How to cultivate your energy

(this is a work in progress that
has expanded to a longer work. 
I'll update the text as I go, 
and link back the update on my
front page) 

The cultivation of energy is the
process by which you consciously
augment the activities that bring
you energy, and reduce the activities
that take energy from you, so that 
by the end your are accumulating an 
exceeding  amount of energy that can
be used for you own well being and
evolution. 

Cultivating your energy can help
you reach your goals, but also can
aggravate some negative part of
your life, you have the thread 
lightly. 

This is outside and beyond the 
over-simplification of calories 
and how the body uses it. There
doesn't seems to be a modern-day
science based explanation of this
type of energy. So this guide is
a mix of the research and practice
I've done, and my personal 
understanding and exploration. 

Only looking at energy in the form
of calorie is really limiting, and
lack a proper system for cultivating
your own energy outside food and sleep.

To give an example, you can eat
a lot of food, and therefor get
a lot of calories, which would
mean you have a lot of 'energy'
yet you feel bloated and not 
able to be creative. Or you could
eat just a little bit, have 
very little calories, but feel
positive and charged and creative. 

What I am about to share is more 
aligned with the concepts
of Prana or Chi, or this vitality
of energy that we can all feel when
we are balanced, rested and well 
energized. Although this short 
guide won't got into the definition
of Prana, Nadis, Chakra, Chi, 
meridians and the different layers
of Chi, I invite you to read up
on the different traditions of 
Chinese medicine, Taoism, Yoga and
Ayurveda, Kundalini and chakra system. 

INTRODUCTION 

We all have a certain amount of
energy. We sleep, and eat food 
to recharge that energy, and then
work and practice different 
activities and spend that energy. 

We use different substance, like
caffeine and sugar, to boost our
perception of energy. We end up
with the same amount of energy, 
but we create some sort of a boost, 
to be more productive in part of 
the day. 

Some people seems to naturally
have more energy than other, 
but we seldom talk about cultivating
our energy. For athlete, this 
cultivation is foundational to 
their performance, but is 
often limited to the physical 
application of energy. An 
athlete daily routine might
not be useful for a creative 
person for instance, even if
both requires some sort of
energy to do their work. 

Many factors are in play when
learning about our own energy, 
from our nervous system, to 
our metabolism, mental health
and level of physical activities. 

Our culture doesn't require us
to care much for our energy level. 
As long as you can get up, feed
yourself, drive a car, sit in 
front of a computer, you should
be okay. Some other work are 
more physical, but are generally
well paced. For example, I've worked
in construction, on high-rise
buildings downtown Vancouver. It
was the most demanding work I've
ever done, but in a matter of
a couple week, my body got used
to the demand of the work. I needed
a good amount of physical resistance, 
but not so much raw energy per say. 
I could party, not sleep well, 
and still perform enough to get
paid. 

What I am getting at, is that 
most people don't need a lot
of energy to live in society, 
so we don't really need to 
'cultivate' our energy level. 

If you don't have enough energy,
you can drink more coffee. Coffee
isn't giving you the boost? You 
can get some pills to get you 
going for long enough. Too much
pills? We'll there is another
pill for that. 

But when you want to create 
something new, start a new business, 
perform more than most people, 
create music, art and other 
creatively demanding activities, 
cultivating your own energy
become an essential part of 
your life. 

WHERE TO START

You have to define what takes
you energy in a day and what gives
you energy. The same activity 
can give or take energy from 
different person so it's important
to figure that out for yourself. 

What takes energy: 

Infection and illnesses, mental struggle,
physical work, mental and creative work, 
sexual activity, digestion, media consumption,

What gives energy: 

Physical activity, digestion, creative
work, food, sleep, media consumption,
meditation, relaxation. 

As you can see, a few of the same
activities are repeated in both categories. 

Sexuality can be both draining, or 
charging you up with energy. Same
thing with media consumption, you 
can watch an inspiring movie, that
relax you an inspire you, or you can
scroll trough aimless short videos
that simply make you want to... 
Scroll trough more videos for 
hours. 

GOAL

It's very useful to have a goal when 
you want to start cultivating your energy. 
Without a goal, you cannot measure if you
are getting anywhere, and making changes
in your life if you cannot measure anything
really becomes a chore. 

It doesn't need to be anything grand, 
"I need more energy when I am at work, 
so by the end of the day I'm not 
completely exhausted" is perfectly
fine. Or, "I want to sustain awareness
in my dream all night long" is yet 
another completely different goal. 
It could also be physical, running for
a certain amount of time or reading 
and studying for longer period of time. 

Once you have a goal you can then measure
the difference. Of course with goal setting, 
reflection or journaling become important. 

So now you have a goal, and you've stared 
to note what brings you energy and what
take energy from you. You can then start
experimenting. Are there things that 
you can change right away? Maybe you are
smoking and you can stop smoking? And 
maybe you can't start with that as it 
would require more energy that you can
spare right now. 

Can you sleep better or a bit more?
Maybe you cut into the youtube time 
and add 1 hour of sleep for instance. 

A few big leak you have to take in 
consideration. Infections in the 
body requires a lot of energy. One
place you could have infections that
gets unnoticed are root canals. As the
nerve has been removed, an infection
could live below a tooth for many
years without much affecting the rest
of the body, apart maybe for a lower
level of energy. 

Another big leak of energy are unresolved 
emotions. They can take form of self-loathing
or destructive mind set that keeps on running
in your head. If your mind is creating thoughts,
and images that are triggering negative 
emotions, a big leak of energy is created. 

Sexual practice can also be quite wasteful. 
When sex is only used as a release valve, 
it might waste more energy than it can 
create. 

Some of these bigger leaks aren't as easy
to change but it's important to be
aware of them. You might need to 
change other pattern in your life, 
before tackling the bigger issues. 

Redefine failure 

When cultivating your energy, you 
will often fail. It's part of the 
practice. It's also essential to 
have the movement of less and more
energy. You can't move from 1% 
energy level to 100% and sustain
that in your life. 

The general process is that you find
something that bring you more energy, 
or drain you less, then your energy level
will go up. Now with that added energy
you'll have to re-define what you do
with it. Maybe you become more addicted
to drugs and pornography. So now you know
that too much energy at this moment, 
will be wasted into addiction. A few
step back, reducing drug addiction, 
now you raise your energy higher, and
your only waste is now pornography, 
which is fine for now as it drains 
your energy completely. Now you start
again, and again, clearing up different
elements. 

It becomes a game of self discovery. 
Sometime you'll notice that you'd rather
not have a lot of energy. It's easier to
cope sometime with a lower level of 
energy. Then realize for other task, 
you need more energy. 

What I've noticed too, is that although
the energy is neutral, it gets tainted 
while you are cultivating it. Anger, 
lust, jealousy and other strong emotion
gives a certain spin, a certain quality
to the energy and it become hard to continue
the energy cultivation during these times. 

Process in short

 - Define a goal
 - Take note on where you are with your goal
   and where you want to go
 - Observe what give and take energy from you
 - Make a plan of action, what to take out 
   what you enhance
 - Experiment with reducing one or two energy
   draining activity. 
 - Experiment with enhancing one or two  
   activities that bring you energy
 - Note the effect on your goal
 - Observe what make you fall back into old patterns
 - Start again exploring other method
 - Ask yourself "Am I in a good place to continue
   cultivating my own energy"
 - If emotions are raising to the surface,
   make sure to note them and see how you 
   can heal further. 

Professional help

Keep in mind that you might need some 
professional help to change some deeply
ingrained patterns. Start simple, food, 
sleep, screen time, exercise. Change 
one little thing at a time and observe
the effect on your life. 

My own experience

I started cultivating my energy in my
teenage years with Martial art and Yoga. 
I noticed how I sometime was really 
empowered, I could rule the world and
sometime I was the lowest of the low. 

Sex, drug and techno party would normally
drain me completely, while meditation, 
yoga, nature  and martial art was restoring
a lot of that energy. I could definitely see
the patterns of my energy growing, and then 
it had to come out, get released if not 
it would become quite intense in my day 
to day life. 

I realized that I couldn't just accumulate
energy. I wasn't ready for that, as emotions
would get in the mix and that accumulated 
energy would spill all over. 

What I needed was to cultivate my energy
to see my limiting emotions, work on these
and then try again to accumulate more energy. 

Since then I've been practicing this. For the 
last 10 years or so, I've been keeping my
energy to a very low level. As I was in an
emotionally challenging relationship, having
my energy drained out of me allowed me to 
cope with the lack of love I experienced. 
Energy tend to fuel emotions, and if there 
is a hurt in the emotional body, the excess
energy will make that suffering unbearable. 

The cultivation of energy can go both 
ways. It can be used to lift mountain, or
it can be used to sustain a situation that 
is uncomfortable for an extended period of
time. I think a lot of people are used to 
rely on the later. 

Right now, moving out of this relationship, 
I am back into cultivating my energy, and 
I feel a lot of healing has to take place, 
both physically and emotionally. I can 
benefit from that added energy.