How to Raise Your Vibration (11 Free & Easy Ways)

First, what does that even mean to raise your vibration?

 

Life is energy. We are energetic beings.

 

Everything around us and within us is made of energy, from the cells in our bodies to the rocks in our yards. Everything is energy.

 

And energy vibrates.

 

It is said that if all life on the planet ceased, there would still be a vibration, a hum…the sound of energy vibrating.

 

This is the sound of “OM”. It’s why yogis chant OM— it is a tuning into of life’s vibrational frequency.

 

Why would you want to raise your vibration?

 

Because we attract what we are.

 

A low-frequency, heavy vibration weighed down by fear, anxiety, anger or hate... attracts more of that.

 

A high-frequency, light vibration buoyed by love, CONNECTION, potential, and possibility...attracts more of the same.

 

To evolve your life, evolve yourself. 

 

Here are 11 free and easy ways to raise your vibration.

 

1. Pranayama, or breathwork.

“Prana” is vital, life force energy. “Yama” means to stretch or lengthen. So with pranayama and yogic breathing techniques, we are working with our vital life force energy, massaging it and inviting it deep into ourselves. 

 

Prana is not the breath, it travels on the breath. The breath is the vehicle for this energy. It is how we invite it into the body.

 

But I’m not talking about absent-minded, shallow breathing. I’m talking about deep, rich, intentional breathing. The way we breathed as babies and small children before we subconsciously cut off the breath at our solar plexus.

 

Almost every adult I’ve worked with in the past 20 years has developed a habit of breathing shallowly into their chests. This, in and of itself, creates more stress and anxiety, because we are engaging a bundle of nerves at the solar plexus which stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, or the fight or flight response.

 

But when we breathe all the way down into our bellies and fill ourselves with breath all the way up to the top of our lungs, we are inviting fresh oxygen into each and every one of our cells. This, in turn, nourishes every system in our bodies—our circulatory systems, our digestive systems, our nervous systems…

 

And we stimulate a bundle of nerves at the base of the spine which engage the parasympathetic nervous system, or the relaxation response. Everything relaxes, and our digestive system, which goes into a sort of paralysis when under stress, kicks back in.

 

We also detoxify through the breath more than any other way. A good 70 to 80% of the body's toxins are released on the breath. So, before diving into a strict dietary cleanse, focus on the depth and quality of your breathing.

 

Long, deep, rich, and intentional breathing detoxes our systems, relaxes us, and invites vital life force energy in… All of which helps to raise our vibration.

 

2. Yoga

At the heart of any good yoga practice is the breath. Long, deep breathing. And we’ve already discussed why this is important.

 

But yoga also helps to get us into our bodies, creating space where we were feeling contracted. We lengthen our muscles, we lubricate our joints, we increase the flexibility of our spines.

 

Not only does the spine house the nervous system, but Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi, used to say that “God is in your spine“. So by keeping our spines healthy—our central channel of energy—we are allowing ourselves to stay open and receptive to Spirit.

 

A well-rounded yoga practice includes resting poses as a core component. So often, it is what happens in between the asanas, in between the poses, that is the most rich.

 

In a culture that is so focused on doing, we sometimes forget the importance and value of simply being…of resting and recovering.

 

Yoga helps us get centered, and grounded, and deepens our intuition by getting us into our bodies, where we can feel the gentle nudges of Spirit... where we can feel our inner guidance system communicating with us.

 

Relaxing into our bodies, becoming comfortable in our own skins, and opening our channels, allows Spirit in and helps to raise our vibration.

 

3. Meditation

Meditation is another way of helping us tap into cosmic consciousness. It helps us create space between our thoughts and, in that space, we are able to cultivate true presence and awareness.

 

I often tell my students, the next time somebody tells you you are out of your mind, thank them for the compliment. Because often it is a result of an overactive, analytical thinking mind that has so many feeling exhausted. Even when they lay down to sleep, they aren’t able to fully shut off their minds.

 

Meditation helps us to strengthen our mental musculature so that we can focus our thoughts and awareness where we want to… Rather than being a victim of our own minds.

 

Through meditation, we are able to step back from our thoughts and become the witness to them…being informed by them, rather than controlled.

 

It is said that after every stimulus there is a response, and in between the two there is a gap, about 2 to 3 seconds in length. And in that gap…in that space, lies the power to choose. If we lack awareness of that space, of that gap, we don’t realize we have the power of choice.

 

Meditation helps us tap into that gap, making us more conscious of our own power to choose, and less reactive.

 

Meditation also helps to pull us out of the storyline, allowing us to let go of the past, as well as the future, so we can cultivate presence in the here and now.

 

Mental clarity, space, and presence help to raise our vibration. 

 

3. Time spent in nature.

Most of us spend so much time inside buildings, on concrete pavement, that we have forgotten our intrinsic one-ness with nature.

 

We are nature. There is no place where nature ends and we begin. But our lives—so full of doing, and our minds—so full of thoughts, cause us to forget this.

 

Time spent in nature grounds us and helps us remember what is real and true.

 

With my coaching clients and yoga students, I often prescribe spending time in nature every single day, no less than 20 minutes. This is part of a daily grounding ritual. And if that time can be spent with our bare feet on the earth— not on the pavement—but on the bare earth, even better.

 

It has been proven that walking barefoot, with our feet in the grass or in the soil, rebalances all the systems in our bodies. We are re-calibrated, as if we are plugging into a giant battery of the purest, cleanest energy available to us on this physical planet.

 

Time spent in nature helps to raise our vibration.

 

4. Clean eating.

A diet high in sugar or salt, meat and dairy products riddled with antibiotics and growth hormones, processed foods laden with ingredients you cannot pronounce, as well as too much alcohol or caffeine, all create toxicity in the body.

 

Not only is the body taxed with the job of having to try to extract something of value from that which has no real value, and then get it out of the system while hopefully doing as little damage as possible...

It creates mental fog, and sluggishness, and lowers our vibration.

 

Clean eating of fresh, organic fruits and vegetables; organic and humanely handled meats (if you eat meat at all); and avoiding processed foods, sugars, and other toxins takes less of a toll on our bodies, and therefore helps to raise our vibration.

 

Extreme diets, cleanses, and eating regimens are not helpful either. When we’re talking about raising our vibration, balance is always the key.

 

Pay attention to how your energy is affected by what you eat. How do you feel while you’re eating it? And perhaps even more importantly, how do you feel 30 minutes later?

 

5. Laughter

Our third chakras, the energy center located at our solar plexus, are the centers of our willpower, motivation, and self-esteem. This is where we process anger and jealousy, but also laughter and joy.

 

If we get too stuck in our heads… Too caught up in our thoughts…

 

 

If we get caught up in doing and forget to spend time simply being…

 

Energy can get stuck here. We can get stuck in anger. Our self-esteem can suffer. And we can forget to give ourselves permission to claim and experience true joy.

 

When was the last time you felt true joy?

 

Laughter is wonderful medicine. It gets energy moving in and around the third chakra. It’s like blowing the lid off of pent-up and stored-up anger and aggression, letting true joy come up and out.

 

Laughter yoga has gained popularity because of its ability to help move stuck, stagnant energy.

 

I have been known in my yoga classes and yoga trainings to incorporate laughter yoga. Few things are more enjoyable than a room full of giggling yogis that, once they’ve turned it on, have trouble turning it back off. Nor would I want them to.

 

Laughter is a wonderful way of raising our vibration.

 

6. Cultivate unconditional love

There is a tendency in society toward judgment. When we judge, we create a feeling of isolation within ourselves. We suffer from any thought or idea of separation in our minds.

 

Because on a deep level, we know that we are all connected. And when we create a disconnect between ourselves and our fellow brothers and sisters, we suffer.

 

I once heard someone say that when we judge others, on some level, whether we are conscious of it or not, we feel judged. Even if we are not being judged in return, it feels that way. Because all mines are joined. There is only one of us here. 

 

If you look at small children, they feel their oneness and connection with everyone and everything. Thoughts of judgment and separation have not yet occurred to them.

 

This is why small children laugh, experience joy, and feel so much love. They have not yet turned it off with judgmental thoughts generated in their minds. That hasn’t occurred to them yet. Society hasn’t taught them that yet.

 

We live in a culture of habitual judgment. This lowers our vibration, makes us feel isolated and alone, and disconnects us from Source (God, Spirit.. whatever you choose to call this energy).

 

Learning to see the innocent, loving child within everyone helps us reconnect with our own innocent, loving essence.

 

True love is not conditional. Unconditional love is a recognition of what lies at the heart of all of us… At the very core for all of us.

 

Even when we forget—or when others forget—acting and behaving in ways that are not in alignment with the truth of who we are, we can choose to remember.

 

Unconditional love is a choice. Even if we have gone out of the habit of it, we can cultivate that habit… We can cultivate unconditional love.

 

This is one of the fastest ways to tap back into source and raise our vibration.

 

7. Spend time alone

I’m always encouraging my students to spend time alone cultivating the most important relationship they will ever have…the ones they have with themselves.

 

Because your relationship with others, your relationship with God, your relationship with LIFE, can only be as good as and as rich as the one you have with yourself.

 

If we can’t spend time alone with ourselves, that should tell us something. That is a sign that something is wrong.

 

Someone once said “If you don’t like spending time with you, why would anybody else want to?”

 

It’s a good question.

 

Another practice I often prescribe to coaching clients and yoga teacher trainees is to spend quality time alone with themselves every day, no less than 30 minutes.

 

When you are alone with yourself, do you have to keep yourself busy? Do you get on the phone and call a friend? Do you turn on the TV?

 

Or do you like the company that you keep? Do you like yourself?

 

If the answer is no, that’s really important to realize.

 

Because life can never give you anything you don’t feel worthy of receiving.

 

Spending time alone, becoming your own best friend, noticing yourself talk, and choosing to be unconditionally loving…all of this helps to raise your vibration.

 

8. Do nothing/just be.

We live in a very action-oriented society. Many of us believe if we are not producing something it means we have no value.

 

While we are creative beings and it is wonderful to create from an inspired place…

 

It is a mistake to believe that our value is in what we do rather than in who and what we are.

 

Do you feel guilty if you take a break?

 

Does resting, and engaging in self-care rituals, feel self-indulgent? Like a guilty pleasure?

 

I see this pattern show itself in peoples’ yoga practices. Many put all of the focus in the asanas, the poses themselves. But Asana practice is only one small fraction of what Yoga is all about.

 

Some of the most valuable poses in Yoga are the simplest ones: child’s pose, mountain post, corpse pose…

 

I see these poses as wonderful opportunities to rest and recover, get grounded, and integrate our experiences.

 

It is often the space between the asanas that is most rich. But so many beginners and even seasoned yogis believe that asana is where it’s at. They move quickly from one post to the next, with very little space in between.

 

This is why power yoga classes are among the most popular. There’s a whole lot of doing, but not necessarily very much focus on who we are being.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a good power yoga flow sometimes, but there’s this whole other aspect of yoga that is being largely overlooked in Western society.

 

If you look at the Yamas and Niyamas, the does and don’ts of yoga, there’s a whole lot more to yoga philosophy than the physical practice. 

 

Staying busy, all the doing, is safer for people. It’s easier to show up for a quick, fast-paced yoga practice that only barely scratches the surface of what’s really going on, than it is to cultivate a deep, rich, honest relationship with yourself both on and off the mat.

 

Whether we are talking about yoga, or life off the mat, it is time to switch our focus from what we are doing…to who we are being.

 

If you are one of those that gets impatient in child’s pose, tapping your fingers and waiting for the signal to move on… Or if you think corpse pose is optional, and roll up your mat and leave the room before it’s over…

 

That’s something you might want to consider looking at.

 

What is that about? What are you afraid might happen?

 

Learning to recognize (and remember) that our value is in who and what we are, not in what we do or produce, helps us to raise our vibration.

 

9. Mantra

Mantras and affirmations have gained popularity for a reason. Thoughts are energy, and energy attracts more of the same. Again low-frequency thoughts tend to attract a low-frequency experience. High-frequency thoughts tend to attract a high-frequency experience.

 

Affirmations are a tool for tapping into the creative power of our mind, channeling our thoughts in an intentional way.

 

Mantra (man=mind; tra=tool) Is a tool for the mind. It not only harnesses our thoughts, it taps into the sound frequency by putting our words out into the universe. It has been said that the spoken word is 10 times more powerful than thought.

 

Mantra beads, also known as prayer beads, have gained in popularity because the repetition of these high-vibration thoughts and words are like magnets attracting whatever it is upon which you are focusing.

 

One of my favorite mantras is “Om shreem maha lakshmeiya swaha.”

 

This is an ancient Sanskrit prayer. Sanskrit is the oldest language in existence…a vibrational language. Meaning it tunes into and taps into the vibrational frequencies and affects our energetic vibration.

 

This particular mantra is a prayer for abundance.

 

I have practiced this mantra at times when I have been feeling particularly stressed about money for finances, and I’m always amazed at how quickly energy shifts around it.

 

There have been times I have worked with this mantra in meditation, only to check my email afterward and discover new business opportunities, and income sources, that flowed in while I was working with the mantra.

 

10. Creative visualization

Our minds are reality-producing machines. What we see in our minds, and back with any kind of emotional intensity, tends to be realized.

 

Remember, your thoughts are powerfully magnetic. What you think and see in your mind you tend to attract. This is what the Law of Attraction is all about.

 

With the imagery we hold onto and feed in our minds, we dramatically increase the likelihood of it materializing.

 

In my book, Showing Up Naked, I share a story of preparing for a 10-day, 3-country backpacking trip with three other friends throughout Europe. I realized going in that since we would be covering a lot of ground—living out of our backpacks and spending the night in a new place every single night—the chances and likelihood for stress and conflict were probably pretty high.

 

So I spent a good portion of the plane ride over visualizing myself being cool, calm, and collected no matter what happened. I saw myself—my body language, my facial expressions—relaxed and at ease. I coupled that with the mantra, “Whatever happens… It’s all just part of the adventure.“

 

I focused on that imagery in my mind so fervently that it was like a movie playing in the background. I repeated the mantra silently to myself a couple of times a day, at least.

 

And it worked!

 

Even when we were running at full speed to catch our train, or missed the last bus and ended up stranded in the streets trying to regroup…I never got anxious. I was able to take it all in stride and genuinely see it and experience it as an amazing adventure.

 

So much so that my travel companions commented on it—that they were amazed at how well I traveled.

 

That was my first ever trip overseas. I firmly believe the only reason I was able to flow with things so seamlessly was because of the time I spent visualizing who I wanted to be and reinforcing it with that mantra.

 

This stuff works, and it’s why as a hypnotherapist, and always in my yoga classes, guided imagery and creative visualization are weaved in throughout.

 

Creative visualization, sometimes referred to as future-pacing, is another free and easy way to raise your vibration.

 

11. Prayer

Never underestimate the power of prayer.

 

Prayer is not an act of desperation. We don’t want to save it until the very last minute…pulling it out in a last-ditch effort to get help.

 

It is about opening ourselves up to having a relationship with Spirit. This is a relationship, like any other relationship, that we cultivate every day.

 

The more we cultivate that relationship, the stronger and healthier it is.

 

Remember thoughts our energy… Energy attracts more of the same. Desperation may simply breed more desperation, and energetically clog our channel, blocking divine guidance. Desperation comes from a lack of trust.

 

Faith, on the other hand, is a completely different energy. It means having trust in ourselves, and in God, that everything happens in divine order.

 

In those moments when I feel lost, stuck, or can’t seem to find my way…that is when I “give it to God”.

 

I surrender my Ego, my false sense of control, to a power that is greater, and wiser, than me.

 

But there is also my daily prayer...a conscious intention where I invite Spirit into my life and into my experience.

 

I call this co-creating with Spirit. It is a relationship, a merging, a blending of these two energies: my creative power and potential, which I was imbued with by God while staying open and receptive to the nudges and guidance of Spirit.

 

This is when life is most rich. This is high-vibration living.

 

One of my favorite prayers is “Today, please guide my thoughts, aligning them with love and truth. I will do my best to pay attention and act on your guidance.”

 

It is humble, and receptive, while remembering that the power of choice, free will, is still mine.

 

Deep, intentional breathing. Yoga and meditation. Time spend in nature. Clean eating. Laughter. Unconditional love. Quality time spent alone. Giving yourself permission to just be. Mantra. Creative visualization. And prayer.

 

While we are in no way limited by these, they are 11 simple, easy, and free ways to align ourselves with Spirit, every day, raising our vibration to create, and live, at the highest possible frequency.