Photo by Noah Buscher on Unsplash

Ignore your energy on your own peril

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” ― Nikola Tesla

As I drove back home that night, I felt drained. No, I wasn’t tired, I was drained of mental energy and consciousness. As a result, I took wrong turns, ended up in dark alleys, and scratched my car at various places.

Needless to say, something was wrong.

A few hours ago, I was happily writing. I had good plans for the day — I meditated for 2 hours that morning and was about to conclude my writing session. Then I thought of having lunch and perhaps play football with the street kids.

All those plans went to trash when my friends called to meet up. I tried my best to avoid the request. But we hadn’t met for a long time and the chances looked slim going forward.

Though reluctant, I decided to go.

It’s not that I don’t like hanging out with them. But I had my apprehensions. I worried I’d lose the level of consciousness I’d gained after my meditation and writing practice.

And that’s exactly what happened as I returned home. I’d gossiped too much, played a lot, and used foul language that’s incongruent with my being.

This is when I started to discern the concept of energy and consciousness. I learned first-hand about how you can raise your consciousness and how easily you can lose it (as I did).

But first, let me give you a primer.

Beauty Lies in the Eyes of the Beholder

When you see a beautiful sunset, you feel good. When a boy sees a beautiful girl he feels good. So is the girl or the sunset beautiful? Not really.

I mean, a cat can see the sunset and think of nothing else but if it’s good enough to eat!

The reason we feel good after seeing a sunset is not that the sunset is beautiful, but we feel ‘uplifted’. And what is being ‘uplifted’ here? The energy in our spine.

Yogic science tells us that whenever energy rises up in the spine, we feel happy and blissful. And when it flows downward, we feel sad, tired, and fatigued.

Think about it. People use phrases like ‘uplifted’ to show happiness. Their head is high, their eyes are lustrous, and they’re optimistic about the future.

On the other hand, people who’re sad, literally say “I’m feeling down.” Their heads are tilted forward, eyes downcast, and little or no hope on their face.

Ergo, every emotion is caused by a movement of energy in our spine and nothing else.

And so, we can say that “beauty lies in the reaction of the beholder.” Or I’ll do you one better:

“Beauty lies in the spine of the beholder.”

More energy helps you have better relationships, produce more and better work, be there for your family even after a long day, view the world with the glass of optimism, and live life with courage.

When you start to look at life through the lens of energy and consciousness, it starts to make sense.

Some activities increase your energy and others decrease your energy. The choices in life then become clear. Your job is to choose the habits that lead to a rise in consciousness and avoid those that suck the energy out of you.

Here’s how you can do that.

Keep It Simple, Stupid

“Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.” ― Steve Jobs

Life throws a lot of decisions at you. The way to deal with them is to automate them.

Not every area of your life will matter equally. Pick ones that don’t matter. For me, my clothes matter the least — so I wear the same 2–3 outfits every day without even looking at my wardrobe. Plus, I’ve donated most of the clothes I owned to reduce the time spent on choosing what to wear.

Then pick up the things that are of prime importance and automate them with systems. Meditation, sleep, nutrition, and exercise are the key pillars of my life. So I’ve made systems around them to make sure these areas do well on auto-pilot:

• ✅ I sleep at 9 pm every night and wake up around 5 am without an alarm

• ✅ I meditate as soon as I get up and once more in the evening

• ✅ I have the same protein-rich breakfast every morning, after breaking my intermittent fast. I also fast one whole day, once a week.

• ✅ I exercise every day (except on my fast) right after my meditation

By doing this, I never think about what time I’ll wake up or when I’ll take a shower. By 8 am, I’ve already checked all those pillars.

It’s all in the routine — the routine is *religious *because it sets the foundation for the day.

Think about how you can simplify your life in similar ways.

Give Up Anger and Hatred

“Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.” ― Maya Angelou

Notice how you feel after shouting at someone or writing a hateful comment on a post.

You drain yourself of energy that you could use in a more fruitful manner. The energy that could solve the problem instead of getting irritated about it.

As a kid, I had huge problems with anger. I would get angry with my family and friends for the smallest of problems. The worst part was I didn’t realize my negative tendencies.

Then one day, in a class farewell, my friends gave me the title “Mr. Always Irritated.” That’s when I opened my eyes and started working on my anger.

I realized that *all anger is just a feeling of wanting things to be different than what they are. **So I started practicing *acceptance.

Years later, when I started meditating, I took my acceptance to the next level. I no longer got upset about little things in life.

You could probably shout at me and I would happily continue my work 5 minutes later. It’s not that I don’t think about it. It’s that I don’t let it affect my energy.

Nothing should touch your energy. Burn the enemies of anger and hatred with love, compassion, and calm acceptance.

Cultivate Silence

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing there is a field. I’ll meet you there. When the soul lies down in that grass the world is too full to talk about.” ― Rumi

Listen to the silence. Bathe in it. Silence has the power to heal the deepest wounds.

I used to be addicted to noise — not only auditory but also mental.

It was hard for me to do anything without listening to music. At various points, I’d listen to music, check my phone, watch TV, and study — all at the same time!

Add to this, the mental noise of arguing with friends, laughing at others, and constantly worrying about what others think.

All this time I used to wonder why was I not achieving the levels of productivity I wanted to? Noise was the answer. And silence was the solution.

The more time I spend in silence, the better I become. Recently I started the practice of taking two days every month to be in seclusion, silence, and solitude all day. The goal for these days would be nothing — to just meditate, read, write and walk.

There’s always a limit to how much solitude each of us can bear. With practice, you can increase that amount until you’re comfortable with yourself.

As a starting point, for every minute you spend with others, spend around 10% of that time alone. Then go from there.

Only in solitude can you find a perennial source of energy that is with you at all times. You can draw as much as you want from this source and it will never end.

Let Go of Desires

“To want is to have a weakness.” ― Margaret Atwood

Desires are the biggest suckers of energy.

The problem with desires is that they’re neither ours, nor they give us real satisfaction.

I had a desire to reach 1K followers on Medium? Why? I have no idea! I picked it up from someone who thought reaching 1000 is a goal worth aiming for. And even when I achieved that goal, life was no different.

The happiness lasted exactly for 34 seconds. Then, everything came back to normal.

Similarly, we all chase different definitions of success never really asking ourselves why we’re doing what we’re doing?

Is money really that important? Is being a part of Forbes 30U30 that cool? Or is it more blissful to help others? To solve their problems? To relax and spend time with your loved ones? To meditate and explore your deeply spiritual nature?

Take regular periods of introspection where you ask yourself the motivation behind your goals. What would happen if you don’t achieve them? Will life be bad?

My life changed when I did this for myself. As soon as I realized that my spiritual growth matters more than the growth of my business, I was much happier. I re-discovered my love for writing and gave up the false desire to be a world-famous entrepreneur.

These turning points in my life give me more energy than ever. You can also find such turning points if you introspect and curb your desires.

Don’t Work — Do This Instead

“At the end of life we will not be judged by how many diplomas we have received, how much money we have made, how many great things we have done. We will be judged by “I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat, I was naked and you clothed me. I was homeless, and you took me in.” ― Mother Teresa

Let me tell you a short story.

Paramahansa Yogananda, a great yogi who taught in the West, once told one of his disciples — “You shouldn’t work so much.”

The disciple obeyed. But Yogananda kept giving her more and more work. Now she was confused — “Why is the Master giving me more work and telling me to work less at the same time?”

Then one day, she told Yogananda, “Master, let’s call it ‘service’ and not ‘work’.”

“Good, you’ve understood!” the Master replied. He wanted her to not ‘work’ so much but ‘serve’ more.

And so it is, think of everything you do as service.

• If you’re a writer, serve the reader

• If you’re an entrepreneur, serve your customers

• If you’re waiting tables, serve the diners

• If you’re a singer, serve the listener

• If you’re an athlete, serve your team and nation.

Work done with an attitude of service will uplift your consciousness. It will make you empathetic and kind to others’ realities. It helps you transcend your ego by not always thinking in terms of “me,” “mine,” and “I.”

When you serve others, you experience the joy that is not available to those who work only for themselves.

That joy and inner peace is then the fuel that keeps you going. You don’t get exhausted easily when you serve. But when you think only of yourself, you cap your potential in vain.

Understand the ‘Backwards Law’

“When you try to stay on the surface of the water, you sink; but when you try to sink, you float.” — Alan Watts

Life is ironic, even backward. The more you run after something, the more it gets away. The moment you stop running, things finally start to fall in place.

This has monstrous implications for our lives. For one, it tells us not to try too hard to succeed. The harder you try, the difficult it will be for you to achieve your goal.

Rumi says it best

“When I run after what I think I want, my days are a furnace of stress and anxiety; if I sit in my own place of patience, what I need flows to me, and without pain. From this I understand that what I want also wants me, is looking for me and attracting me. There is a great secret here for anyone who can grasp it.”

When you focus too much on the destination, you start thinking about it every waking moment. You lose sleep over the outcome. You fear you aren’t good enough. There is a fine line between prudence and paranoia. This is when you cross that line.

The only way to reach your goals is to focus on daily actions and systems that you know will get there.

Emulate farmers — water the plants, put in the fertilizer, and then relax.

Focus on doing everything that’s in your control to reach your goal. Once you’ve done that, don’t lose sleep over whether you’ll achieve it or not.

We lose our energy most in worrying about how things will go. Detach yourself from the outcome and you’ll find yourself fixing a huge energy leak in life.

In the end, detachment is nothing more but freedom from our little emotional entanglements that prevent us from doing the best we can.

Don’t ask for certainty. Don’t ask for safe journeys. Rather, ask for the power of detachment in the face of trials so you can make the best of the one life you have.

Final Thought

Tim Denning wrote:

The internal is where the magic happens. The external is where the mediocre happens. What’s the difference? You control the internal. Ineffective people accidentally fall into the trap of focusing on the external.

The internal world is the world of energy and consciousness. To be effective in every role you play in life, it’s imperative that you turn your focus inward.

Most people blame external things for what they’re not able to achieve.

Quit complaining. Quit gossiping. Quit thinking about how hard life is. Work instead on yourself. If you increase your energy, nothing is impossible — it sounds cheesy, but it’s true.

While the world is stuck in the material world, why don’t you withdraw into your inner world and unlock your potential? Try it and see your life change.

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