How to gain Brighter Energy

“Your energy is amazing! You’re bright like the sun. I always feel so reloaded after seeing you. You are such a vibe. Your energy is contagious. You're human medicine. You’re the source of the party. I need your energy. You’re just so bright!”

These are regular comments which I hear almost daily. After I’ve personally met probably more than 1/2 million people in my life (if it isn’t more, no joke), you start to wonder. No matter which continent I am on, these comments barely ever change. Even on the days when I feel as mellow as a 4 out of a 10, STILL, these responses happen often. This made me think: What is it about my energy, which is apparently so different than ‘the regular person’s energy’ that so many people around the world pick up on it to the extent they can barely keep their mouths closed about it? Believe it or not, it seems they almost feel guilty if they don’t share with me the fact that they feel so uplifted and refueled by this contagious, bright energy of mine.

All this energy of mine made me open up my own consciousness and awareness. These comments (which started happening at the age of 21) became the start of my own self-awareness journey. Through living, reflecting, dancing, reading, writing, socializing, learning, meditating, healing and relaxing, I discovered the practices I apply to keep my frequency high. Yes, all these activities are part of the reason, but one practice is truly the biggest and most important one!

I stay open. If you want to have an enormous amount of (high) energy, you have to practice staying open. You have to keep your heart open. You actually have to keep all your inner energy sources (chakras) open. Michael A. Singer explains in his book The Untethered Soul that an energy center is an area in your being through which your energy focuses, receives, shares, gives and flows. You either allow the flow of energy to pass through you or you restrict the flow of energy from passing through. Whenever you don’t close, you learn to stay open, and the best trick or quickest way to have all this light and enormous amount of energy is simply deciding to stay open.

Yes, even after, or, actually, especially after horrible experiences! This is often when we want to close ourselves off even more to protect ourselves.

Practice to stay open after:

• you felt hurt, ashamed, humiliated, guilty, judged or are filled with regret
• a heartbreak
• rejection of any kind
• betrayal of any kind
• you lost your confidence
• you lost your identity
• you lost your job
• you lost a pet
• you lost a friend
• you lost your house
• you lost a family member

I want to clarify; I’m not saying stay open to toxic people or places. I’m saying: Keep your heart open and keep yourself open. Why? Because the benefit of staying open from inside out means that the outside energy can actually come in and heal you.

Each time you feel your heart closing, just say out loud: “No, we are not doing this, my dear heart. I will choose to keep you and all my energy chakras open. I promise this to myself, as I want the best for myself. I deserve to receive all of this unlimited energy so I can be(come) my brightest self. I deserve to vibe the highest and I deserve to stay open so I can experience life in its best way. I want life to flow through me and experience it fully, and this can only happen when I stay open. I choose to stay open.”

When you practice this and become good at this, you will embrace life with your entire heart and soul. Each time you feel yourself close off, ask yourself if you truly want to block the energy from flowing into you. I know out of experience (and yes, during the worst days of my life this took A LOT of willpower), if you truly want to, you can learn to stay open no matter what happens in your life or in the world. You simply decide every day not to close, and commit to exploring how much of this unlimited energy you’re truly able and capable of receiving through staying open within each moment and experience. Keeping your heart wide open has nothing to do with naivety; it’s actually self-mastery.

The more all your chakras are able to receive energy, the higher your frequency becomes. Once you have achieved a certain high vibe frequency (which has become my new norm on most days), your energy will truly become phenomenal and majorly contagious. No matter what party I enter or which room I walk into, my energy becomes the new source of energy in that space (even when I don’t want it to, lol). My energy doesn’t lie or hide and it truly elevates any space I enter.

The best part is that you can do this too! You can create this energy which will continuously give you more energy, at all times, for yourself. Just relax. Guess what? Keyword: stay open! The more you consciously do this, the sooner this unconsciously will happen, and before you know it, an enormous amount of energy will rush into you. It will move like waves inside of you and flow like waterfalls out of you. 

The more you stay open, at some point, so much energy will come in that it actually starts overflowing out of you. When this happens, it basically means all your energy centers open up and are filled with energy, which is why an enormous amount of energy flows out of you. And then, the energy doesn’t just flow out of you, but people start picking up on your energy and your energy starts to affect them. The more you practice this, the more your energy will start not only affecting but also feeding others.

The more I open up, the more my energy pours into everybody around me, and the pouring barely ever stops. It actually becomes so much that my energy starts to become a source of light for all those around me. And right there and within those moments is when my nicknames: Solo, Sunshine, Zonnetje, Bright Light and Zonnestraal became my new name and identity.

Ok, one more time for the people in the back. Opening lets energy in and blocking keeps it out. When you think about it, it's actually so easy!

You want to feel love, joy and excitement on most days of your life. I realized many people want this, as they always love to share how I look “so happy!” This made me realize, whenever you are vibing higher than others (as in your frequency is higher or when you have more energy than others), even on the days you might internally be going through hell, people will assume you must be happy! They assume this simply because your energy is high(er) in power and frequency than theirs, so, in their eyes, this must mean you are filled with happiness. They consciously or subconsciously crave to be part of that ‘happiness’ too.

In reality, you might not even feel like your happiest self internally… which is why I like to shine some light on the fact that just because somebody is vibrating higher than you, doesn’t mean that this person is necessarily happy or having a great time in life. It may look like they have an ‘easier’ time dealing with life and life’s struggles. But, to be honest… it simply means it’s easier for others to be around them while they are internally dealing with hardship. Just because they are vibrating higher than you or made the choice to stay open doesn’t always mean they are happy. (Read that again.)

Through moments and experiences like these, I learned that it’s not about feeling happy, but it is about FEELING. Even through the hardship, I discovered that it’s forever and always simply about being willing to feel, as feeling makes you feel alive (instead of numb).

Whenever you feel, there is energy flowing, so feeling keeps you open to being able to receive new energy. If feeling is the key to receiving (and regaining) energy, then who cares what the reasons are to feel? No matter what it is (the good and the bad), I have realized it feels right to feel inside, so I learned to stay open to feeling any and all, the good and the bad, yes, even when the feelings are super painful, hurtful, and confrontational and include grief or heartbreak.

I advise you to try this out for yourself. Stay open and notice whether, when, who or what you currently think it’s worth closing for. Closing is often a habit, and, like any habit, it can be broken. Whenever you feel like you can only be open to the world within certain conditions, you have limited your openness to your own conditions. The moment you are aware of this, you will realize that these conditions now define your openness and these conditions eventually actually limit you and your energy. For that reason, I truly encourage you to create awareness around your needs of closing and to dare yourself to keep opening and discovering what happens...

On top of all this, did you know you can heal your body with your own energy flow? The next time you start to feel ill… simply stay open and relax. The more open you are, the more energy comes inside your body and the more your energy can heal. (I’ve noticed that I’m barely ever sick. Yet each time I have a heartbreak, I get sick!) Energy can truly heal and this is also why love can heal. As long as you keep your heart open, you will be able to heal others with your love and others will be able to heal you with their love. And most importantly, you will be able to heal yourself through receiving unlimited energy (love) inside.

In the end, who doesn’t want to feel inspired and filled with loving energy every day? People often ask me (as I some days can truly do a million things in a day): “Where do you get all this energy from?” Well, when you decide to have almost every hour of the day energy to be excited about something (dive into my Positive Mindset Challenge for extra exciting mindset shifts), then the energy truly never stops! Age doesn’t even matter – you can ask my grandparents of 92 years old.

You really can train yourself to keep your energy centers open. You start this through deciding that there is nothing in the world worth closing for. Believe me, when you truly love life the way I love life (no matter the tremendous traumas and hardship, ‘cause, trust me, this list is just as long as all my highlights of life), you will realize sooner rather than later that nothing and nobody is worth closing for. Truly nothing is worth closing your heart for. Someday, there will be a moment in your growth journey where you will understand that if you close yourself out of fear of the unknown, protection or habit, you will never be free. May that someday be today!

So, do you want this bright energy? Honestly, though, how much love do you want to feel this lifetime? How much joy and excitement do you want to experience? In my opinion, a full life is feeling and experiencing all the feelings. And if you agree with me, then decide, right now, to never ever close. Stay open, surrender to the experience of life and let go of all the blockages which keep you closed. Each time you open up internally, you release the blocked energy, and your inner energy goes up, higher and higher. The moment you’re filled with this higher energy, you will truly feel like you can take on the world! (Which is also the reason behind why you feel like you have no energy when you’re depressed... Just like you’re able to feel love running through your body whenever you fall in love, as then you open your heart. Or, feel tightness in your chest when you have your heart broken or closed and therefore eventually the love stops flowing.)

I really want you to know that your warm, bright, infectious and loving energy is truly only limited to your own ability to staying open.

PRACTICE OF THE MONTH: Open yourself each time you meet a person. This could be outside when you grab your coffee, go to work, go to the gym, be with strangers, friends, colleagues, kids or family members. You may think this will cost you so much energy, but slowly you will realize that a lot of these situations actually gain you more energy instead of losing any. (Just watch out for the vampires, aka energy suckers.)

This practice is similar to going to the gym. It may cost you some energy to actually show up for yourself, but you never regret it afterwards, as it always gives you more satisfying energy back later on than it took from you. The more open your internal energy sources are, the more you can receive, flow and share your new, bright, overflowing, inspiring, contagious energy with those around you.

We all deserve to be a bright light. We all deserve to feel love and experience happiness.

We all deserve to shine!