People can draw energy from all sorts of outlets
Patricia Corrigan / St. Louis
Post-Dispatch (KRT)
ST. LOUIS - Good nutrition, regular exercise, more sleep and
better time management are some of the proven ways to
increase personal energy, but there are others as well. Some
people swear by the ancient arts of meditation, massage, yoga
and tai chi and chi kung. Here is information on each.
MEDITATION
The health benefits of sitting quietly in meditation got a
boost from a recent article in Time magazine. The article
acknowledged the role of meditation in reducing stress.
Scientific research conducted over the past 30 years has
shown that meditation can reduce the risk of heart attack and
hypertension, reverse hardening of the arteries-and increase
energy.
Bill Torrington, director of the Transcendental Meditation
program in St. Louis, takes that last claim further: "TM
is extremely effective at raising a person's energy
level, even the first time you try it."
TM is not particularly time-consuming. Devotees practice
twice a day for 20 minutes, once in the morning and once in
the afternoon. It takes about a week to learn the technique.
Torrington said more than 5 million people throughout the
world have benefited from TM, a method developed some 40
years ago by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Those benefits,
determined in more than 600 studies, have been described in
numerous research journals, including the Journal of
Cardiology, the International Journal of Neuroscience and
American Heart Association publications.
MASSAGE
Therapeutic massage is a direct path to increased energy,
says Tom Tessereau, director of the Healing Arts Center in
Maplewood, Mo. "For most people, a loss of energy is
almost always related to stress. Think about what happens
when we get stressed-we contract, hold selves more tense and
restrict our breathing. These restrictions affect everything
in the body, and massage is one way to ease those
restrictions."
The benefits of massage include improved circulation, a
shortened recovery from muscle strains or sprains and
enhanced flexibility. Many health clubs and day spas offer
therapeutic massage, as do some hospitals.
There is no rule about how often a person should have a
massage, said Tessereau. "A therapist might recommend
that an individual with a debilitating or chronic condition
come in several times over a couple of weeks," he said.
"For the rest of us, we know to make an appointment
when we feel ourselves spiraling into restricted breathing or
periods of low energy. Just let your body tell you."
YOGA
A massage may restore energy, but yoga is about energy, says
Lyn Magee, owner of the Big Bend Yoga Center in Webster
Groves, Mo. "Yoga is about getting in touch with the
flow of breath. Often when we're stressed, we don't
breathe fully or deeply. Instead, we breathe high up in the
chest, and that keeps the body from getting oxygen it needs.
In yoga, students learn to breathe more fully, and we create
more energy just by doing that."
Yoga practitioners also focus on the subtle flow of breath.
"We ask, `How am I feeling in this moment with this
breath?' and then we let the flow of the posture follow
the breath," said Magee. "Energy flows out of
breathing, and we get in touch with the energy that we
are."
Magee recommends basic yoga for beginners. People with
arthritis, chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia may want to try
restorative yoga, which is a more passive practice.
TAI CHI OR CHI KUNG
Tai chi and chi kung are ancient Chinese practices that
cultivate and circulate energy throughout the body
"According to Chinese medicine, energy runs through the
body through pathways. When those pathways are free and open,
our energy level is balanced," says Sue Schulte, a
wellness counselor at St. Anthony's Medical Center.
"These practices are ways to keep the pathways open and
rejuvenate our internal energy resources."
Learning the basics of tai chi or chi kung is simple and
quick, said Schulte, who is completing a doctorate in
holistic health therapies.
"These classes don't take a lot of time, but they
do take making a commitment to yourself," she said.
"We're a culture that tends to neglect self-care,
and then we fall prey to stress. People who do tai chi or chi
kung a short time each day will enjoy life more."
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© 2004, St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
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Richard Marshall / KRT Campus
Jodi Beccetti, 33, of St. Louis Park, Minneapolis, holds the
Ardhachandrasana, or half-moon pose, in a recent Bikram Yoga
class in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
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