Increasing Your Energy
Levels
by Gurucharan Singh
Khalsa, Ph.D.
and Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D.
Our
personal energy level affects our lives in multifaceted ways. Energy determines
our capacity for elegant action in the world. Energy bounds the intensity with
which we can express ourselves. It determines, for instance, our ability to
speak powerfully -- with animation and impact. When our energy level is optimal,
we become aroused and alerted to the world around us. Then, with a profound
reciprocity, nature seems alerted to and connected to us. We experience energy
as vigor and stamina -- the physical and mental strength that we can sustain and
bring to bear upon any problem.
We all feel our
energy in its potential and active forms. We sense our reserves as well as our
immediate energy and use our assessment of both to determine which challenges we
will take on and which we will decline. And one of our greatest sources for
reserve energy is our spirit. Whether we recognize it or not, when we reach
deeply within ourselves and tap into our spirit, that spirit gives us stamina,
grit, scope, and energy that works regardless of everything happening around
us.
Even though our
energy level has multiple areas of expression and corresponding sources, most of
us form habits and consistently draw our energy from a few favored yet unhealthy
sources. Instead of drawing on the body-mind-spirit as a whole, we grab on to
seemingly immediate solutions like food, drugs, emotional dramas, or excitement.
But our design is subtler than that. Our sources are more diverse. We need to
think more holistically about our energy level and its sources, for quick fixes
like food and drugs actually take away more energy than they provide. Breath, on
the other hand, works as an energy source. It is one we don't use enough. Huge
reserves of energy lie buried in our musculature and in our glands, ready to be
tapped and used -- by mastering our own breathing.
You see, the nervous
system can actually contain and release energy. The part of your nervous system
called the autonomic system can be developed in the same way that a muscle can
be toned or shaped. And the energy stored or released in that system is directly
affected by breathing, exercise, and your entire attitude. Your emotions, and
all the electrical and chemical processes that change with them, are sources for
energy.
Awareness itself is
also a great source of energy, for your state of awareness directly changes the
pattern of your brain activity. Good healthy nutrition and conscious eating are
another source of energy and healing. Our ideal is to be vitalized by all these
sources. We want to align our habits and activities to sources of energy that
deliver us in the present and sustain us for the future.
But without some
training and conscious introspection, most of us do not use all of these
sources. Instead, once we sense our energy is running low, we let our search for
more energy get directed by unconscious habits and emergency reflexes. We grasp
whatever seems closest and takes the least attention or effort. Surrounded by
junk food and instant everything, we often make poor choices and end up losing
energy instead of gaining it. A drink or two to relax at the end of the day
seems reasonable, but for many people it leads to depression, reckless driving,
and emotional withdrawal.
Not knowing how to
tap our core energy, some of us rely on stirring up an emotional storm within
ourselves. The resulting emotional outburst releases energy but, like a bad
storm, devastates everything in its path -- a short-term gain, but an enduring
loss that actually depletes our energy. In order to get and stay vitalized and
healthy for the long run, however, we need to cultivate effective energy
regeneration strategies. Like a flowing stream, we need constant renewal to live
well.
This article is excerpted from the book
 Breathwalk
by Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, Ph.D. and Yogi
Bhajan, Ph.D.
Excerpted by permission of Broadway, a division
of Random House, Inc. Copyright© 2000.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be
reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the
publisher.
Info/Order this
book.
About The
Authors
Gurucharan Singh Khalsa, Ph.D., is an expert in the
mind, a yogi, psychotherapist, teacher, and writer. He is president of a
business consulting firm, Khalsa Consultants, Inc., and has taught kundalini yoga with Yogi Bhajan for over thirty
years.
Yogi Bhajan, Ph.D., is a Master of kundalini and tantric yoga. He is
the spiritual leader of the Sikh religion in the Western Hemisphere. He inspired
the creation of the family of Golden Temple natural products, including Yogi Tea
and Peace Cereals. They are also co-authors of The Mind: Its Projections and Multiple Facets. Visit the
Breathwalk website at http://www.breathwalk.com.
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