Ancient wisdom for modern times — the importance of energy
I’m going to start with a confession here. I’m a walking bag of contradictions. I spent the first two decades of my life nurturing the rational, analytical and scientific parts of me; before some challenges in my early twenties forced me to explore the spiritual side of life and ultimately led me to teach yoga and meditation alongside a career in product and coaching. These distinct parts of me have led to a fascination with the intersection between spirituality and science that shapes what I’m about to write. That’s your forewarning. Purists in either camp can stop reading here. Those in the messy in-between may choose to read on.
If you explore eastern spirituality and medicine, you’ll find that they were onto something a long time ago, that we seem to have lost sight of today — the importance of energy:
- In yoga, the Sanskrit word ‘Prana’ can be translated as ‘vital energy’, and the breathing techniques used are known as ‘pranayama’ from ‘prana’ (vital energy) and ‘yama’ (to gain control).
- In Chinese medicine and martial arts, the central theme is ‘qi’ (pronounced ‘chi’), which can be similarly translated as ‘vital energy’.
- In Tibetan and Ayurvedic medicine there is a belief in three primary energies.
The list goes on.
The focus on ‘energy’ in these contexts is not simply referring to metabolic energy or the kind of boost you might get from your morning coffee; but a deeper and more esoteric sense of energy that drives us forward in life. You might choose to use the word ‘vitality’ as an alternative.
Whilst these cultures and schools of thought definitely contain their differences; there is a clear and common belief around the importance of investing in practices that sustain your vital energy and keep it in a state of balance. Not doing so can be catastrophic.
So why, might you ask, am I writing about it?
Well, in my modern, western, tech-industry setting, I feel I’m witness to these catastrophic effects daily. I’m surrounded by burnout. In a 2018 study of c.100k tech industry employees from companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Meta — almost 60% of respondents stated that they were currently in a state of burnout. I haven’t seen more recent numbers post-pandemic, but it’s hard to believe that through a time of the global pandemic, war, a cost of living crisis, and now mass layoffs, things will have gotten better in that time.
And whilst discussions of topics like burnout are becoming more common, the proposed solutions often feel insufficient — trust me when I say that if you live 167 hours of your week in a state of high anxiety, stress and energetic imbalance, then a 1-hour lunchtime yoga class in the office is not going to be enough to offset that.
In my opinion, more of us should be optimising for energy in the decisions we make in life. I think most of us know by now that optimising for material wealth is rarely a path to fulfilment. On the opposite side, we might optimise for happiness, which I firmly believe is a great thing to strive for, but I’ve struggled to reconcile that with something else I believe to be true — some things worth doing are going to be hard and are not going to make you happy, at least in the short term.
So optimising for long-term energy balance is a frame of reference I find helpful. If I think of myself as a cup, and my energy as the liquid in the cup, then I can simply acknowledge that some things will drain the cup, and others will fill it, but it’s important not to let the cup get empty (that’s when you get into burnout territory). I can drain the cup for a bit but if I consistently drain it more than I fill it then I’m living in a way that is not sustainable for the long term. Sometimes, if I know I have something coming up that will drain my cup in a big way, then I know I need to spend some time filling it in advance. Long term I feel at my best if the cup generally stays full.
The things that fill your cup will be highly personal to you. There are some universal basics — exercise, sleep, diet, time in nature, connection — but a lot that will simply depend on who you are. The important thing is simply developing an awareness of:
- What fills your cup?
- What drains it?
- What does full feel like?
- What does it feel like when the cup gets low?
With that awareness and understanding of your own energetic balance, I believe you can tap into some ancient wisdom that is highly applicable for modern times.
