Rest Naturally

Paul Chek has coined a wonderful concept: Working In. I love this. Let’s take a closer look…

Working out = stress.
Working in = recovery.

Exercise literally means to exercise or remove energy from of the body. This can be great when the body has energy to give. If the body is running low or on “empty”, which most of us can relate to, giving up energy can be harmful. Knowing when to give up energy and when to recover it is an important concept and can be one of the most valuable tools in your health “tool belt”.

The best way to think of this concept is to relate it to banking. You have body energy, similar to a checking account. Every day, through daily activities and life in general, we are making energy withdrawals and writing energy checks. Every stress we impose upon our body or deal with is money going out. Some are small withdrawals, others huge, some are on automatic and others are sporadic. The bottom line is they all come out of the account. We can make money back by eating nourishing food, sleeping well and engaging in recovery practices. If the withdrawals match the deposits you feel balanced and good. When you start writing more checks than you have in the account you start bouncing checks. Ever wanted to workout and not “have it” that day? That’s a bounced check. Force that check to go through and you are either overdrafting or charging to the “credit card” of your body and it’s internal savings account. This is fine every once in a while if you put some money back in right away. Do this enough times without paying yourself back and when the bill comes due, which it always does, you will have to pay up. If you’ve ever gotten sick after a period of stress this is a perfect example. You couldn’t pay those checks you were writing so you started borrowing on credit from your body and when you needed that immune system it was all tapped out.

We all write checks our body can’t cash (or that our ego can’t cash). The task lies in building up a nice reserve in the checking account and finding ways to replenish when we start to run low. When you start to notice your account is getting low (aka tired, fatigued, unfocused, hungry) take some time to make a deposit. Take some time to “work in”.

Take deep breaths. Be barefoot on the earth. Go for a walk. Go to sleep. Meditate. Eat a nourishing snack. Practice Tai chi or Qigong. Laugh. Be grateful. Rest.

Replenishing the body’s checking account is a must when the balance is running low. Finding things that you allow you to “work in” is a great way to recapture vitality and fervor.

If you want to delve deeper into this concept, check out Paul’s book How To Eat Move and Be Healthy (one of my favorites), website (Paul Chek’s Blog) or his videos on Working Out vs. Working In…

Thanks for reading, have a great energy depositing day!