The difference between meditation and energy work [The Embodied Way]


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Edition #103
June 24, 2025

Do you have a meditation practice, Reader?

I did too, for years, before I discovered Energy Work.

And I would say that I was committed and regular in my practice and that there was a lot about it that I found extremely helpful.

Taking the time to be still in the busy world that we are in is in and of itself a powerful and rebellious act.

And at the same time, I remember reading about others who achieved this deep peaceful and transcendent state in meditation, and really wondering how to get there.

I was mostly good at watching my thoughts arise and pass by, without getting overly attached, but the thoughts never stopped showing up. I have a very active mind!!

As long as the thoughts kept arising, I never really got very deep in meditation.

All of that changed when I discovered energy work.

It all began when my mentor Cara Viana taught me how to get grounded and set up energetic boundaries. It was kind of like getting plugged into my very own information superhighway, but one that was held with feelings and sensations rather than thoughts.

And the thoughts that would float in, suddenly felt deeply meaningful.

I would get insights about what to write in my newsletter or post on social media, the next program I wanted to create, or next steps in my creative career.

This was vastly different from the obsessive thinking I had previously experienced when I was trying to “figure something out.”

My meditation time, now infused with Energy Work, became incredibly deep and restorative.

It helped me reset from busy and stressful days, overcome resistance as it would emerge, and start turning the action I was taking into meaningful forward momentum.

To say that it 10Xd the effectiveness of my daily meditation, might actually be an understatement.

Now in addition to having once been super thought aware in meditation, I also went through a really long period where I really struggled to get out of my head when I was acting as well.

I found myself frequently having an out of body experience where I was simultaneously acting and watching myself act at the same time. Sometimes, it was just fleeting moments and other times, it felt like it was deeply pervasive, like I could actually be in my body.

Any time I would say a line, make a physical choice, I would hear this loud voice of judgement, “Why did you do that? That was so false.” Or even worse, “Your acting is terrible. This panel can’t wait for you to leave.”

The practicing of energy work, outside of any specific intentions to shift my acting, had unexpected results.

I started noticing that presence was easier. And the judgements that had been so common were fewer and farther between.

But that was just the beginning.

As I began experimenting with using energy work, not just for me, but for my characters, a whole new world of play and excitement opened up in my acting work.

It no longer felt like I was arduously trying to figure out how to step into and understand my characters from the outside.

As I identified and slipped into their unique energetic signature, I found myself truly making choices and having impulses that felt truly foreign and unique because they were so vastly different from my own and also anything that my own brain could come up with!!

In the same way that it had given me a shortcut to the peaceful and transcendent experience that meditation could afford, Energy Work now gives me a shortcut to being truly out of my own head and deeply present with the character.

This is precisely what I teach in my 6 month program The Embodied Actor, but you can now get a taste firsthand in my new 3 hour deep-dive workshop Acting by the Chakras at a fraction of the cost.

You’ll learn:

⚡️Why energy is important for your life and your work.

⚡️The key qualities that correspond to each of the 7 chakras.

⚡️How to connect with your energy and the energy of your characters.

⚡️How to identify your own open and block chakral energies, and shift this to create more freedom for your character to come through.

⚡️How to build a character using the chakras as an energetic building block.

⚡️How you can deepen this work in my signature program The Embodied Actor.

When you sign up for Acting by the Chakras by next Monday June 30th, your investment is just $100 (after that it goes up to $200).

Click here to reserve your spot.

And if you decide to join The Embodied Actor (now enrolling for August) after the workshop, you can apply your full investment to the program.

I can’t wait to go deeper into this work with you!

Your fierce advocate,
Natalie

PS: Want to hear more about how I developed The Embodied Actor and what you can expect from doing this work? My mentor Cara Viana recently interviewed me on her podcast episode, “Energetic Boundaries and Creative Magic.” Click here to listen.

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