"It's All Energy, Bob!"
Do you consciously manage your physical energy? How do you do it? In today's episode, we look at what we might do to increase our energy and, as a result, our personal power.
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"It's All Energy, Bob!"
In the 1996 film Phenomenon, John Travolta plays a simple and affable man who through some mysterious circumstance experiences rapid brain development. The phenomenon pushes his intelligence beyond the range of what we consider human. Writer Gerald Di Pego explores theoretical and fantastic implications of what might be possible under such circumstances.
Travolta's lead character George Malley manifests all manner of capacities beyond superior perceptive, mnemonic, and reasoning powers. He senses the pain and location of a missing dangerously ill boy. He senses the imminence of an earthquake. He even manifests telekinesis, the ability to move objects with his mind. Dr. Bob Nierdof, the psychologist, portrayed by Brent Spiner who was studying Georgia's surprising transformation was amazed as George telekinetically played with a pencil rolling it back and forth with the power of his mind.
“How are you doing that?” He exclaimed in shock. “I talk with it,” George replied. Dr. Bob required more explanation and George sums it up matter of fact. “It's all energy, Bob.” That line popped out of the screen many years ago when I first saw the film. It remains memorable, which is why it's the title of this episode. The concept was not without foundation. The concept is reinforced more and more as we learn about particle physics.
In the not-too-distant past, a state-of-the-art view of the world was of elements beyond which there were no meaningful components. The discovery and harnessing of the power of the atom dramatically changed that. During the years of my formal education, there were the vaguest notions of subatomic particles like quarks, leptons, bosons, and the like. They were crazy theories about experiments that could only be resolved when an observer reached a conclusion of their own.
In episode 15, we looked at the unintuitive nature of time. Here, we're considering an analogous aspect of the world around us. It's not what we think it is when we limit ourselves to the inputs of our physical senses. What George Malley tells Dr. Bob that it's all energy appears to be the deeper reality. What does that have to do with our personal power? It’s everything. Piloting our way through this journey we call life can be usefully thought of in terms of energy management. Lower blocked energy means problems. High-flowing energy brings the highs of life.
Let's look at the three important ways that directly impact the quality and effectiveness of our daily decision-making. Jack Redfield author of the bestselling evocative 1993 novel The Celestine Prophecy famously claimed where attention goes energy flows. This is based upon an Eastern philosophy influenced and a New Age spirituality. Many other thought leaders including Tony Robbins and Deepak Chopra have said something similar. The only difference is the specific wording.
The Celestine Prophecy: An Adventure
What do they mean? What if anything is the value of these assertions? We all have differing viewpoints when it comes to our energy. Some in the Christian tradition view energy as spiritual or otherwise, as the hand of God and something external to ourselves and our will. Others who perhaps are more materialist in their viewpoints consider nothing real that can't be scientifically observed and measured.
Regardless of where we may be along that spectrum, there are real effects of the model. No matter the mechanism or means, we do produce noticeable results when we set our minds to something. I experience this nearly every day when I practice yoga. Much of the practice is conscious breathing and awareness of where tightness and pain both physical and mental may be and intentionally relaxing it and letting it go. It works. In my case, this effect has been life-changing.
In 1992, I had a skiing accident. I was skiing fast along the edge of a slope and neither accidentally crossed my skis or caught some root or obstruction where I lost my balance. I launched forward into the trees. My mind did one of those, “Uh-ohs.” I remember time slowing down and I thought to curl into a ball to brace for impact. I hit one tree across my lower back. I hit another on my left thigh and a third on my left shoulder.
Things get foggy after that. I remember standing up thinking I might be okay and then sitting on one of the trees I knocked over. My memory becomes spotty. I have a vague sense of paramedics cutting open my ski suit and a few fuzzy images of people gathered above me. My next memory is in the ambulance but not much. The narrative picks back up with me lying in a hospital bed after a 45-minute ambulance ride from the ski resort.
Amazingly, I hadn't broken any bones but the contusions to the areas of impact were so severe that I couldn't walk for three weeks. I still have a lump on my left thigh from the event. The real lasting effect was the back pain I had ever since. It manifested whenever I stood for longer than 10 or 15 minutes. The pain would worsen until I relieved it by sitting down. I resisted pain meds or surgical solutions maybe for rational reasons.
I didn't want to risk the downsides of those solutions. Maybe from my foolish pride, I powered my way through pain. That strategy had drawbacks of its own aside from the years of discomfort. I could have helped with more projects either around my house or in the service of others. Things like raking leaves or shoveling snow would cost me a week of constant pain. I sometimes would do them anyway but not nearly to the level I otherwise would have. I stopped playing volleyball which had previously been a big passion.
The big prize was the unconscious thing I didn't do. I can't even guess how many times I might have gone somewhere and done something but decided against it because of my back. I tell you this long story because that all changed. Christine of Massage Zion and Yoga in Springdale, Utah suggested that if I began a regular yoga practice, it would help my back pain. She said it might not get rid of it but suggested I could reasonably expect the pain to be 40% less.
That sounded like a great deal to me. My wife Kathleen and I took her up on it. We bought yoga mats and started doing Yoga With Adriene on YouTube. Fast forward about six months, and I hadn't noticed a huge difference. I went on a cruise with my brothers. This wasn't any old cruise. It was like a dream for me. The Cruise to the Edge featured 40 progressive rock bands and many of the best musicians in the world. There were constant performances all over the ship.
While the big ones had theater-style seating, many were places like the pool stage where we'd stand. As a result, I did a lot of standing that week. There was no pain. I was shocked and thrilled. Since then, I can't say that I never had back pain but it is so much reduced closer to 90% than the 40% Christine had postulated that I feel practically cured. It was certainly due to the discipline of yoga. Specifically, what about yoga? I don't know.
I guess that it's a combination of stretching, core strengthening, and the constant intentional relaxation of the tension in that area. Regardless, it's a personal and real example of what Redfield and the others are suggesting about how awareness, attention, and intention relate to energy and its effects. The second assertion I'll make about how we understand energy management in our lives relates to the story I just told you. It's the nature of pain.
Awareness, attention, and intention relate to energy and its effects.
In the Eye of Power Model, the quadrant that relates to self-action is called the pain quadrant. It's not because it always hurts when we take action. It's because our relationship with pain circumscribes what we're willing to do and what we perceive to be possible. As I mostly subconsciously habitually shied away from situations that would require me to stand for extended periods, we all do to avoid whatever we anticipate will result in pain.
My partner in our communication training company used to say, “As a training tool, comfort is highly overrated.” Strength trainers often say, “No pain. No gain.” What is pain? It's simply feedback or information. It's our built-in biotech way of knowing that something needs to be adjusted. Another way of thinking about that is that pain is a marker for blocked energy. It tells us that if we want to move in the direction of greater health and power, we need to pay attention.
When we frame it in these terms, pain is not something to avoid. Rather, it is a very powerful ally. We don't seek it but we don't avoid it in a knee-jerk manner either. We listen to it and make better decisions. The third point about energy relates to the opposite of blocked energy. It can be captured in one word which is flow. The author most credited with this concept is Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his famous book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience.
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
Mihaly identified the power in those circumstances often in athletic contests when everything in our consciousness outside of the factors that have to do with the execution at the moment melts away and we apply the entirety of our capacities to the task at hand. He suggested that the same effect need not be restricted to competitive games but also has huge utility in our work and personal lives. The condition of flow means the energy has no imposed obstructions.
We therefore experience a state that feels otherworldly, like we're somehow out of our bodies observing the performance as the muscle memory born of sometimes years of training takes over and we have a sense of power and freedom. Maybe you've experienced this state. It feels wonderful. I no longer play competitive sports that give that to me.
I do experience it often when I'm playing drums and singing in my band. I most often experience it in conversations. When we connect soul to soul and we're 100% focused on the exchange, understanding the other person, free from distraction, or an unstated agenda, it becomes transcendent. It's one of the most fulfilling experiences life has to offer. It has power.
The experience of flow happening under specific conditions is related to high performance. It emerges when high skill meets high challenge in some area that is important to us. It requires focus. We're not distracted when we're in flow. We're not self-conscious. We're performing whatever it is we're doing effortlessly even though it may be quite difficult. This means that we experience flow in those situations where we have worked to build our abilities maybe in the areas where we've achieved mastery. It's its reward that pays other dividends as well.
We manifest more of our power when we systematically work on our abilities regarding our energy. More energy equals more power.
The main takeaway here is to do the work necessary to get good at whatever it is you decide to do in your life. Whether that is career, other pursuits, or even in our relationships. George Malley wasn't far off. It is all energy. We manifest more of our power when we systematically work on our abilities regarding our energy. More energy equals more power. I'll leave you with these questions. What can you do to build more energy? Where is it blocked for you? What can you do to get it moving? If you want to manifest your full power and your agency in this world, that process depends upon those answers. Let's go.