up on top of each other and without the opportunity to process them, we are all jumbled up inside.
The concept of high and low energy is an expression of our addictive society projected into twisted dogma. It encourages us to go for the adrenaline rush, the dopamine, when truly, happiness and peace is marked more often by the cooling of any drama at all. The highs and lows process through, always moving. Everything is moving, noticeably or not. There is a fluctuation between clarity and complexity, purity and mixture and mud. It is all part of nature and we humble humans are a part of it.
Even when we realize that lower frequencies have divinity, and we try to honor the divine of above and the divine of below at the same time, the dichotomy can make it difficult to fathom both at once. Instead, think of a giant of a tree, its branches fluttering in the sweet wind, while its roots hold firmly underground. And in-between, there is so much more. There is the long trunk, protruding feet upon the earth, and there is reaching everywhere, expressing various stages of growth. This is all the same being, and in its purest state, its vibration is a multi-faceted melody, rich with overtones, lifting off the floor of a gorgeous, deep bass tone.
We, unlike other creatures, are natural mediums, meant to carry a wide spectrum. If the energy of a human is consistently one thing, like the songs of the angels or the deep pulsing with heartbeat of the planet, octaves below our range of perception, it is out of balance. Just as lack of flow can create sickness, so too can imbalance.
Rather than thinking of highs and lows, think of clarity, like a sound engineer does as she sits behind the sound board, drawing the saxophone into its own pocket of the frequency scale and shaping the sound of the drums. She is adds just the right amount of snare and lets the highest notes roll over the top. Then she mixes in few choice effects and all those voices come together to create an amazing musical experience, because there is enough space between each of the instruments to hear them all perfectly.
The energy in an environment or in a person can be perceived as prickly. It can be diffuse. It can be stretched thin or it can be a cry for help. Energies can be jovial, even raucous. They can make you feel like prowling or howling. They can be many things. Because of the breadth of our life experiences, energy that is toxic to one person may not be to another. It may be amusing, or make us feel lonely and sad. It may instill one to hold space with compassion. It may be refreshing. It’s more accurate to talk about our perceptions and reactions than to try to put a label on someone else’s state of being.
Instead of calling something or someone toxic or low vibration, let’s instead be more accurate. Let’s instead say things like, ‘This environment feels heavy and makes me think of a memory I wish I could forget,’ or ‘That person seems angry and depressed’, or ‘The whole situation is pushing my buttons and I need some space to unravel my feelings’. We do not need to be open to all the energies around us. We can choose to close so we can figure out what we need. We can choose to bloom into a state of giving and receiving. We can take care of ourselves. And we can give grace to those around us to be themselves, allowing them to find their way on their own special journey.
We are free. We can see things as they are and still be ok. We do not need to leave our earthly bodies to experience the divine. We are all fine, right here where we are, tumbling, unraveling, flowing, dancing and falling back down once more. This is where we are. The magic is here.