Energy and the Oral History of Wellness - povídání s Jackem Travisem a vyzrazené tajemství

 

thank you very much for your words, it took me some time to gather energy to respond :) 

(warning: my answer turned out much longer than I anticipated)

 

Speaking about energy. Since mid January I spent most of my days half-dead in bed with so called "morning nausea" caused by my early pregnancy. Despite its name, my morning nausea lasted whole days and took away all of my energy. As a matter of fact, it was couple minutes before our recording when my phone gave me an announcement that my period is late and I might be pregnant (but I tried not to give too much thoughts to it and focused on our talk). Now the boy is 4 months on his way and developing as my doctor expects him to be. 

For all the years when I was studying wellness from books during my years at uni, I tried to find an appropriate definition of wellness that I could use to explain the concept to people who never heard of it, so they could understand it and live it. Simple as that :) And I have to admit that I felt a bit uneasy when sharing the 5 definitions of wellness from Wellness Workbook, where one desribes it as "balanced channeling of energy". It felt too hippie for the academic grounds, but I still use it.

What I realized soon was, that not many are like us and dont enjoy (or dont have time or mental capacity for) pondering about theories and philosophical thoughts (unfortunately!!), but that every person has a "sense of wellness", they can experience the states of high-level wellness filled with energy and they can do sth about developing their awareness and practices that support it. The wellness workbook was the inspiration to move to the practical wellness, so over the course of past years I focused on finding different practices that practically illustrate "our higher thoughts" and can give people even a little experience of wellness in the given moment to hook their minds around the awesomeness of it. (Sneaky me :) ) Thats why my own courses are about developing your 12 dimensions through simple daily tasks that I collected elsewehre around the world and tested on my own body and life (and thorough mental analysis afterwards :)). Pam, and now that my own sense of wellness is gone in past months, I think Im reaching another stage of the wellness wisdom - deep inside I feel that my personal wellness is still there, yet unable to show itself on the surface of my physical body with a smile, joyful movement, action or kind and loving behavior (truly, Im not so nice person to be around lately :). Like a seed in spring, waiting to rise up again. I think Im now the "healthy person with a physical condition". Despite reading this sentence many times in articles and books, the experience of it is very different!

SO, I think this "ability to feel and perceive our own energy" is a daily practice of wellness (maybe it is somehow similar to what Bobby called the learning&protecting mode) that seems at first glance very far from the big theories, but in the connection of the two we can befriend the mind with the body and through this "aha moment" more fruitful discussions can grow and we can maybe even glimpse the deeper realms of wellness. In my mind, connecting the practice with a theory invites the body to the table as equal partner for discussion that before was mainly for the mind. Thorugh pondering about an experience lived through body we give the mind a chance to understand and label with words what it didnt recognize before. 

As thinkers, I believe, we do this naturally, without consciously recognizing the body as an important factor/resource of our insights. Most theories come out of practice that has been observed for long enough to create a theory. But if a person encounters only the theory, the whole learning process happens in the mind, neglects the body and lacks the individual's connection with the theory and its application in his/her life and lived pracice is minimal. Without the body, theory becomes "theoretical" in the negative sense. Connecting the theory with practice brings the life and energy back in the learning process.  

That is what I find the most juicy in the wellness classes with students - when they notice their own body, which they have been disconnected from since adolescence, they perceive their own sensations, feelings and start recognizing them as important, valuable, worth taking care of. They notice themselves and then over the course of 13 weeks I see them as they start glowing, blossoming, growing from inside, emanating more energy. Then I feel my wellness lectures really fell on a fruitful soil, when the theory lives in their bodies. Its beautiful to watch it.