Managing the Energy

Each day, we spend our time either sleeping or awake.  The sleeping portion of the day (for most people) is about eight hours, and is known as our Anabolic Cycle.  It’s when we rebuild our tired muscles, and restore our supply of energy.

The waking portion of our day is the catabolic cycle, or the destructive cycle, in which we deplete our energy and wear down our bodies.  In general, the most intensive part of that cycle is the eight hours we call work.  Which leaves us only another eight hours to do all of the maintenance we need in our lives:  bathing, cooking, eating, tai chi, yoga, exercise, cleaning and socializing.

Part of Tai Chi is the awareness of our energy, and how we expend it during the day.  Awareness will allow us to avoid expending energy in unproductive ways:  pointless arguments, emotional drama, and taking on the energetic problems of unhealthy people around us.

But it can also allow us to dispense our energy more efficiently.  We all have moments when our life is out of balance, when work is 10, 12, or even 16 hours a day.  Awareness during these times helps us to manage our energy so that while we are out of balance, we are not out of harmony, or at the least, we are less out of harmony.

A few tips to help your practice:

1) When your life is out of balance, that is exactly  when you need to maintain your practice.  Sometimes a few moments of tai chi or meditation during the day will make you significantly more effective during your work, and will help you to avoid long-term burnout.

2) Maintain your anabolic cycle.  Taking time before you go to bed to quiet the mind, and allow all of the energy you’ve picked up during the day to be processed is important.  Without it, you’ll find that your eight hours of sleep will be less effective.  You may have trouble getting to sleep, and the sleep you do have will be troubled and unfulfilling.  Taking a bit of time to meditate or do Tai Chi before sleep can be more important than getting those few extra minutes of shut-eye.  Being aware of your energetic state is the key to understanding when this practice is necessary.  If you still feel “unsettled” from the day, take the time to ground yourself and quiet the mind until that unsettled feeling disperses.  You’ll fall asleep faster, and get more from it.

3) Take moments during the day to “reconnect” with your internal state.  A minute or two of awareness,  breathing, or Tai Chi can help you to realize places where you are expending or taking on energy in unproductive ways.  As always, the key to your success is taking those few moments of awareness to identify the problem so that you can fix it.

Managing your energy can be one of the most effective ways of preserving your health, youth, and of speeding your personal growth.  As always, maintain your practice, and your practice will maintain you!