HOW TO GET RID OF APATHY AND HOW TO HAVE MORE ENERGY?

I received this letter from a student.

I’ve always wanted to be happy; how can I achieve it? I’ve tried different things like changing my diet, but it seems like there is never enough energy. I’ve started to practice yoga. For the first two months I felt a boost of energy, but later everything went back to where it was I had low energy and did not want to continue the practice. My wife advised me to go to healers and people with extrasensory abilities. But that did’t help either. I felt worse or it helped for just some time. Is it possible to get rid of apathy and how to have more energy?
 
Thank you for your questions that is an issue for a lot of people. Lack of energy is the first sign of upcoming distress and diseases. In Ayurveda, with its deeper wisdom, it is known that there are two main signs that a person has any achievements in his spiritual life:
  1. He is becoming more content or happy everyday.
  2. His/her relationships with other people are improving. 
If neither of this is true for you, it doesn’t matter what kind of spiritual or religious practice you follow — you will not have any progress at all.
 
True happiness comes only when we’re giving or sacrificing, because we can feel love and be happy only when we’re giving. A selfish, greedy, envious person cannot be loving, and hardly anyone can be around that person. Therefore he/she cannot be happy or content. We can be giving only if we are not attached to this material world. We can give more and be more loving only if we have fewer attachments. If we’re trying to get more than we’re giving that means that we are attached. The one who’s wants to receive — is attached, while the one who can give — is detached.
A Kabbalistic teacher once told me, «The most important in Kabbalah is to learn how to be altruistic and get rid of selfishness.»
 
In the most ancient medicine Ayurveda, with its amazing wisdom, it is known that the main causes for all the diseases and sufferings are self-interest and envy, because those two qualities are only increasing our selfishness, making us focus on ourselves. Greed is also a cause for suffering. What happens if an organ or a cell in the body stops working in tune with the entire organism? They use up all the resources of that organism. Those organs and cells will become cancerous, and if the organism cannot get rid of them, it will die. Similarly, the Universe is trying to get rid of its carcinogenic cells selfish human beings, just by blocking the energy. See if you can apply this concept for the civilization as a whole.
 
The enlightened Aryans (Aryans from the Sanskrit for noble) wrote in their canons that entire nations start disappearing not because of wars, natural disasters and so on, but when people become highly egoistical and only think about themselves.
 
The fundamental principle of harmony is energy exchange. This helps to make the whole world happier and opens the heart. Ancient ascetic healers, Vaidyas, said that a human being is like a cellular universe, and if a human does not live in tune with his/her universe, he/she will never be happy. This was proved by some doctors and psychologists as well. Professor Stanislav Grof quoted, The main cause for all the crises on this Earth is our insatiable greedy will which wants to pursue only egoistic goals.
Peter Russell said that we need to free ourselves from a selfish and materialistic mindset in order to overcome the global crisis of civilization, which was caused by the crisis of the minds.
 
Spiritual homeostasis. Selfishness (egoism) and self-interest are destroying spiritual homeostasis. Paracelsus defined homeostasis as a state of complete balance between the outer and inner environments.
To keep the homeostasis a living being has to give off the energy. Homeostasis begins at the spiritual level and spreads to physical and chemical level. We can achieve spiritual homeostasis only when we are not attached to this world.
When we have many attachments in this world, there are more chances that any minor change in the world will destroy us. People in ancient times were dying due to drought and temperature changes. According to some observations in critical situations, for example in concentration camps, when people were left alone with nature and so on, the most vulnerable people were the ones with more selfishness and aggression. Seems like the yogis do not fall into this category, as they can sleep on a bed of nails and the snow will melt around them.
During the reign of Stalin, people who had faith or were religious were the first ones to be executed. They were surviving in these horrible conditions and cared for the others, spreading the bliss till the end. Selflessness was keeping them alive. Therefore we have to stop being consumers; we have to start giving more. But if we’re giving on physical and emotional levels we have to get this energy from somewhere. There is limitless source of energy on certain spiritual level. This Divine spiritual energy in the form of Divine Love, is coming through us.  If we are not suppressing the energy of love, and we feel that this loving energy is guiding us, when the ego (and related to it) is secondary.  We can maintain this feeling of Divine love even when we are losing material possessions (money, prestige, people we love and so on). When we experience unconditional (Divine) love — the main source of energy — we can use it amply in daily life. The food gives us energy, but at the same time it uses our inner energy. You can notice that people, who abstain from food (i.e., observe a fast) from time to time, have more energy than those who eat a lot. That’s why when we are sick we stop eating. This material world with its stresses, heavy food, lack of spiritual communication, promiscuity, anxiety is draining our energy. Solitude and observing fasts can fill us up with energy. 
 
The main source of energy is derived from unconditional, Divine love.
 
The first rule is to love and accept this world with all its shortcomings. We need to learn to love and accept ourselves, our destiny in all circumstances that come along.
 
One Kabbalistic teacher commented on one of the commandments : Thou shalt not kill. He made it clear that 10 commandments have to be interpreted on 7 different levels. The first level is — do not kill a human being, and the seventh, the highest level, is — do not kill Divine love inside a human’s soul. Therefore it is a heavy sin to refuse Divine love and unity with God. That is why you need to put all the efforts to get rid of the egoism and selfishness. The main goal in life is Divine love; the source of energy is the goal itself, the strong aspiration for Divine love can full-fill us with superior energy. You can see that the main slogan in modern civilization is: Consume more! At the same time the number of happy and healthy people is diminishing every day.
The number of problems at the local and international levels is growing. New medications and mind training methods (like how to be happy and healthy) are not helping any more. The social organizations we have today are no longer serving their purpose and not helping society. The number of people with fatigue is growing. But how it can be any different?  Spiritual schools and modern scientists saying that the issue originates from the false ego.  When we pursue self-interest, even if it looks like we’re doing something good on the outer level, it leads to destruction and sufferings. Everything that is coming from the heart i.e. from Unconditional or Divine love will guide us to the feeling of being blessed, healthy and harmonious. 
Accept and understand that you are an embodiment of Divine love. Be grateful instead of complaining. Change your inner questions like:What can I get from this person? to What can I give or do for people around me? How can I fill their lives with love? 
Stop focusing on yourself and your problems. There is a saying that Hell is the place where you cannot be of service to anyone.  When you are in service you have energy, and the highest joy comes from being able to do something for someone. Without conditions. When you act selflessly you feel a huge flow of energy coming through, filling you and people around you with bliss and harmony. You rarely need doctors, psychologists, healers and psychics.
We receive spiritual energy:
  • While observing fast;
  • Doing Paranayama (breathing exercises);
  • Due to Solitude;
  • By giving a vow of silence (Mauna);
  • Walking  in the nature, or just being outside, on a by the large body of water, in the mountains, observing the nature;
  • Creating some art or crafts which don’t give you any personal gains;
  • Praising (worshiping) highly spiritual persons for his/hers deeds and qualities;
  • Laughing and smiling from the bottom of our hearts;
  • Helping someone (again, not for benefit or profit);
  • Practicing modesty and humility;
  • Eating food full of Prana (chi/Qi, or life force) eg. unprocessed and/or sprouted grains, cereals, clarified butter, honey, fruits, vegetables;
  • Sleeping from 9-10 pm till 2 am (nervous system rests only during these hours);
  • Having massage therapy or practicing self massage;
  • Pouring cold water on ourselves, especially in the morning. It will be even better if you are standing on the ground barefoot;
  • Charity of our time and money.
We lose energy when:
  • We are sad or depressed;
  • Unsatisfied with our destiny, regretting our past, not accepting our future;
  • Striving towards selfish goals;
  • Feeling upset, offended, insulted;
  • Living a life without purpose;
  • Overeating; eating heavy, stale, non-sattvic foods.
  • Having wandering minds, unable to focus;
  • Eating fried, overcooked foods. (It is also important who cooked a meal. If a person was angry or had other negative emotions, if it was cooked in a microwave oven, or with preservatives, pesticides or other chemicals were added);
  • Consuming foods that have no Prana, like coffee, black tea, refined sugar, flour, meat alcohol;
  • Eating on the run, in a rush;
  • Smoking;
  • Having aimless conversations, especially when we are criticizing someone (prajalpa);
  • Breathing rapidly or shallow;
  • Being in the sun from 12 pm to 4 pm, especially in a desert;
  • Being promiscuous, having sex without love;
  • Sleeping too much, after 7 am, or having lack of sleep;
  • Having mental and physical tension;
  • Being greedy.
There is considerable devotion to pranayama in Eastern psychology — the theory and practice of certain breathing techniques that can help you to be full of life energy (Prana) all the time. Modern enlightened yoga teachers are saying that we can get the life force from five elements:
  1. ELEMENT OF EARTH: Eating unprocessed food, living closer to nature, watching trees, walking barefoot on the ground. Recently I was talking to a famous doctor of Ayurveda, who had written a dissertation on a medical topic. He said that if a person moves closer to nature, far from big cities where he/she had to commute using transit, walk on asphalt paths, he will have a stronger immune system and start to live a healthy life.
  2. ELEMENT OF WATER: Drinking water from wells and creeks. Swimming in a river or sea. Abstaining from caffeine, alcohol and soda.
  3. ELEMENT OF FIRE: Staying in the Sun (except between noon and 4 pm) and eating the foods that contain sun’s energy.
  4. ELEMENT OF AIR: The most important element to get Prana from is by breathing fresh air, especially in the mountains, forest or on a sea shore. Smoking or being in the overcrowded places will deprive you of your Prana.
  5. ELEMENT OF ETHER: Cultivating positive thinking, kindness and being in a good mood. That is the basic level. If a person lives close to the nature but is always angry or annoyed, excess of Prana will destroy him. On the other hand someone with inner balance, kind and fearless could live in a city for a while, if that is necessary. But he/she has to escape to nature from time to time. Churches, temples and monasteries are the sources of Prana in the cities.

Black color absorbs the light and white color reflects it. It is seems like a simple truth that we all know, but if we think about that, it has a deeper philosophical meaning. Most of us associate the light with something pure, giving energy, happiness and health. For instance, the Sun – there would be no life on Earth without Sun. In many spiritual and religious schools one of the main God’s attributes is light. It is truth for Kabbalah, Islam and some Indian religions. People who had experienced clinical death said that Higher Reality is the light that is full of Divine Love. Even without all these philosophical concepts, just think who do we call sunshine? It is someone who radiates the light and kindness, and is not selfish. In earlier times, people saw halos, surrounding saints heads. If a person is greedy, jealous or selfish, no one will call him/her sunshine, most likely gloomy. If a healer, who has divine abilities, will look at your energy body and describe the organs that are affected or not functioning properly, he will say that he sees black spots surrounding them. You must have heard about black holes in the Universe. They are still being studied, but one of the main feature of a black hole is that it’s energy substance absorbs everything and nothing can escape it. It is some kind of a cancerous cell or an organ on the body of the Universe.

What is a cancer cell? Medical research has shown that a cancer cell is not something that comes from the outer environment, those are the cells of the body or organism that were serving the organism and performed a certain function. But at some point they changed their behavior patterns and were no longer willing to serve. They start to grow aggressively by breaking their barriers, spreading (metastasis) and devouring healthy cells.  Malignant tumors grow very rapidly and need oxygen. The breathing itself is a process everything is involved in, but their functioning becomes largely based on selfishness, that is why they lack the oxygen. Then tumor cells use autonomic, primitive form of generating the energy fermentation (that doesn’t require oxygen).  In this case every cell can ferment energy or breathe separately from the organism. In the end, the malignant tumor will destroy the organism and be destroyed. But at the beginning malignant cells were very successful, growing very fast, better than the healthy cells.

Selfishness and independence lead nowhere. The philosophy of “I do not care about the other cells, That’s the way I am, the whole world must serve and gratify me this is the ideology of a cancer cell. We can make choices every second of our life to beam the light to the world, to bring blessings to everyone around us, smile and care for others, help or serve unselfishly, sacrifice, hold back our lower impulses or motives, understand that every person is a teacher for us, see the divine providence in any situation that created the situation to teach us a lesson, be grateful. Or we can choose to complain, get upset, envy, walk around with gloomy faces, sink in our own problems, work hard, make money and spend them for pleasures, or be aggressive. In this case does not matter how much money a person has, he/she will be unhappy and depressed. Each day energy will diminish further.

To get more energy a person needs artificial stimulants like coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, parties, and/or start fights with relations. All of the above can give a certain boost, but after all it will destroy us completely. A simple question we can ask ourselves every day: do I give/radiate or absorb light? This question can change mindset and deeds. It can quickly turn our life into a beautiful bright glimpse of light, full of Divine love. And we will stop asking questions like: «where do I get my energy from»

With love,
Rami

One thought on “HOW TO GET RID OF APATHY AND HOW TO HAVE MORE ENERGY?

  1. Rami this is absolutely wonderful. The article is big, so I need to read this again to understand well. In the entire article you have said Greed is the biggest element to cause misery, but don’t you think without Greed the modern world do not exist, it is because of more money and greed we have seen industrialization, modern banking and commerce etc. It is beyond my understanding to understand what exactly Universe wants from us, but I will follow your guidelines. Thank you so much for writing your articles in English. I am unable to understand your YouTube videos as they are in Russian. Please let us know through Facebook if you come to India anytime soon.

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