By Stephen T. Sinatra, M.D., F.A.C.C., F.A.C.N., C.N.S., C.B.T.
There’s a saying that “everything old is new again.” We see it with art, fashion, design, and I personally see it play out time and again in the world of health and wellness.
Take, for instance, the practice of yoga. It actually goes back to ancient India, yet only became popular in the West in the mid-20th century. And it still took another 50 years for Westerners to see it as something everyone can do as part of a healthy lifestyle, not just contortionists and “free spirits.”
Organics and superfoods are two more great examples. Only recently has the idea of superfoods garnered mainstream attention, even though some have been celebrated since ancient times for their health benefits— olives and honey by the Greeks, and chia seeds by the Aztecs.
Organic food? It’s as old as farming itself — but it didn’t become a movement until recently, when people started to question all of the toxic, unnatural chemicals and GMOs creeping into our grocery stores.
When you step back and look at trends like these, they’re all about one thing—a desire to get back to our essential nature, and to embrace the aspects of Mother Nature that have helped keep us healthy and vital throughout time.
Today, yet another example of this is emerging: the high vibrational energy, or “high vibe,” lifestyle. I call it the “new organic.” What’s old is new again…
What Is a High Vibration Lifestyle?
High vibrational is a way of life…like organic, it means “close to Nature.” But high vibrational takes organic a step further by focusing on the energy of everything. Rocks, food, stars, trees, TVs, you, me – you name it – everything in the universe is made of vibrational energy, interactive subatomic particles; and everything we consume or surround ourselves with ultimately impacts our energy and health – for better or for worse.
The idea that everything is vibrational is not new. Energy was (and is) the theme underlying various holistic health philosophies in ancient Greece, India, and China. Here in the West, though, it took until the mid-20th century and Albert Einstein’s Nobel Prize-winning theory, E=mc2, which described the interchangability of mass and energy, to persuade us that energy and health could be linked. The theory actually proved that the “good vibes” and “bad vibes” we get from people, places, and things aren’t just in our heads — we actually feel them in our bodies, at the cellular level.
Stay with me, here.
We generally think of the body as a “mass” of flesh, bone, and blood, but Einstein’s theory tells us that the body is also a bundle of vibrating electromagnetic energy. And this is true. Every single cell in the body, whether it’s in your brain or your big toe, vibrates at a microscopic frequency. There’s a natural pulsation to its activity.
When cells are healthy—meaning they’re not damaged in some way and they’re able to efficiently metabolize nutrients and make ATP (the body’s most basic fuel)—their vibrational frequency is high. When cells are unhealthy, though, their vibration slows.*
Living high-vibrationally means living in a way that helps raise or maintain your body’s natural vibrational frequency. Some of those choices will sound familiar, like eating fresh, whole, organic foods that promote strong cell metabolism—and avoiding things that don’t, like cigarette smoke and other environmental toxins. But the real magic of a high vibrational lifestyle lies in recognizing the energetic interconnectedness of everything in our world, and in learning how to combine all of those energies with our own feelings, intentions, and habits to increase our health and longevity.
It’s organic taken to the next level: organic food, organic lifestyle, organic thinking and feeling—organic being.
How to Raise Your Vibration
One of the great things about a high vibration lifestyle is that it helps us get back in touch with our intuition and the natural rhythms of the body. As a culture, our (over)use of industry and technology has disrupted many of those connections, as has our dependency on unnatural farming practices and highly processed foods. These breakdowns are reflected in skyrocketing levels of anxiety, depression, obesity, heart disease, cancer, and other diseases.
To help you get started on a higher vibration path, here are the core principles I encourage people to follow:
1. Eat Foods that Are Alive with Energy
Quick question, which sounds healthier? (A) a tomato that grows and ripens naturally under the warmth of the sun, or (B) a tomato that’s doused in pesticides, picked while it’s still green, and then exposed to ethylene gas, which forces it to turn red, ripe or not.
It’s not much of a contest. This is a good illustration of what I call the “energy chain” in food production. Foods that are produced organically and as close as possible to the way nature intended them to be not only tend to have more nutritional value, but they have a higher vibration because they include less of the bad stuff — like pesticides, preservatives, or other chemicals — that can damage cells in the body. They also carry in them the energy of the wind, sun, rain, and sea.
Go organic with food as much as you can, and try to make the majority of your diet plant foods. Steer clear of sugar and processed foods, which are usually loaded with vibration-lowering additives, preservatives, and artificial sweeteners.
As a bonus, most fruits and vegetables are also rich in fiber, which helps your body naturally detox a lot of cell-damaging toxins. That’s a win-win, if I’ve ever seen one!
2. Get Grounded
No, I don’t mean confining yourself to your room. Quite the opposite, in fact—get outside! The Earth emits its own vibrational energy, which you can absorb through the bottoms of your feet. So take off your shoes and socks and go for a barefoot walk on your lawn, in a neighborhood park, or (my personal favorite) on the beach.
Grounding, or Earthing as it’s also called, literally reconnects you with nature, while at the same time helping to rebalance some important parts of your physiology. It’s effect on your autonomic nervous system helps you relax, sleep, and better manage stress. It’s also a potent solution for free-radical damage to cell membranes, which is why I like to call it “getting your vitamin G.” Plus, with any trip outdoors, you’re also getting a healthy dose of sunlight and fresh air.
If you can’t get outside, don’t worry. You can also connect with the Earth’s healing energy by using an Earthing device like a sleep mat or floor mat.
3. Be Positive and Grateful, and Honor Your Feelings
If you want to live your best—and healthiest life—your heart and mind have to be in sync.
Emotionally, this means honoring your feelings. They are your truth and they deserve to be felt, even if they’re negative. Anger, fear, hatred, grief, and jealousy may have a lower vibration than joy, love, and hope, but they are not as dangerous as denial. Whenever you “push down” and ignore an emotion, you bury a subconscious time bomb in your body. The constant stress of carrying around that negativity lowers your vibration, and may come back to you one day as pain, disease, or dysfunction. Protect yourself by finding safe places to experience your emotions so you can let them go, and then re-energize with vibration-raising feelings of love, joy, gratitude and peace.
Intellectually, this means tuning into your thought patterns. Is your inner voice a critic or a cheerleader? Refueling your mind with positive thoughts can help you be more accepting, hopeful, and optimistic, which can help lower your stress level and raise your vibration. Practice kindness toward yourself and others.
When your heart and mind are attuned, you’ll not only feel happier and healthier yourself, but you’ll be a positive force in the lives of the people around you.
4. Channel Your Stress
Stress is one of the best examples of how Einstein’s theories about energy and mass relate to health and well being.
When you have lots of stressful thoughts and feelings, and don’t do anything to channel them, you literally embody the energy of stress. Headaches, tense or sore neck, shoulders or back, stomach upset, high blood pressure, and insomnia are just some of the physical symptoms you might experience. Some stress is good, but too much lowers your vibration and compromises health.
How do you channel stress? You’ve got to let that energy flow – through your breath! Focused breathing is at the core of vibration-raising mind-body practices like yoga and meditation. Breathing deeply not only helps you set that stress energy free and balance your nervous system, it helps you deliver more vital oxygen to all the cells in your body so that they can make more energy!
The other key, of course, with yoga and meditation is letting go of your thoughts – the distractions of the mind – and just being in your body…honoring it for being a friend to you.
I also love regular moderate exercise for stress relief, since it also offers so many cardiovascular benefits. Making exercise fun is what will make it stick as a lifestyle habit. Dance, uninhibited play with the kids or grandkids, and walking the dog are all great options – whatever does it for you.
As you can see, literally every aspect of our lives affects vibration—so it’s easy to begin making changes that will improve yours. Just apply this one rule: When faced with a decision—whether it’s about what to eat, what products to buy, or even what you want to do with your spare time—choose the “organic” option: the one that’s as pure, natural, and true to who you are as possible. If you can do that, you’ll be on your way to higher vibrational energy and better health.
Want to learn more about how you can live a high-vibration life? Read my new High Vibration Living Ebook!
*Using a cutting edge imaging technique, MIT researchers actually demonstrated this with red blood cells. In unhealthy cells, which were depleted of ATP, the researchers measured a 20 percent decrease in vibrational frequency, as compared to the healthy cells. They also noted that when ATP was reintroduced, cell vibration increased back to normal.
References & Resources:
- Greenfield, RH. “Mediterranean Superfood: Olives.” Doctor Oz. Dec. 14, 2011, at
- Eptakili, T. “The Best Greek Superfoods.” Greece Is Health. Jan. 6, 2017.
- Trafton, A. “Chemical energy influences tiny vibrations of red blood cell membranes.” Phys.Org. Dec. 21, 2009.
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