The Beach Boys sang it, Tesla and Einstein proved it, yet we view the word ‘vibration’ with severe suspicion because each and every woo-woo weirdo nowadays tends to pontificate about it.

“The secrets of the universe could be found in energy, frequency and vibration,” said inventor, physicist, engineer and futurist, Nikola Tesla, in the late 1800’s.

“Everything is vibration,” said Albert Einstein. In 1905 he proved that we can break matter down into smaller components. When we do, we move beyond the material sphere into a realm in which everything is energy; everything moves; everything vibrates. 

You and I each have our own electromagnetic energy that can be measured. Healthy humans vibrate between 62 and 68 hertz, but your emotions and the food you eat can change that frequency.

Yep, your ‘vibe’ is measurable. So is your food’s. In psychotherapist Robyn Openshaw’s new book, ‘Vibe’, she describes how she has developed a system for measuring food’s vibration with an instrument called the BT3 Monitoring System.

She also provides a list of the 200 highest vibration foods and the 45 lowest vibration foods. You might be able to guess some of the foods that will boost your vibration, energy and mood, but there are some interesting surprises on both lists.

Would you be startled to know that a hot dog has a vibrational energy of two hertz? I bet you’d be knocked for six to find the low vibe list featuring all the diet-labelled foods; everything that says ‘sugar free’ (read: chemical sweeteners), ‘low fat, ‘low calorie’ or ‘light’.

The low vibe list also features pasteurised milk, processed sugars and sweeteners, food dyes and colouring and basically everything canned, processed, cured, pre-cooked and treated with chemicals and pesticides. And yes, you’ll find bread and pastries on this list.

When we get to the high vibe list, a glass of fresh-pressed green juice measures a whopping 75 hertz. This list features all the cold pressed oils and living foods. Besides greens, fruits are the highest-vibration food on the planet. Luckily we live on the only planet in the galaxy that has chocolate, because raw chocolate is a high scorer on this list.

With all the bad rap grains have been getting, it is delightful to see whole grains on the good list: barley as well as brown and wild rice, buckwheat, oats, rye and – yay! – popcorn.

Okay, enough already, this is not a nutritional column. Robyn makes is clear that, apart from food, your vibrational frequency is also influenced by your emotions.

As the connection between our physical health and emotions becomes clearer, awareness of the importance of feeling our feelings has grown. Madisyn Taylor says that if we don’t deal with our feelings, we end up storing them in our minds and bodies. When we simply allow ourselves to fully feel our feelings as they come, we tend to let them go easily. And this is all we’re supposed to do; our feelings simply want to be felt.

Eckhart Tolle says that when two ducks get into a fight, it never lasts long – they soon separate and fly off in opposite directions. Each duck then flaps its wings vigorously to release the surplus energy that built up during the fight. If the duck had a human mind, he would keep the fight alive by analysing it and as far as his body is concerned, the fight is still continuing.

If you overanalyse, says Madisyn, you’re inclined to run into all the patterns and unresolved emotional baggage that stand in the way of unconditional joyfulness. Actually joy exists within us independently of whether things go our way or not.

We tend to get this backwards. “Actions to be taken and possessions to be exchanged are by-products of your focus in joy,” says Abraham Hicks. Mine the details of your now for things to feel good about now, he says. As you find more things to appreciate, your state of appreciation opens avenues to more for which to feel appreciation.

What are you giving your attention to? Entertain a wanted or unwanted thought and you’ll feel a wanted or unwanted emotion. Choose to change the thought and you change the emotion, which changes your vibration.

So, if you find the least little thing that makes your heart sing, then flap your wings and jump in. With both feet. Excitations, girlfriend. It’s the recipe for “Good, good, good – good vibrations.”