Where Does Our Energy Come From?

We all know what it feels like to be tired. Sometimes the reason is obvious. We have worked too hard, slept badly, or simply had too much going on. Usually, a good night's sleep is enough to put things right.

But sometimes tiredness becomes something else. We wake up tired, we have difficulty getting through the day, and when somebody asks us what we would really like to do, the answer might simply be: sleep.

This made me think about an old description from the Shang Han Lun, one of the classical texts of Chinese Medicine.

In its description of Shao Yin disease, it says:

“The pulse is faint and thin, and there is only a desire to sleep.”

There is something very simple and human about this description. When the body's capacity becomes weak, we no longer feel like doing things. The desire to sleep is perhaps the body's way of saying: I need to restore something.

But what exactly is it that we need to restore?

Fire and Water

In Chinese Medicine, Shao Yin brings together Fire and Water.

I find this a beautiful way of thinking about vitality.

Water represents the substance and resources of the body, the things that nourish and support us. Fire represents function, the ability to transform those resources into warmth, movement, thought, and activity.

We need both.

You can have plenty of resources, but if the body's ability to transform them is weak, you may still feel tired and inactive. On the other hand, you can continue to burn brightly for a long time while gradually using up the resources that keep the fire alive.

This is perhaps something many of us recognise. We can keep going for weeks, months, and sometimes years, until one day we discover that we cannot keep going in quite the same way anymore.

Fire and Water depend upon one another. The Fire needs something to support it, while Water needs the warmth and activity of Fire to be transformed.

Our vitality depends upon both having sufficient resources and being able to use them.

And perhaps this gives us a useful way of thinking about how we can help ourselves.

We Cannot Simply Stimulate Ourselves into Having More Energy

When we feel tired, it is tempting to look for something that will give us more energy. Another coffee, an energy drink, a supplement, something to get us going again.

Sometimes that may be useful. I enjoy a good cup of coffee myself! Although I usually drink caffeine free coffee.

But stimulation is not necessarily the same as vitality.

If we are constantly borrowing energy from tomorrow to get through today, eventually tomorrow arrives.

Perhaps a better question is:

How can I help my body become more capable?

That question brings us back to Fire and Water. We need to protect and nourish our resources, but we also need to develop our ability to use them.

Rest Is Part of Becoming Stronger

Rest is often seen as the opposite of activity. But it is really part of the same process.

We exercise, and then the body recovers. We work, and then we rest. We spend energy, and we need time and nourishment to restore ourselves.

The difficulty is that life does not always give us a convenient moment to stop. There is work to do, families to care for, and responsibilities that cannot simply be put aside.

Still, it is worth remembering that rest is not wasted time.

Rest is part of the process that allows us to function.

Sometimes the most productive thing we can do is allow the body to recover.

But We Also Need to Move

There is another side to this story.

If we never challenge the body, our capacity gradually becomes smaller. The body adapts to what we ask it to do. When we use our muscles, walk a little further, or gradually develop our endurance, the body responds.

Over time, what was once difficult becomes easier.

This is one of the wonderful things about the human body: within limits, it responds to being used.

Strength training can make us stronger. Walking can improve our capacity to walk. Endurance exercise can improve the body's ability to sustain activity.

From a Chinese Medicine perspective, we might say that appropriate activity strengthens function.

The important word is appropriate.

There is a great difference between challenging yourself and exhausting yourself. If you have very little energy, an intense exercise programme may simply become another way of spending resources you do not have.

The question is not: How much can I force myself to do?

The better question is:

What can I do today that will help me become a little more capable tomorrow?

Start Where You Are

This is perhaps my favourite piece of advice.

Start where you are.

Not where you think you should be. Not where you were ten years ago. Not where somebody on the internet tells you that you should be.

Where you are.

Suppose you would like to be able to walk ten kilometres carrying a backpack. That might seem like a very distant goal if you are currently not exercising.

So forget the ten kilometres for a moment.

Do you have comfortable shoes?

Good. Put them on and take a fifteen-minute walk.

See how that feels.

Then do it again.

Small steps may not look very impressive, but they have something important that grand plans often lack: they can be repeated.

And what we repeat gradually becomes part of us.

Finding a More Stable Energy

Food is another part of this story.

Our food provides the body with resources, but the way we eat can also influence how stable our energy feels throughout the day. Many people recognise the rise and fall of energy that can follow certain meals.

This is not an invitation to become afraid of food or to follow the latest fashionable diet. It is simply an invitation to pay attention.

Which foods make you feel well? Which meals give you stable energy? Which foods leave you feeling tired or hungry again soon afterwards?

Our bodies are different, and learning to observe our own responses can be more useful than following rules that may have worked for somebody else.

In this sense, we become students of our own body.

The Conversation Between Fire and Water

I think the old Chinese image of Fire and Water has something to teach us about modern life.

We need to protect our resources. We need sleep, nourishment, and time to recover.

But we also need to use ourselves.

We need to move, to challenge the body, and to gradually develop our capacity to participate in life.

Too much Fire without enough Water eventually leaves us depleted.

Too much Water without sufficient Fire can leave us without the capacity to move and transform.

Neither extreme is what we are looking for.

Vitality is found in the relationship between the two.

Perhaps improving our energy is not about finding a magical way to have more of it. Perhaps it is about learning to live in a way that protects what we have while gradually increasing what we are capable of doing.

Rest when you need to rest.

Move when you are able to move.

Eat in a way that supports you.

And do not try to change everything at once.

A Small Step Today

When we want to improve our health, it is easy to focus on a distant goal. We imagine the person we would like to become and then wonder why we are not there already.

But health is usually built differently.

It is built through small things, repeated over time.

A walk.

A better night's sleep.

A little more strength.

A meal that leaves you feeling well.

One small decision that helps you take better care of yourself.

These things may seem insignificant when we look at them individually. But together, they change our relationship with our body.

Chinese Medicine has always understood that health is not simply the absence of disease. It is the ability of the body to adapt, respond, and participate in life.

Perhaps that is what vitality really means.

Not having endless energy, but having the resources and the capacity to do the things that make life worth living.

And perhaps the best place to begin is not with a great plan for the future.

Perhaps it is simply to ask:

What is one small thing I can do today to help my body become a little stronger tomorrow?

Motivation from Carl Siren

Not because the world demands it — but because you do.

A body that moves, lifts, sweats, and breathes with power becomes a mind that thinks clearly and a spirit that walks with calm strength.

There are people who would give anything to move like you can. So move.

Show respect to the ancestors who walked so you could run.

To your future self who depends on the person you build today.

Training isn’t selfish. It’s sacred. It’s the path to becoming who you were meant to be.