Let's look at what it means to embody wholeness, which includes understanding the mind-body connection and knowing how to access the divine intelligence of the subtle body. As you read, you'll discover tips and ways to connect and work consciously with the subtle body, which will assist you in embodying a renewed and strengthened version of yourself as you're reminded of the healing potential within. A new spiritual science is emerging, one that integrates spiritual concepts and expanded awareness that with application can be tangibly experienced through the physical body as harmony, inner peace, freedom from the fear of dis-ease and the awareness of wholeness.

Let's start by painting a picture of wholeness and how it can empower you to respond rather than react to negativity and fear in the both the past (which usually includes sadness, guilt, and anger) and the future (uncertainty, worry and anxiety) through greater clarity and understanding. In my latest book, Your Inner Healer: Using Chakras and Energy Medicine to Achieve Wholeness, I describe wholeness as follows:

"Wholeness is an awareness that has integrated one's spiritual nature to the equation of being human—it's the experience of being one in mind, body, and spirit. This is an empowering state to be in because being whole on a conscious level allows you to embody the attributes of spirit, such as clarity, understanding, peace, happiness, and strength, as you merge that expanded awareness with your humanity. Health is known to be connected to one's vibrational frequency, which is the sum of one's outlook, thoughts, emotions, words, and actions. As such, being whole has profound, positive impacts on virtually every facet of one's life."

Operating through wholeness includes the integration of a key element: the awareness of the soul as inner stillness and the subtle body that emanates from it. The soul, by nature, is fearless, invulnerable, emanates strength, and expresses divine intelligence as wisdom and discernment. The subtle body is the intermediary, which marries your spiritual nature with the physical body. It's also your inner healer, backed by the power of the soul; it's the divine intelligence responsible for the beating of your heart and the automatic healing that takes place after a cut or injury. The subtle body houses your seven main chakras and communicates with us, always seeking to guide us back into balance through feelings, emotions, energetic nudges, and inner knowing.

When we are mindful of our wholeness, fear is responded to, rather than reacted to. Negative thoughts and emotions are no longer identified with, but recognized as messengers, and part of our inner guidance system. This approach is incredibly empowering, affording us the ability to transmute negativity as it arises, and become unstuck in moments, rather than taking hours, days, or weeks to get past negative emotions and move forward. What allows us to make inner shifts more efficiently and come back into balance (energetically speaking) is a deep understanding and awareness of the present moment. The present moment is fundamental to not only realizing wholeness but experiencing it directly as the silence and peace of inner stillness.

Wholeness recognizes the mind-body connection. It's the understanding that there is no separation between our mind and the physical body, or the soul, for that matter. Through this expanded awareness, we realize that thoughts, emotions, and even our outlook on life are reflected and translated through the physical body as feelings and our sense of wellbeing (or lack thereof). Awakening to the mind, body, and spirit connection is empowering, as it allows us to shift from being a victim to negativity, even circumstances, to being a conscious participant in not only realizing wholeness but also in manifesting our destiny.

Through a spiritual vantage point, health and dis-ease are viewed as energetic states, not concrete conditions. A healthy mind is one that is in balance, which understands the importance of balancing negativity with positivity. It recognizes the value and transformative potential of inner stillness in alchemizing fear and negative emotion. There is a simple approach, a formula if you will, that can assist you in disarming negativity, as you starve fear and reclaim your vital energy in the process. As human beings, we've been conditioned to react to fear in all its forms, as it attacks our health, finances, relationships, and even our outlook on life. The shift that's available to us is a conscious approach that allows us to create positive inner change, allowing us to produce desirable and uplifting momentum, moving forward. The key is knowing when fear presents itself, and then challenging it with a positive, life-affirming thought.

How to Disarm Fear: Challenging Negative Thinking
The first step is to cultivate an inner awareness surrounding fear and when it presents itself. Fear is sponsored by the ego, or false self, which believes that it's separate from Source. Always operating between the past and future because that's how it perpetuates itself, the ego can only dismiss and devalue the present moment because that's where it would begin to lose its hold on our consciousness. The ego is always seeking to convince you that the source of fear is outside of ourselves, when the truth of the matter is that fear projects by nature, painting the outer world, even other people, through its darkened lens. Fear is any energy that is contracting, fear- or anxiety-producing, and heavier in an energetic sense. Let's now move forward with the formula on how to neutralize fear as you empower yourself in the process.

• The first step is to recognize fear and become aware when it's being presented in the mind. Fear is a thought or energy that makes you feel uneasy, worried, or afraid.
• Next, realize that you have a choice: you can automatically believe in the fear, thereby energizing and perpetuating it, or you can consciously choose to observe it, thereby cutting it off from your vital energy. Be mindful that by choosing to observe rather than react, you're not suppressing anything. The spiritual being that you are—the stillness within—is more than capable of dissolving anything unlike unconditional love.
• As you are observing the negativity, be mindful that the present moment is all there ever is. The energies found in the now are incredibly uplifting, transformative, and supportive, as they are sponsored by spirit.
• The last step is to challenge the negative thought or emotion with a life-affirming, positive thought. Beginning the affirmation with "I am" is what sets your desired intention in the now, not in the future.

The following are some examples of negative thoughts that are often experienced, along with positive thoughts that not only challenge them, but that also will inspire you in formulating your own positive thinking moving forward (which will help balancing your energies in the moment as negativity or fear is experienced).

Let's now take a deeper look at the subtle body and how we can connect to and consciously work with it. The key to accessing and tuning into the subtle body is awareness, and this involves shifting our present awareness inward, towards stillness. Stillness is what our inner being reflects. It's a dimension within us that is teeming with potential, healing energy, strength, clarity, wisdom, joy, and other life-empowering spiritual faculties. One doesn't create inner stillness, but instead becomes aware of it. The subtle body is an extension of our inner being and is the receiver of divine intelligence. I should also mention that the subtle body can be directly experienced as waves of energy across one's face and torso through meditation.

Let's look at five ways to access and connect deeper with the subtle body, as it is key in assisting us to consciously reunite with the wholeness of our inner being and the healing energies it emanates.

Five Ways to Connect with the Subtle Body

• Recognize the reality of the present moment and be mindful of it throughout the day. The now is the doorway back to our inner being and the strength, peace, and harmony of spirit. The energies found in the present moment are incredibly high-vibrating, as they are sponsored by spirit; coming into mindful awareness of the present is what raises our vibrational frequency, allowing us to recognize our spiritual nature more fully.
• Spend fifteen minutes a day in silent meditation. Meditation is simply focus. Taking time in your day to go within and recognize our inner stillness is incredibly renewing and empowering, and can become incredibly revealing. It's within silence that we receive divine guidance and assistance, which allow us to achieve greater clarity and understanding—of not only ourselves but the world around us. It's a process of bringing our attention inward and becoming aware of the space between our thoughts (the silence or nothingness in between form).
• Practice compassion, kindness, and self-love. Bringing awareness to these spiritual concepts and embodying them by extending these energies to oneself and others through forgiveness and self-acceptance is incredibly healing and energy-raising. These states of being are what shift you closer to your inner being and the subtle body within it.
• Spend more time in nature. Scheduling thirty minutes a day to be in nature and amongst the trees is a great way to slow down and come into the present moment. Recognizing the stillness found in nature is a wonderful way to allow it to be mirrored within ourselves.
• Make peace a priority by seeing the incredible value in it. Inner peace is not just the absence of fear but the ability to recognize and transmute it as it arises. Being mindful of the present moment, challenging negative thinking, and making meditation a daily practice are powerful ways to align us with the peace and wholeness of our inner being.

I'm going to close by examing at how we can work in harmony with the subtle body, which will assist us in renewing ourselves in mind, body, and spirit and remind us of our already wholeness. The focus here will be on awareness and the energy centers found within the subtle body (the chakras). Self-understanding is vital here, as it enables us to have greater clarity and discernment regarding this topic.

The subtle body has seven main energy centers within it. When we're consciously whole and in balance, these energy centers draw in unrestricted universal or cosmic energy. Starting at our base is the root chakra, which is located at the base of our spine, and it represents feelings of being safe, secure, and grounded. It is represented by the color red. Moving upward is the sacral chakra, found just below the navel. It represents flow, playful, and sensual energies, and is represented by the color orange. The next chakra as we ascend is the solar plexus chakra, located in the upper abdomen area. One's will, determination, and strength are expressions of this chakra, and it is represented by the color yellow. Moving upward, we find the heart chakra in the center of our chest. Charitable love, forgiveness, and compassion are what emanate from our heart center. Green represents this chakra. Above the heart chakra is the throat chakra. Fearless expression, truth, and spiritual communication are extended from this communication center, represented by the color blue. Just above and in between our eyebrows is the third eye chakra; this is the commanding center and the key to clarity, wisdom, and understanding. Indigo blue is the color of this chakra. Lastly, at the top of the head is the crown chakra. It represents oneness and spiritual enlightenment, and gives us a sense of our own divinity. Purple is the color of the crown chakra.

With an understanding of the subtle body and the chakras (or energy centers) within it, we have a foundation moving forward as to how we can work with the subtle body on a conscious level. The subtle body and its chakras are energies, and energy or consciousness is always speaking to us. I often say that awareness is everything. Understanding that we're always being communicated with through energy, in the form of energetic nudges, vibrational hits, or inner knowing, empowers us to become more discerning—which allows divine guidance to be recognized and heeded. One of the subtle body's main goals is to always bring us back into balance, and it seeks to achieve this by having us recognize, tune in to, and align with its intelligence. Here are five ways to recognize and work with the subtle body, which will enable you to understand your spiritual nature on a deeper level.

Five Ways to Work in Harmony with the Subtle Body

• Recognize and understand that the subtle body and its chakras are an energetic reality within you. We are incredibly powerful spiritual beings, and what we become aware of is what we give life to.
• Practice paying attention to the energy within and without. Everything, including the subtle body, is speaking to us through feeling. The question is, who's paying attention?
• Understand what the chakras represent in terms of their attributes and practice recognizing and tending to the emotions or negativity that are blocking their full expression. For example, feeling that you're on shaky ground or out of balance point towards a root chakra issue. Getting to the root of the issue and challenging the negativity with positive affirmations, forgiving oneself or another (if need be), and bringing your awareness back to the present moment are ways to shift back into balance.
• Cultivate a balanced diet. Paying attention to how the physical body feels is a way of discerning one's inner balance (or lack thereof). In other words, recognize when fewer or more calories are called for as well as the quality of food you eat.
• Develop your intuition and ability to read energy through practices and activities such as meditation, spending moments in quiet reflection, journalling, and contemplation of the present moment (the latter being key in cultivating discernment because of the clarifying energies found within the present moment).

Wholeness is not something that's created; it is a state of being that's achieved and realized through shadow work and the cultivation of mindfulness. Nothing has to be added to us; rather, we are required to subtract, to let go of the limiting energies and beliefs that separate us from our already wholeness. In other words, within us is already a whole and complete spiritual being waiting to be remembered and embodied through awareness—awareness of inner stillness.