What is "Inner Energy"?
What is “Inner energy” ft. The Untethered soul
We Live in a society and marketplace that supplies and demands energetic Supplements (I.E red bull, coffee, Matcha, Pills, etc.) . These substances supplement and resemble an energy everyone craves. When we’ve had a rough night of sleep we reach for them to stay afloat. When we feel uninspired before the blank page we take another sip hoping to gulp inspiration sufficient for producing strokes of beauty and articulation. Although we lump “energy” into a single category, there are actually different types.
The Untethered Soul makes an important distinction between outer and inner energy. The latter being a form that the western world pays little attention to. We pour forth millions of dollars in supplements, substances, and science to acquire external energy and activity when a majority of our need (& desire) rests in inner energy. Singer writes, “the truth is, every movement of your body, every emotion you have and every thought that passes through your mind is an expenditure of energy.” Singer goes on to write, “If you concentrate on a thought and another thought interferes you will have to assert an opposing force to fight the interfering thought. That requires energy and it can wear you out. Likewise if you have a thought that you’re trying to hold in your mind but it keeps drifting off you will have to willfully concentrate to bring it back. […] If you have an emotion you don’t like and it’s interfering with what you’re doing you just push it aside. you do this almost instinctively so that the unwanted emotion doesn’t come up and disturb you.”
All these mental , emotional and willful acts are expending energy. Singer asks the question “where does this energy come from, why is this energy there sometimes and at other times feel completely drained?” To make the distinction more relatable think back to times when you were so emotionally or mentally drained that sleep didn’t help. Or imagine a time when you were so in love or excited about an opportunity that you weren’t even hungry. What were you running on? Adrenaline? Will? Something else? There is an energy that fuels us which remains distinct from molecular/caloric input and output. It is here, that we realize a majority of our endeavors are in pursuit of this inner energy.
We seek love to gain a supernatural energy and outlook on life. We engage in adventure because it supercharges that energy—lifting us beyond the common experience. We make a workout routine because it changes our molecular structure to be energetic rather than stagnant. We reach for these things because they “make us feel alive”. They are, in some way, providing that inner energy that We want and need— not only stay alive, but to live the life we desire.
Singer insists that we have full access to this coveted energy but we block it, and restrict the internal space where it resides. A closed heart and mind block light and energy flow. We have Centers within that channel our energy flow. Most are familiar with the concept of an open heart. The heart is an energy center, but we have many energy centers. Yogis call these chambers of energy, chakras—Where the overall energy of our spirit is directed and contained. This wellspring of energy has many names in varying cultures. Ancient Chinese medicine calls it Chi, in yoga it is called Shakti, in the west it is called Spirit. This energy is not restricted by caloric intake, age, or experience it is open to everybody who is receptive. For some, it is strange or difficult to contain something so intangible within the confines of a physical space. Leaning into that skepticism and asking questions may help you grapple with the concept of energy. you may find that the concept of chakras or energetics allows you to begin self-awareness. Even if you end up deciding that these concepts are not “truth” you can use them as a means of growth. Despite the way you conceptionalize energy it is undeniable that Age-old spiritual practices are built and sustained on the concept of acquiring this energy.
Singer offers a simple solution: “you stay open by never closing”. But what does it mean to stay open? Is it physical or mental? Do I say or do certain things? When will I know if I am closing?
There are a few concepts Singer explains throughout his book and even just the first chapter that address some of these questions. The untethered soul gives readers at best, an energetic understanding for implementing change and at least, some thoughts to chew on.
Closing and Opening
Closing is a habit which we have formed over time and experience for protection and comfort. Closing can occur in response to triggers and like any other habit, can be broken.
Singer explains the difference between being open and closed by asking the reader to pay attention to when we feel love, joy, and enthusiasm and adversely when that feeling goes away or diminishes. All day and throughout our lives, we decide what we need to feel these things. But Singer says that “Defining what you need to stay open actually limits you […] you have limited your openness to those conditions.” He goes on to warn us, “Don’t let anything in life be important enough to close over”.
If you’re like me, a red flag is going up right now. this sounds like you are either setting yourself up for pain or living a life void of drive and conviction. I always associate disappointment as a needed emotion for behavior modification or simply as an indication that something is important. when you take a closer look at the concept of openness that Singer is talking about, it is getting to our root desire for energy instead of outcomes. In other words, we are often tied to certain outcomes, lifestyles, or a set of likes and dislikes to attain a state of love, joy, and enthusiasm. Singer wants to share the idea that if we can achieve love, joy, and enthusiasm despite the outer activity of our lives then we will never gain or lose it because it is not dependent on the changing outer world.
Look at it this way: we engage in the activity of the outer word in search of the inner feeling resembling love, joy, and enthusiasm but if we can establish this constant inner feeling it doesn’t matter what happens around us. This concept revolutionizes your relationship to yourself and others. It effects how you engage in the world as well as your own capacity for health and healing.
So we come to the most important question— how do we access this ability to open and close? In short, meditation (the focus on single effort or lack of opposing efforts), awareness, and willful intention. But those terms are often misunderstood.Even if you do understand those concepts it is one thing to say and another to do. They all revolve around the concept that we have the ability to pause. Observe the thoughts, actions, and words we live out and understand the “why” behind them so that we can return to a less obscured, less fearful, less inhibited way of living.
Many find themselves attached to dependencies, habits and addictions while in pursuit of this energy. We often avoid the stillness it takes to observe ourselves, We avoid non-attachment because we think it threatens our identity, when in fact attaching to specific outcomes is the real threat.
There is so many more interesting thoughts in the Untethered soul give it a read or listen to the audio-book!
My Thoughts:
The God of the bible offers this kind of energy through his son, Jesus Christ. This is why it is useful to understand Christ as a real living person instead of merely a metaphorical example or Guru. The purpose of God sending his son, Jesus Christ, was so that he could be a bridge between humans and the God of the universe…the only true source of this universal & energy. The realness & the person of Christ allows us to have joy, love, and enthusiasm (hope) despite any and all situations. in light of a real relationship with tHe God of the universe everything else is just not that important. The gospel meets our delight on an eternal & spiritual level so that we are not merely experiencing visceral, experiential delight but Soul-satisfying delight. There are moments in life that touch the surface of this delight—they may reach us on an emotional level, a relational level, or an intellectual level, and We are aware that these things transcend the external. however, we forget (or never engage in) an even deeper delight that reaches us as beings. not merely bodies or humans… but Beings.
Some Biblical references to Inner Energy:
Isaiah 40:28-31
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God,the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.
Phillipians 4:13
I can do all this through him who gives me strength.
Colossians 4:13
being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, 12 and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.
Colossians 1:11
being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy;
Acts 3 :19-21
Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.
John 6:55-59
For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.
2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
Isaiah 40:31 ESV
But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
-Rachel
