Cell chemistry involves the use of ions, electrically charged elements that generate electricity. An average human body at rest can produce around 100 watts of power and a professional athlete sprinting through the finishing line, many more. It seems we have different types of energy in the body, chemical to synthesise new molecules, mechanical for muscle contractions, and indeed electrical to power the cells.
When I talk about energy in the body, most people understand what I mean. I feel high energy or low energy, full power, energised. Language used in everyday life references energy a lot and yet there is very little science focusing on this aspect of the body, you don’t hear the doctor saying you are low energy and we need to fix your energy. And yet, this energy business is very important and a rather basic component of who we are and how we feel.
The energy currency, physiologically speaking, is called ATP and it’s production, through the tiny organelles mitochondria is well understood. How does this translate into feeling high energy or low energy? Efficient mitochondria fed with glucose or fat, oxygen and all cofactors needed for optimal energy production will result in the energy we need to have a positive, productive life. A calorie in food is the amount of heat required to raise the temperature of 1g of water by 1°C as we know energy has an intimate relationship with heat. Is that all there is, about this hot energy?
If something sad happens in life and you feel “low”, you might still have the same mitochondria producing the same ATP with the same cofactors so how do psychological triggers influence energy production or distribution in the body?
When I think of metabolism, the process by which the body converts what you eat and drink into energy, the thyroid and stress hormones come to mind, the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis, the microbiota-gut-brain axis and large chunks of the endocrine and nervous systems have a role to play.
Some people have a very high metabolism, some naturally lower or even sluggish. Some people are naturally “high energy”, is this chemical, mechanical, electrical energy or all of them at the same time?
In ancient medicinal systems, energy is taken very much into consideration and incorporated into healing modalities to support the mind-body-spirit connection. Qigong is traditionally viewed by the Chinese and throughout Asia as a practice to cultivate and balance qi or life energy, our vital force, what the Indians call prana and associate with the breath.
Western science is inherently mechanistic and concerned with the physics of things and that’s where its strength lies. They completely reject Vitalism, the concept implying we, as living and breathing individuals, have a life force that makes us unique and distinguished from inanimate things. This vital principle, non mechanical element of nature is often referred to as the a spark, life itself and can be equated to the soul.
Delving into the realm of consciousness and individual experience, I will tell you a secret: I have been working with “energy” for years now. This means I consciously use different techniques to “create” or focus energy in a part of the body and move it to another part, I do it everyday and I gain a sense of well-being, of health and power through it. I love it so much I consider my meditation practice an highlight of my day, when I connect with the immense energy of my body, the ocean of calmness and peace inside me.
My energy expansion practice means I sometimes feel energy coming through my throat, when it almost chokes me and so I need to open the mouth and “let it out”. Some other days the energy movement lingers around my heart centre and I can easily move energy across all 7 chakras, well identified and to me perfectly familiar parts of the body and yet, pseudoscience for a lot of people.
If you are starting on an exciting new project, you might get some enthusiastic, joyful energy going. This might feel rather different from the energy of having to complete a boring task or repetitive chore you hate doing. There is a mental energy component to it, but also a physical one which is obvious to anyone.
When I reach a state of flow and a peak experience of connection through an artistic pursuit, during love making or just when totally immersed in Nature, I am not just emotionally and psychologically energised, I feel it in the body too. A healthy 5 years old has a natural “vitality” that is rare to see in someone much older battling a chronic condition, this is obvious isn’t it. Is vitality to you a thing at all?
Another controversy here, I suppose, is whether vital energy can be enhanced and if so, whether it can support ailments and illnesses. If there’s such a thing as energy healing.
A large component of medicine is placebo and we well know that a placebo has both psychological and physical effects to the tune of up to 72% of a cure. Is my practice of connecting and moving energy working as a placebo, as I am convinced that what I do is real and beneficial, it actually becomes beneficial. If there is anything beyond the placebo, I don’t know. When I channel energy from the sky and through my crown chakra, do I actually incorporate this cosmic energy into my body or I only feel this is happening?
As I experimented with many types of energy healing and practices, I can tell you my individual experience is totally positive and I am 100% convinced creating and moving energy is a thing for me and a healthy one as such. I can tell you when I started feeling this beautiful gift of energy moving, it not only improved my life many times, it also made me feel and believe in the Soul, the spirit element of my being which was always there but needed awakening.
If you re open to this I’d say you gotta leave the western mind and associated science behind for just a moment and experience practises like reiki, Qigong, Tantric Yoga and chakra balancing. You won’t find validation for this type of energy anywhere but within yourself. And ultimately, as Albert Einstein was quoted to say “the only source of knowledge is experience”. Feeling low energy? Get some breath going, pump it up, it’s within your realm to do so, to influence the way you feel and live life through the growing of the soul, through having a spiritual life.
We are body, mind and spirit, of this I am certain and by having and consciously growing a spiritual side, I improved my own life and maybe, as a result, this improved the energy I emit, the influence I have on the world.