When you feel there's more to life than what we see and sense in the physical world, that pull is often your first brush with energy awareness. This guide brings together the core building blocks — chakras, auras, subtle energy, frequency, and the five elements — into one place, so you can start (or deepen) your understanding of your own energetic body.
What is energy and body awareness?
Energy and body awareness is the practice of recognizing that you're more than a physical body — you're also a field of energy that responds to your thoughts, emotions, environment, and the people around you. This encompasses your chakras (energy centers), your aura (the energy field surrounding you), and the frequencies and elements that shape how that energy moves and feels. Learning to notice and work with this subtle layer of yourself is often the first real step in any spiritual growth journey.
Why this matters
Most of us are taught to pay attention to our physical body — how it feels, what it needs — and almost nothing about the energetic layer underneath it. But if you've ever walked into a room and immediately felt tension, or felt inexplicably drained after being around a certain person, you've already experienced your energetic body at work.
Understanding this layer of yourself gives you a new kind of self-awareness. It's not about replacing physical or mental health practices — it's about adding a dimension that many people sense intuitively but never learn to name or work with intentionally.
This is where a lot of people's spiritual journeys actually begin: not with a dramatic awakening, but with a quiet feeling that something more is going on beneath the surface. Learning to trust and explore that feeling is the whole point.
Chakras
Chakras are considered the seven main energy centers running from the base of your spine to the crown of your head. Each one is associated with different aspects of physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing — the root chakra with security and stability, the heart chakra with love and connection, the crown chakra with spiritual connection, and so on.
When a chakra is described as "blocked" or "imbalanced," it usually shows up as a pattern — persistent anxiety, feeling disconnected from others, or a general sense of being stuck. Simple practices like meditation, visualization, or specific yoga poses are commonly used to bring these centers back into balance.
Try this: Sit quietly and scan from the base of your spine to the top of your head, noticing which areas feel tense or numb versus open and easy. That's often your starting point.
Auras
Your aura is the subtle energy field said to surround your physical body, often described in layers that reflect different aspects of your being — physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Some people describe seeing auras as color; others sense them as a feeling of someone's "presence" or "vibe" before a word is spoken.
You don't need to see color to work with your aura. Simply becoming aware that you have an energetic boundary — and that it can be strengthened or depleted — is often enough to start noticing patterns in your own energy levels around certain people or environments.
Try this: Before entering a draining situation (a difficult conversation, a crowded space), visualize a boundary of light surrounding your body. Many people find this simple practice noticeably shifts how depleted they feel afterward.
Everything Energy
At the foundation of all of this is the idea that everything — including you — is energy in motion. This isn't just a metaphysical claim; it's the lens through which chakras, auras, frequencies, and elements all make sense together. Your thoughts carry energy. Your emotions carry energy. The spaces and people around you carry energy too, and all of it interacts.
Once you start seeing yourself as an energetic being rather than "just" a physical one, a lot of spiritual practices — from manifestation to energy healing — start to make a lot more intuitive sense.
Frequencies
Frequency refers to the vibrational rate of energy — the idea that everything, including emotions and thoughts, vibrates at a particular "frequency." Higher frequencies are typically associated with states like love, joy, and peace; lower frequencies with fear, anger, and shame.
This concept shows up practically in sound healing (using specific tones or frequencies like 432Hz or 528Hz to shift mood or focus), and in the everyday idea of "raising your vibration" through gratitude, movement, or spending time in nature.
Try this: Notice how your energy shifts after 10 minutes of music you love versus 10 minutes of doom-scrolling. That contrast is frequency in action.
The 5 Elements Of Life
Many spiritual traditions organize energy and personality around five elemental forces: earth, water, fire, air, and space (or ether). Each element carries different qualities — earth for grounding and stability, water for emotion and flow, fire for passion and transformation, air for intellect and communication, space for connection to the infinite.
Understanding which elements feel dominant or deficient in your life can be a simple, intuitive way to diagnose what you need more of — whether that's grounding (earth), emotional release (water), or fresh perspective (air).
How to get started
- Start with body awareness, not belief. You don't need to "believe" in energy to notice how your body feels in different situations — that noticing is the actual practice.
- Pick one chakra or one element to focus on for a week. Trying to work on everything at once usually leads to giving up on all of it.
- Build a two-minute daily check-in. Before getting out of bed or before sleep, ask: where do I feel tense, and where do I feel open?
- Use grounding as your reset button. When anything about this feels overwhelming or "too much," physically grounding yourself — bare feet on the earth, or a grounding tool — brings you back to baseline.
- Journal what you notice. Patterns become obvious in writing that are invisible in your head.
Recommended tools
If you want to start working with your energy physically rather than just conceptually, grounding tools are one of the simplest entry points. I personally recommend GroundingWell's grounding mats and sheets for daily use — they're an easy way to bring the practice of grounding into ordinary moments like sleep or work. Use code GWALPHAXPRESSIONS for 10% off.
For crystal-based energy work, Karma and Luck carries jewelry and home pieces designed around specific intentions like grounding, protection, and heart-opening. Use code KARMA15 for 15% off.
If you'd rather work through your energy blocks with guided support, Rachelle Cole offers intuitive energy transformation sessions tailored to help you identify and clear what's holding your energy back.
Frequently asked questions:
What are chakras and how many are there?Chakras are energy centers in the body, most commonly described as seven, running from the base of the spine (root chakra) to the top of the head (crown chakra). Each is linked to specific physical, emotional, and spiritual themes.
Can anyone learn to see or sense auras?Many practitioners believe aura sensitivity can be developed with practice, though most people start by feeling auras (as a sense of someone's energy) long before they ever see color.
How do frequencies affect the body and mood?Certain sound frequencies are associated with shifts in relaxation, focus, and emotional state, which is the basis for sound healing and vibrational practices like singing bowls or tuning forks.
Do I need special training to start working with my energy?No — most foundational practices (grounding, chakra awareness, aura boundaries) are self-taught through simple daily practice, meditation, and attention.
What's the difference between a chakra and the aura?Chakras are specific energy centers within the body; the aura is the broader energy field that surrounds the body as a whole.