Creating Energy

Yes I remember the Law of Conservation of Energy - 'energy cannot be created or destroyed' - but we can create personal energy, or decrease our personal energy.

There are four types of energy – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. When we understand how to work with these four we can have more energy.

Each type needs to be exercised just like a muscle. To increase fitness an athlete uses interval training. Pushing themselves beyond the comfortable level and then taking a short break for recovery and then pushing again. Each of our energy types needs to be fully used (pushed) but also given breaks.

However we often under utilise some of our energy areas and over utilise others. Either way we cause ourselves to be unfit - lacking in personal energy.

If you have a low to average physical fitness level think how good you feel when you have made yourself do a small session at the gym or played a light game of squash or taken a brisk walk. You have used that physical energy system and you now feel better for it. However if you over do it you will feel depleted for the rest of the day.

Physical energy is found in any form of exercise and includes healthy eating; mental energy is all about thinking, using our brains; eEmotional energy is about experiencing emotional highs or lows and spiritual energy comes from anything which lifts the soul.

If you need more energy check which of your energy systems you are over stretching and try to give them some breaks. At the same time look to those that are being under utilised and put some focus into using them.

Generally it is easiest to build energy through the physical and spiritual systems. Physically do a bit more regular exercise than you normally do or for spiritual energy do anything that makes your soul sing - have a massage, sit and listen to a fountain or watch a bird building a nest. Or combine them and take a walk across a meadow!

What do you do to build your energy levels?

A bit of opposition never hurt anybody

I have just read the following quotation sent to me by http://www.cybernation.com/
A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites
rise against, not with, the wind. - John Neal

It got me thinking, as so many quotes do. Few of us talk about how easy things are; if things are moving along easily and smoothly we rarely mention it. But when things are challenging, when its not all going our way, when there is some opposition, we talk a lot. And that talk is usually in the form of complaints.

Talking is not a bad thing but if we can find benefits in the opposition we can “kill a few birds with one stone”. Complaining encourages us to think negatively which encourages a negative, self sustaining, reality. However if we search for the benefits in the struggle we start seeing the doughnut instead of the hole. If we do this often enough it becomes habit and we bring about a change of our own mind set. When our mind set changes to one of seeing the positives, we speak positively and our thoughts become positive thoughts. We then encourage a positive reality.


How many of you say “I work best under pressure” or “I always leave it to the last minute and then I get it done”? Not necessarily the best habit to have, but a reminder that opposition often helps us. An athlete rarely does their best time when they compete on their own or in a weak field. To achieve a personal best they need tough competition to help them find that extra ability and determination in themselves. We are athletes of daily life. A bit of opposition gives us the opportunity to find something special in ourselves.


Originally written in Dec 2007