Alchemy of body and spirit

Svetlana returned home, as they say, without legs, with one desire – to fall on the bed and never move again. Fall asleep and sleep until the morning, in order to somehow restore strength. But then the bell rings, she picks up the phone … and she seems to be thrown out from under the covers. The voice of the man, whose call she has been waiting for an eternity, asks if she will agree to spend this evening together. Svetlana rushes into the shower, gets dressed in a second, puts on makeup again and flies to the other end of the city to spend a crazy evening there.

Where did this energy come from? Who will undertake to assert that it is exclusively from those calories that the girl’s tired body has prudently accumulated? Yes, we need calories, but we are not machines that burn fats, proteins and carbohydrates like an engine burns gasoline.

For us, people, the assimilation, transformation and release of energy occurs differently, it is controlled by other mechanisms, including psychological ones. So what are we actually talking about when we use the word “energy”?

The nature of power

What psychic force instantly mobilized tired Svetlana? Love, or, as classical psychoanalysis clarifies, the desire for sexual pleasure? But it is unlikely that libido can explain the behavior of a passenger who has been dozing all the way on the train, who suddenly wakes up and runs to catch a taxi as soon as he gets off the platform. Why so much energy?

“Sexual desire – our libido – is by far the most important part of human energy, but it is only a part,” says cognitive psychotherapist Eric Albert. “After all, the variety of our needs and emotions is not limited to sex: we also experience surprise, guilt, envy, fear, impatience, anger and joy. I think that the behavior of the passenger, as well as the actions of a girl in love, are primarily related to the emotions that these people experienced at the moment when they had the prospect of quickly getting home or having a great evening.

Emotions energize us, evoke a feeling of inner strength, encourage us to be active, and generally determine our vitality – this is also confirmed by numerous studies of the psychology of emotions.

Thanks to the data of modern psychology, today we know better than in the era of Freud how and to what extent the emotional sphere affects our body. Emotions activate the autonomic nervous system, and our heart begins to pound furiously, breathing stops, dry mouth appears, cheeks redden or palms sweat.

“Such reactions are necessary for the body in order to strengthen muscle activity, become more active,” explains neurologist Zinaida Kolesnikova. – When, for example, we feel joy, small arteries expand, blood flow to the skin increases, the face turns red – such accelerated blood circulation facilitates the nutrition of all tissues of the body, and all physiological processes in it begin to go faster. Therefore, rejoicing, we feel lightness in the whole body, cheerfulness, a surge of strength.

The vegetative system affects the endocrine and neurohumoral, activating neurophysiological reactions: hormones and neurotransmitters begin to be actively produced – dozens of chemicals, thanks to which the interaction between neurons is carried out, on which our mood and activity ultimately depend.

Both the girl and the hurrying passenger instantly mobilized their forces thanks to the release of adrenaline, which accelerated their heart rate and increased muscle tone. Further, their condition depends on how the circumstances will develop.

If a romantic evening goes well, and the passenger quickly leaves the station in a taxi, under the influence of positive emotions, everyone will begin to produce a large amount of dopamine. Thanks to this neurotransmitter, they will have a great mood, they will feel satisfaction, pleasure, and elation.

But if there is no free car, impatience can be replaced by irritation due to a decrease in the level of another mediator – serotonin. And as a result, the passenger will not be able to convert the energy of adrenaline into constructive actions and, most likely, will nervously pace back and forth, feeling angry or depressed.

These complex emotions arise as a result of the interaction of several factors, but one thing is certain: energy that is not spent for its intended purpose can turn against us.

Assimilate and distribute

Does our physical form depend on the state of the psyche? Physiologist Jacques Fricker states: “Only 30% of the 2500 calories burned daily are spent on physical activity, 20% feed the brain, the rest provide the body’s life-supporting metabolism.”

When compared to the 8000 calories a day that a professional cyclist needs, there is no doubt that most people expend far more energy on mental activity than on physical effort.

Anorexia and bulimia, as well as depression (when a person eats and sleeps a lot, but remains lethargic), are proof of the enormous influence of the psyche on the absorption of energy. More precisely, on the interaction of mental and physical, as Jacques Fricker recalls: “Why is the energy effect of carbohydrates felt long before they are absorbed? Because the brain, having barely received a signal from the senses that calories are about to enter the body, immediately releases the available reserves.

Another example of this interaction is that some people don’t eat well because they don’t feel well. But the opposite is also true: well-being worsens when a person does not receive good nutrition. So it is difficult to separate the physical and mental aspects of life.

Dr. Deepak Chopra, an Indian-born American endocrinologist, is a devotee of Ayurveda, a centuries-old Indian medicine that uses the healing power of the mind. To the question: “Why do waves, wind, fauna and flora never get tired, and people get tired so often?” the doctor replies: “We lack serenity, we do not accept the world as it really is. Otherwise, we would have become as tireless as the swell of the sea.”

Such an anthropocentric approach to “natural energy flows” irritates many people, and even outrages someone. But Deepak Chopra is not the only one who preaches Eastern ideas about energy in the Western world.

Thanks to yoga, qigong and shiatsu, many have heard of Indian prana, Chinese qi and Japanese ki (all different names for the same energy).

“The life force we need comes from the cosmic energy that fills the Universe,” says Lydia Klass, Zhong Yuan Qigong instructor, participant in international trainings at the Shaolin Monastery. – We receive this energy from parents at the moment of conception, draw it from food, air, hormones and the environment. Once in the body from these five sources, the energy is distributed through channels called meridians.

Find joy in yourself

It is difficult for Western science to accept the idea of ​​a life force that eludes the most famous equation in the world e = mc²because it cannot be measured except by its impact.

“We know that the cells of the human body can interact with each other through electromagnetic signals of various radiation ranges: radio signals, ultraviolet and infrared radiation,” explains physicist Vyacheslav Pikush. “At the same time, useful information is contained in the frequency or amplitude of the signals, and not in their power.”

Perhaps this is the explanation for acupuncture: of course, scientists do not yet have sufficiently sensitive equipment to detect such signals, in particular, weak electrical currents flowing through various energy distribution systems within the body (in the Eastern tradition, through channels, meridians). But after all, science took a lot of time to explain the nature of the passage of a nerve impulse, which can be very noticeable if, for example, you hit something with your elbow.

We return to where we started: the more precisely we try to define life energy, the more surely it eludes us. One can perceive it as an incomprehensible primordial force expressed in the Big Bang. Or as a “life impulse”, which is discussed by Anri Bergson and philosophers, deservedly called vitalists – for them, all nature is filled with “rudiments of life” that carry divine energy.

Perhaps the Eastern thinkers understood the most important thing in energy and we should listen to them? “Qi is not just cosmic energy that is enough to catch,” says doctor Liu Dong, who teaches qigong, with a smile. “The purpose of qigong and other practices is not to supply the body with fuel, but to communicate with the cosmos, which gives joy.”

Indeed, the maximum amount of energy is released at the moment when we experience joy – it is this emotion that stimulates the release of the hormone of pleasure. Fear, on the other hand, often holds us back.

Then the question of energy and fatigue can be asked differently: how to learn to live with a sense of inner joy, regardless of the conditions under which we have to develop and move forward? All of us, to varying degrees, are able to find the answer to this question.

Many mysteries of this source of life have yet to be unraveled, but the development of science and familiarization with spiritual traditions open up paths available to everyone. And this invaluable capital is always at our disposal. And under our responsibility.