ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Summary: Most of us are really good at overriding ourselves. We ask what we should do long before we ask what we actually need. In this episode, we explore energetic discernment — the practice of learning to read your own energy so you can respond to yourself more wisely. Drawing on the yoga philosophy framework of the three gunas — rajas, tamas, and sattva — we'll look at the living qualities of energy moving through you throughout any given day, why none of them are inherently good or bad, and how noticing what state you're in changes everything about how you care for yourself. Plus your breath as a real-time energy indicator and a personal story about what happens when something you love becomes too much of a good thing. Because energetic discernment isn't controlling your energy. It's knowing it.
Transcript:
In the last episode, we talked about capacity, how much you can hold and maintain, and why tending to it matters. I asked you to imagine your capacity like a movie theater, to look around at everything sitting in the seats right now. That includes your work, your relationships, your responsibilities, your worries and your dreams, your emotions, the decisions that you still need to make, and to simply notice how full your theater currently is.
And you didn't kick anyone out yet. We're still not kicking anyone out today. Because before we start making decisions about where our energy goes, I think there's another important skill to be built. We need to learn how to read our own energy, asking ourselves questions like, "What energy state am I in right now? What is happening inside of me? And what might I actually need?" This is energetic discernment.
And I think of discernment a little bit like getting to know a new friend. When you're getting to know someone, you pay attention. You start to learn what lights them up and what overwhelms them. You learn when they need encouragement and when they need some space. You learn when maybe they want to rest and be still, and when they want movement and action. You learn them.
Energetic discernment is learning yourself in the same way. Not who you were six months ago, not who you think you should be, not what someone else says you should need. You as you are right now.
Hey, it's Kelly G, your Radiance Coach. Welcome to the Embodied Radiance Podcast, episode number 14.
I think a lot of us are really good at overriding ourselves. We tend to ask what we should do before asking what we need. We're tired, but there's more to do. We're overstimulated, but we pick up our phone and take in more. We're feeling stuck and heavy, but we sit when what we might actually need is to get up and move.
We ask ourselves questions like, "What should I do? What's next on the list? What would be more productive? What do other people need from me or expect from me?"
And we can go through an entire day responding to those questions without ever stopping to check in and ask, "What is happening inside of me right now, and what does my system need?"
Those energetic discernment questions create a pause so that we can check in with what is best for us in that moment. And yoga gives us a really useful framework for understanding what we find there. It's the framework of the gunas.
The gunas are three living qualities of energy present throughout nature and throughout us. They are rajas, tamas, and sattva, and these are sometimes taught in a way that creates a hierarchy. Sattva is good, rajas not quite as good, tamas is bad. But that misses something really important, the fact that we have all three within us and we need all three. These are living energies constantly moving and interacting with one another.
So let's look at them. Rajas is the energy of movement, activation, stimulation, passion, drive. It helps us to build momentum. It gets us moving. Rajas helps us to create, act, initiate, pursue, change. You need rajas to get off the couch and do something, and sometimes you need more of that type of energy.
Then there's tamas. Tamas is heaviness, stillness, stability, grounding, inertia. Tamas slows us down, and again, that isn't inherently bad. We need the energy of tamas to be able to be still enough to sleep. We need enough stability to stay grounded. Sometimes the ability to stop, become still, and do absolutely nothing is exactly what our system needs.
And then there's sattva. Sattva is clarity, balance, harmony, and presence. Sattva isn't necessarily high energy. It's not necessarily excitement. It's more like a sense of coherence. You're here, you're clear, you're connected. There's an ease and steadiness to your energy when you're in a sattvic state. All three of these qualities are moving through us every day, all day.
The practice isn't to eliminate rajas and tamas so that we can become perfectly sattvic people. The practice is to notice what's here, respect that we have all three within us, and move toward the energy that would be most beneficial in any given moment. They all serve us.
So do you ever check in with which energetic state you're in? Think about how different you can feel throughout a single day. Maybe you wake up feeling heavy. You don't wanna get moving. Your thoughts feel slow. Your body just wants to stay exactly where it is. There may be tamasic energy present.
And then a few hours later, you're working. Your brain is firing. You're moving from one thing to another. You're answering messages, making decisions, getting things done. There's rajasic energy there.
And maybe later on, you go for a walk outside. Something settles. Your mind clears. You feel more present in your body. You can hear your thoughts clearly. There's sattvic energy present there.
These moments are all simply states that we are in, and states change. They move. They don't mean that anything has gone wrong. But where this awareness becomes useful is when we stop trying to respond to every state in exactly the same way.
If I'm feeling heavy, stagnant, and stuck in tamas, maybe what I need is movement, music, a walk, a conversation, something that brings in a little rajas and gets the energy moving.
But if I've been going, going, going all day, if I've been working and thinking and talking and consuming and producing, and my mind is racing and my body can't settle, I probably don't need more stimulation or more movement. More rajas isn't necessarily the medicine for excess rajas. Maybe I need to slow down. Maybe I need to quiet. Maybe I need grounding. Maybe I need to put the phone down.
The question isn't how do I get rid of the state? It's what would support greater balance in me right now? And that is discernment.
One of the easiest ways to begin noticing your energetic state is something that you're already doing all day long: breathing.
Your breath is constantly responding to your experience. Think about what happens in your breath when you're startled. Think about your breath when you're excited or anxious or concentrating really hard on something or deeply relaxed. Your breath changes.
Sometimes it may be fast, sometimes shallow. Maybe you're holding it. Maybe you suddenly take a huge sigh, or maybe your breath becomes slow and heavy or quiet and spacious. Your breath is information.
And I don't wanna turn this into another set of rules. Fast breath doesn't automatically mean rajas. Slow breath doesn't automatically mean tamas. A deep breath doesn't mean, "Congratulations, you have officially achieved sattva." Human beings are much more interesting and complex than that.
Instead, what I invite you to practice noticing is simply, what is my breath doing right now? And then, what about my body? Do I feel activated? Do I feel heavy? Do I feel clear and spacious? Do I feel restless or braced? Do I wanna move? Do I wanna just curl up? Do I wanna take in more? Do I desperately need less?
You don't have to interpret every signal perfectly. You're just learning the language here.
What I think is really important, and that I invite you to recognize, is that your answers are always allowed to change, and they will as you change. Something that feels sattvic for you right now may not feel sattvic at all in six months. Something that brought you the exact rajasic activation you needed during one season of your life may eventually become over-stimulating. And something that once felt really heavy or stagnant may become the stillness and grounding your system desperately needs in another season.
The gunas are living energies, and you are a living system. You are made of energy. You are changing. Your life is changing. Your capacity is changing. Your nervous system is changing. So energetic discernment isn't creating a permanent list of what's good for you. It's staying in relationship with yourself closely enough to know what's true right now.
And that's why this connects so beautifully back to brahmacharya. Last time we talked about brahmacharya in the perspective of the right use of energy. But the right use of energy requires discernment. It requires knowing yourself well enough to recognize, "What energetic state am I in, and what would support me right now?"
I see this in my own life all the time with learning. I love learning. I love to take in new information and see new perspectives. Give me a book, a new idea, a podcast, a new framework, a new way of understanding something, and I can feel myself come alive.
Learning can create a beautiful amount of Rajas for me. Ideas start moving, connections start happening, I wanna create, I wanna teach, I wanna know more. And that can be exactly the energy that I need, until it isn't.
Because there's also a point where I can start to recognize that I'm taking in more than I can actually do anything with. I can't let one idea settle because I've already reached for the next one. The thing itself hasn't changed. I still love learning, but my energetic state has changed, and now what supports me might be the opposite of taking in more.
Maybe I need some quiet or to move my body, to sit down and watch a mindless TV show, or to have a conversation with someone. Sometimes it's cooking dinner, walking outside, letting what I've already taken in settle. And that's discernment.
It's not asking, "Is learning good for me or bad for me?" It's asking, "What do I need right now?" Or even, "How much do I need right now?"
Okay, so let's put it to practice. You don't need to revisit your theater today. We're not looking at everything you're holding. We're looking at you. So wherever you are, if you're able, I invite you to close your eyes and to take a breath. And before you try to change anything, simply notice the breath that's already happening in your body. How are you breathing? Fast or slow? Deep or shallow? Does it feel smooth or jagged? There's nothing to fix. Right now we're just noticing.
Now shift your attention to your body. What does your energy feel like in your body right now? Do you feel activated? Restless? Does it feel like things are moving quickly inside? Do you feel driven to do, solve, fix, go, accomplish? If so, there may be Rajasic energy present.
Or do you feel heavy, slow or grounded right now? Does it feel tired within you? Do you want to become still or withdraw? There could be Tamasic energy present.
Or perhaps there's a real sense of clarity inside, presence, steadiness, connectedness. Maybe there's Sattvic energy present.
And maybe it's not clear what you feel at all, and that's okay too. These energies overlap and they move, they shift all throughout the day. You're not trying to diagnose yourself here. You're just practicing noticing your own energy.
So now I invite you to ask, "What would support greater balance in me right now?" Maybe it's to shift your breath. Maybe it's to change your posture. Maybe it's recognizing that you need movement or rest. Maybe it's less stimulation, more connection. Maybe you just need something to eat or some time outside. Maybe you need to finish something or maybe you just need to stop. I invite you to avoid asking what you should need, and really ask what feels true for you.
So take another breath here, and notice what it feels like to respond to yourself from this gentle awareness of what you actually need. This is energetic discernment, not controlling your energy, but getting to know it.
Okay, so capacity asks, "How much am I holding?" Energetic discernment asks, "What type of energy am I in, and what do I need right now?"
And next time, we're gonna talk about energetic stewardship, how we spend, replenish, and invest our energy, and how we consciously direct this precious resource toward what we wanna cultivate.
So for today, check in with the energetic state that you're in and ask, "What's here? What's going on? What do I need? What would create greater balance for me right now?" So until next time, I invite you to listen, to learn yourself, and to let your life shine.
Music Written and Performed by Rory Gardner
www.yourradiantsoul.com
