I have observed over the past few days that "energy" is very abstract to people. Some think it is a spiritual presence and others think it's when you get enough sleep. I will tell you what energy really is, although the previous statement is still true because energy is in many different forms.
I call this "Attention Energy" (chi)
Fig. 1 Energy Field. Article on www.psychicbutsane.com (2009).
The first side to energy is your attention to it. This energy is found when you put attention on parts of your body. When someone is getting angry or scared, their energy goes straight to their head. You can hear their voice rise in pitch and their upper body moves more and their expressions are strong and constantly changing. This is not healthy because it is hysteric or frantic and not grounded or sturdy. To properly react to situations and events, we have to be grounded. To ground yourself, you have to open your throat and breathe as deep as possible and focus your attention on your feet. Think about how your feet feel when they touch the ground. Visualize your weight pressing your feet into the ground. Picture your breath going into your bellybutton. As Elliott Hulse would say, "breathe into your balls". This takes all the energy in your body and pushes it down into your body and you will be grounded. You can think and act appropriately. You will become smarter and stronger. Your energy will spread out from head to feet instead of concentrated in your head.
Calorie Energy to do Work
Fig. 2 Essential Human Requirements. Article in Teacher Resources at www.tomatoesphere.org.
The next side to energy is the method of consuming food (calories) and burning those calories to do "work". "Burning" the calories means you are transferring the energy from the food you ate into heat which escapes into the atmosphere. There are all kinds of scientific measurements to describe energy and work, none of which I will explain because they can all be found in any physics text book. I'm here to talk about the concept of calories. There is no such thing as "empty calories". Calories are calories and that is it. The only thing that separates good foods from bad foods is the act of converting it into energy. 400 calories of brown rice is better for you than 400 calories of skittles because brown rice has complex sugars (carbohydrates), proteins, and nutrients. This means your body can repair tissue with some of the energy and also convert it into energy slowly over time.Skittles are all sugar and will convert to energy instantly so the energy is used up right away. Nothing else comes out of skittles.
My personal experience:
This past weekend was a big experience for me regarding calorie energy. Before I went away for vacation this weekend, I was lifting at the gym and on my diet of 3,500 rich dense complex calories. I was setting personal records for my heaviest lifts. Over the course of the weekend, I went to a very exhausting all-day metal concert without much food to eat. After that, I was only eating two small meals a day. I felt weak. When I got back in the gym, I was lifting significantly lighter weights and struggling to keep them up. I had poor muscle endurance and I was burn out after the first five sets. At this point I could physically feel the lack of energy from my lack of eating. To fix this issue, I ate as much food today as I could stuff in me. To my surprise, I ate more food than I could any day before my vacation which proved to me that I was bone dry on calories. I feel so much better and ready to get back in the gym.
Mental Energy or Effort
Fig. 3 Mental Perks of School and Work. Article from www.sheknows.com by Michele Borboa.
The last type of energy is in your brain waves. This is also associated with time and effort. Mental energy is the amount of effort you can put into a tasks under the stress of time. We do not have enough mental energy to be the best at everything we do, therefor we have to prioritize our lives so that we can put the most mental energy into the things we want to go the farthest in. The biggest focus points for many people with their mental energy is usually family and work.Add in a hobby and a craft which you love more than anything into the mix. Any more than that and you won't have the mental energy to do your best at everything and your performance will suffer. It is important that we focus on the more important things.
I hope this was a quick simple breakdown of the different kinds of energies to focus on and some good tips about them. I did not cover everything by any means or else this blog would be a series of books. There is a lot to energy and I hope you will all look deeper into them because it will help benefit your lives like it has mine!
Blog question:
What is one commitment you will make to improve the efficiency of your energy to become a stronger better YOU?
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