Guy Brown - The Energy of Life:

Fourth Estate

An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by Flamingo 2000

Published in hardback by HarperCollins Publishers 1999

Copyright © Guy Brown 1999

Guy Brown asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Source ISBN: 9780006530473

Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007485444

Version: 2015-12-31

Cover

Title Page THE ENERGY OF LIFE GUY BROWN

Copyright Copyright Copyright Introduction Chapter 1: ORIGINS Chapter 2: THE STORY OF LIVING ENERGY Chapter 3: ENERGY ITSELF Chapter 4: THE MACHINERY OF LIFE Chapter 5: The Body Electric Chapter 6: MITOCHONDRIA: THE MONSTERS WITHIN Chapter 7: THE PACE OF LIFE AND DEATH Chapter 8: GETTING FAT AND STAYING THIN Chapter 9: EXERCISE, FATIGUE AND STRESS Chapter 10: MIND ENERGY Chapter 11: BRAIN ENERGY Chapter 12: SEX AND SLEEP Chapter 13: MOOD, MADNESS AND CREATIVE ENERGY Chapter 14: HOW TO GET MORE ENERGY Sources & Further Reading Glossary Index Acknowledgements About the Author About the Publisher Fourth Estate An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk Published by Flamingo 2000 Published in hardback by HarperCollins Publishers 1999 Copyright © Guy Brown 1999 Guy Brown asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. Source ISBN: 9780006530473 Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2016 ISBN: 9780007485444 Version: 2015-12-31

Introduction

Chapter 1: ORIGINS

Chapter 2: THE STORY OF LIVING ENERGY

Chapter 3: ENERGY ITSELF

Chapter 4: THE MACHINERY OF LIFE

Chapter 5: The Body Electric

Chapter 6: MITOCHONDRIA: THE MONSTERS WITHIN

Chapter 7: THE PACE OF LIFE AND DEATH

Chapter 8: GETTING FAT AND STAYING THIN

Chapter 9: EXERCISE, FATIGUE AND STRESS

Chapter 10: MIND ENERGY

Chapter 11: BRAIN ENERGY

Chapter 12: SEX AND SLEEP

Chapter 13: MOOD, MADNESS AND CREATIVE ENERGY

Chapter 14: HOW TO GET MORE ENERGY

Sources & Further Reading

Glossary

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

Every morning of our lives we wake up and reach out from unconsciousness to consciousness, from nothingness to being, from dream to reality. And when the full force of reality hits us, we must choose between falling back into nothingness, or grabbing hold of reality. To wake up and get on with life we need energy: both body energy and mind energy. We need body energy to get out of bed, make the tea, run for the bus, beat our competitors, and drag ourselves home again. Whereas mind energy arouses and motivates us, to actually want to get out of bed and do something. This book is about what energy is , how we get it, and how we lose it again. But in discussing these practical things we will also be touching on more fundamental issues. What is life? How does it work? And why do we bother getting out of bed in the morning at all?

But what is this thing – energy – that divides the strong from the weak, the young from the old, the living from the dead? How does energy animate the body and mind? How does it enable a body to grow, a finger to move, a mind to think? Energy is the basic constituent of the Universe, even more fundamental than matter. Energy is the origin of all change. Every event in the Universe, from the collision of atoms to the explosion of stars, uses energy. And our own bodies, even when in dreamless sleep, require large amounts. To be alive is to be a continuous transformer of energy, a machine transmuting the food we eat and the air we breathe into a dancer’s leap and a poet’s dream.

There is abundant evidence that how energetic we feel is a major element of how happy, healthy, productive and creative we are. It may be more important for our overall well-being to track what boosts or drains our energy, than to follow our calorie intake or bank accounts. Energy is a central aspect of our lives. Without it, our personal world shrinks to a few essential tasks, people, and places: for we have no energy to face anything more than an essential minimum. But with an abundance of body and mind energy our world opens up, as we expand our interactions with people, projects and places to fill all the available time.

Vitality, passion, dynamism, confidence, the ability to concentrate and work without rest, to think fast and coherently, to resist fatigue and exhaustion – in short ‘energy’ – are the essential qualities, above all else, required to succeed in life. Top of the Harvard Business Review ’s list of vital qualities for business success is ‘a high level of drive and energy’. Everyone looks for that sparkle in friends and lovers to ‘make things happen’. Most of all, everybody is looking for energy within themselves: the motivation and drive to get up and do something; the endurance, stamina and resolve to carry through what we are already doing and need to do; and the courage and will-power to change direction and break out of the old routines, when necessary. We may know how to do something, but without will and energy, it is not going to happen. Without mental energy there can be no joy, excitement or enthusiasm. But physical and mental fatigue seem to have infected almost everyone: the most common symptom reported by patients to their doctors today is lack of energy. Depression and exhaustion appear to be endemic to our society. Everybody wants more energy.

The Energy of Life follows the evolution of our ideas about biological energy, from their origins in the prehistoric concepts of life itself, to the latest research on the body electric and psychological motivation. The story of living energy twists through various manifestations as the vital heat or pneuma concocted in the furnace of the heart in ancient Greece; as chi energy coursing through meridian lines of the Chinese body; as prana convulsing the body of yogis in India; as the vital force sought by the alchemists in their dreams of gold and life everlasting and through, in more modern times, to the discharge of Freudian sexual energy.