Energy for life

One of the regular feeds I read was talking about managing your energy levels. It mentioned the "four dimensions" of energy and focused on physical energy.

Well I was intrigued and thought I'd do a bit of research. I found my way to The Energy Project and listened to a couple of the video FAQs to see what I could learn. The main thrust of the site is that you manage energy not time, and energy falls into four categories: Physical energy defined as the quantity of your energy; mental energy (energy of your mind) defined as your focus; your heart energy which is the quality of your energy; the energy of the human spirit which they define as the force of your energy.

The focus of all this discussion of energy is productivity. Getting more done with a better quality of life.

Before I read the website, my initial thoughts about what the four dimensions of energy might be were: Physical energy, mental energy, emotional energy and spiritual energy. Not massively different then to what I found on the website, but there are some differences in application and interpretation.

I'm not sure, for example, that I would define the energy of my heart (emotional energy in my list) as the quality of my energy. I think it's something different. In fact I might even go so far as to suggest that each dimension has both a qualitative and a quantitative aspect to it. Emotional energy them becomes a matter of how we deal with things that move us, irritate us, ager us. It's our capacity to respond to humanitarian crises, human experiences. It's our compassion quotient if you like. Similarly I'm not big on the energy of the human spirit, but I am big on spiritual energy in the context of our relationship with God.

However we define energy, or energies, I'm guessing that we know they need managing. We all know, for instance, about the need to look after ourselves physically in order to be able to do what we need to do. Not having enough physical energy to get through the day is seriously going to dent our ability to do anything let alone be productive about it! We all know, but do we do anything proactive about it?

The same is probably true about the other dimensions of energy too. We know about the need to cultivate them, to replenish them, but do we take the time and make the effort to do anything about it?

As someone who is deeply involved in Christian ministry I know what it feels like to run low on my stocks of energy. I know how easy it is to minister tiredness, frustration and apathy. I know too what it means to minister the alternatives, just in case you were worrying about me!
What might be interesting would be to explore these dimensions of energy and think about how we cycle through them, cultivate them and deploy them. I'm not so interested in doing that for the sake of productivity as I am in doing it for the sake of growing into the person God wants me to be. As I often say, "I am what I am, but i am not all that I could be."

So, over the next few weeks, I might try to explore some thoughts about these energy fields, and I even have two more to add to the four I've already mentioned: Creative energy and social energy.

It would be great to hear some thoughts from others along the way.