What if energy isn’t something you have to find? What if it’s not a buzz, or a boost, or a cup of coffee but something that’s already burning inside you?
Originally published on https://yogaforms.substack.com October 24.
I used to think energy was something I could get. A coffee. A good night’s sleep.
That spark before a deadline, the thrill of doing, achieving, keeping up…
But every high had a low. The caffeine wore off. The rush passed. And beneath it all, there was tension> tight shoulders, shallow breath, a sense of always running on empty.
That wasn’t real energy. That was adrenaline. And adrenaline always comes with a crash. Real energy feels completely different. It doesn’t push: it flows.
It’s the steady current that moves through you when you’re in balance. When breath is easy, your heart calm, your whole being quietly alive. It’s not a spike. It’s a stream.
When Breath Became Fire
I’ve spent years learning to tell the difference. And more recently, during a Conscious Connected Breathwork (CCB) session with Simon Kehagias from Breathwork Africa, I felt it more vividly than ever. (for more info about what CCB is, you can read my post about it HERE)
Somewhere deep into the session, my breath took over. My arms lifted on their own and I felt I was holding something enormous, invisible, and burning. A sphere of fire, pulsing between my hands. The feeling was so strong that my arms started to tremble and ache. After a while, right in the middle of that intensity, I heard (or maybe just felt) a message: “Just embrace it.”
At first, I didn’t understand. Then I realised: the energy I was feeling wasn’t something outside me. It was simply my body, fully alive. That warmth pulsing through me was the same life-force that keeps every cell and heartbeat going. Sometimes I can feel it so vividly it almost surprises me, not as heat, but as strength. I know this might sound a little woo-woo, but stay with me…
The Science of Being Alive
Later, I thought about how much energy a human actually holds, not just metaphorically, but scientifically. I was amazed to find out that if you could convert the entire mass of a human body into pure energy (using Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc²), you’d release about 1.5 × 10¹⁵ joules of energy. That’s around 1,500 megatons of TNT, or the energy of 100,000 Hiroshima bombs.
One human being.
You. Me. All of us.
That much potential!
Of course, we don’t explode (thank goodness). Thanks to cellular respiration. Instead, that power organises itself into heartbeat, breath, awareness: the everyday miracle of being alive.
In short, Western science calls us a self-organising field of energy and information.
The East calls it Prāṇa, Qi, or Lung: the life-force that breathes through everything. Different languages. Same truth.
The main point is that you don’t have to get energy.You already are it.
Nothing to Get, Everything to Remember
When you feel that you already are energy. I mean when you truly feel it, something changes. You stop chasing the next cup, the next hit, the next high. You stop trying to push your way to vitality. Because the current you’ve been looking for has been here all along, waiting for you to stop forcing, and start feeling.
Practices like yoga, breathwork, and meditation don’t give you energy. They clear the noise so you can feel your natural flow again. One conscious breath can awaken you more than a double espresso, not because it stimulates, but because it brings you home.
When you live from that place, energy doesn’t spike and crash anymore. It flows.
It renews. It sustains. So tomorrow morning, before coffee, before scrolling, just sit.
Breathe. Feel the warmth in your body, the pulse beneath your skin, the hum of aliveness moving quietly inside you.
That’s not nothing. That’s everything. That’s you. Energy in motion. Perfectly alive. Perfectly here.