"Effervescent Wellness".... wtf? | the great energy debate
Peruse the first few sentences of my website and you'll see mention of "effervescent wellness". What even does that mean?
It's pretty clear I'm not a typical 'therapist'... that I have alternative approaches to my practice: science woven with sacred.. and alongside discussing hardcore facts like SSRI's and limbic imprinting, I spend a lot of time dancing in the spaces of chakras, frequency, and vibration. They're two sides of the same coin I've carried in my pocket for years now.. but for some of my clients it's all pretty new (and sometimes tough to digest). Today, I decided to try and break it down.
en·er·gy ˈenərjē/ noun 1. the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity. "changes in the levels of vitamins can affect energy and well-being" 2. power derived from the utilization of physical/chemical resources, especially to provide light/heat or work machines So, energy is strength? like, muscular strength? that's not energy then, that's muscular strength.
Vitality.. hmm. what's vitality?
vi·tal·i·ty vīˈtalədē/ noun 1. the state of being strong and active; energy. "changes that will give renewed vitality to our democracy" synonyms: liveliness, life, energy, spirit, vivacity, exuberance, buoyancy, bounce, elan, verve, vim, pep, brio, zest, sparkle, dynamism, passion, fire, vigor, drive, punch; get-up-and-go "the bright weather has revived my vitality"
the power giving continuance of life, present in all living things.
That's pretty straightforward: we need energy to live.
A quick "energy" search on Pinterest supports this: a plethora of nutrition-related items fill my feed: raw vegan power balls, peanut butter banana smoothies, and high-protein lunches. The predominant buzz around biological 'energy' is that it's the fuel our bodies need to survive. .... then what's electrical energy? And why does it matter?
My partner worked for a decade in corporate finance for an electrical utilities company. He should know, right? I asked him.
"You mean, the stuff that powers televisions and things?"
- but I didn't asked him what electrical energy does... I asked him what it is.
I went to Wikipedia...
Electrical energy is the energy newly derived from electric potential energy or kinetic energy. When loosely used to describe energy absorbed or delivered by an electrical circuit (for example, one provided by an electric power utility) "electrical energy" talks about energy which has been converted from electric potential energy.
- but I didn't asked where electrical energy came from.... I want to know what it is.
Should this actually be so difficult to answer? Am I just not looking right?
Back to the original definition of energy: liveliness, life.
Energy is the state of being alive? and the more alive you are then theoretically the more energy you have?
Further down into the definition of energy and in its synonyms... pep, zest, sparkle.... what does that even mean? Spirit. Now there's an interesting one.
Can things we consume, digest, excrete (which is what Pinterest seems to be fixated on as 'energy') be even remotely related to our degree of spiritedness or... dare I use... effervescence? I mean... "Effervescent Wellness" is the cornerstone of my therapy practice... clearly it's something I believe we can control. So how does energy come in?
Either I'm searching in all the wrong places or there's a really weak handle on what energy actually is... I seem to only be able to find 1. where it comes from and 2. what it does. Interesting.
Dropping into a search bar: "spirit" + "energy" together.
Gone are the vegan balls and casseroles, replaced instead with bluish/purple/pinky psychedelic looking backgrounds adorned with hamsas, chakras, and crystals. There's a quote from Nikola Tesla.
Tesla, hey? Wasn't he the guy with the electrical current discovery? So I'm back to the great unknown that's electrical energy.
Tesla.... the genius inventor/physicist engineer futurist thinker to whom we accredit so much of what we know to be true in modern day living. As far as this quote is concerned he must be talking about about electrical energy? maybe? Like, the highly scientific, highly measurable, replicable electrical energy? - the 'we plug our phones into the wall and it charges' or 'we stick our finger into a socket and get shocked' kind?
But what's actually charging our damn phone??
This mysterious thing called energy is coming from electric potential, interacting with the electronics in our phone, charging the battery - and BAM, TikTok for days.
Still doesn't answer my question.
Okay. Still trying to understand what energy is ... maybe we dissect Tesla's quote (like, th