By Dr. Krishna Bhatta
The higher the inner energy, the more peaceful you will be. Similarly, the lower the inner energy, the more irritable you become. This may sound counter-intuitive, as many of us tend to associate higher energy with being “amped up” on coffee or adrenalin, or otherwise frantic. But “nervous energy” is one thing, and inner energy, quite another.
Indeed, energy is needed for us to sleep, relax, prevent stress and burnout, stay calm, and become more in tune with nature. When I created an app to help patients tend to their inner selves, what I sometimes call their inner flames, I named it Relaxx — not because they needed to take a nap, but because they needed to relax their minds. Being relaxed is very different from being “low energy.” This explains why athletes and artists perform at their best when they feel truly relaxed — and why they choose to do so deliberately.
The trick is that one must remain present while the mind is allowed to take a break, which enables connection with the inner self. The Relaxx App teaches a number of techniques designed to stoke our inner flame this way, including mindfulness, intermittent silence, and meditation.
Understanding our mind is absolutely crucial to achieving mindfulness. Mind, in the Relaxx context, is made up of both minding and mindfulness. Of the two, minding is by far the most familiar, though not the most important. Minding is intellectual work, essential to our learning, work, and self-esteem. It deserves credit for all of the great innovations in science and technology that we associate with our advanced civilization and creature comforts, everything from antibiotics to iPhones. Minding can take place in the past, the present, and even the future. It is limited only by our imagination, though this hardly makes it limitless. There are plenty of things that the intellect cannot do, and issues that cannot be solved by thinking alone.
Simply put, there are also issues of the heart. To address these, we need to practice mindfulness.
Unlike minding, mindfulness can only be practiced in the present. In essence, being mindful is synonymous with being present. It is not unlike a camcorder or a camera that we focus upon ourselves. It starts recording once you turn it on. This is the process of self-awareness. Mindfulness and awareness together unlock self-knowledge. They are the means of exploring the inner self, like two keys that together open a safety deposit box full of valuables.
Socrates famously said that the unexamined life is not worth living. A life without mindfulness is similarly wasted. Yet, not everyone knows how to get there, and like everything in life, being mindful requires practice and patience. This is the idea behind the Relaxx App — using a technology that is with most of us every hour of every day to foster self-awareness.
Any time you spend time with yourself is a meditation, but meditation is a long journey. It begins with the practice of mindfulness and can be deepened further by being mindful in silence. I call this technique intermittent silence. It is one of the foundations of the Relaxx App, and a perfect place to begin your journey to higher inner energy and, ultimately, to greater inner peace.
Maybe you will begin that journey today.
