How to Free Your Energy?

Free Your Energy by Riding the Horse in the Direction It’s Going

Years ago, there was a great teacher named Werner Erhard. Despite withering criticism from a cynical press, Werner – everyone called him Werner – changed the lives of thousand of people. He was one of the pioneers of the whole self-help, personal-growth movement.

Anyway.

Werner was in his heyday back in the 1970s, especially in San Francisco, where his headquarters were. He was a dynamic, mesmerizing speaker, and people came out in droves to hear him. One particular evening, he was scheduled to speak at the Cow Palace, a huge stadium in the heart of the city.

Only problem was, there was an earth-quake scare.

Government officials urged people to either evacuate San Francisco or stay home, but at the very least to stay off the roads. Whatever else they did, it was strongly suggested that they not head downtown. This didn’t seem to stop the thousand of people who got in their cars, headed precisely in that direction, and subsequently packed the sold-out event at the Cow Palace.

The press was astonished. They crowded around Werner, shoving microphones in his face and asking him how he could account for this reparable behavior on the part of his followers. One reporter said, “Werner, how do you explain the fact that the whole city of San Francisco is on earthquake alert, half the city seems to be evacuating the area, and yet there are thousands of people flocking into downtown here at the Cow Palace to hear you speak? How can you account for this? Is this some kind of cult you’re running?”

Werner smiled and replied, “It’s very simple. There’s not going to be an earthquake. You see I’ve decided that there will not be an earthquake”.

The reporters looked around at each other, convinced they were in the presence of a delusional madman who clearly thought he was God. Then Werner, ever the master of the dramatic pause and the killer delivery, waited a moment, smiled shyly, and added, “But if you happen to hear the earth rumble, you’ll know I changed my mind”.

I call that “riding the horse in the direction it’s going”.

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE

Now hold that thought for a moment, and let’s talk about lifting weights.

If you’ve ever tried to lift a really heavy weight, then you know what it’s like when your muscles get tired. Whether it’s moving furniture from room to room pushing a piano a few feet for better placement in the living room or bench-pressing 250 pounds at the gym (I wish), your muscles eventually give out and give up from exhaustion. In fact, one classic principle of bodybuilding and fitness training is to do as many repetitions as it takes to hit “failure”, i.e. the point at which you muscles are so fatigued that they can’t perform another rep. It’s not by accident that they call weight training “resistance” training.

Well, the same thing happens to your emotional and spiritual muscles when you resist the universe in unproductive ways. The more you resist, the more energy you put out trying to change something that isn’t going to change, at least not from the force of your pushing at it. All that happens is that your energy muscles get fatigued. Our language even reflects that. We refer to people, places, and things that suck the life out of us as “exhausting”.

Most of that energy drain comes not from other people, but from our own resistance.

Want proof? Do this exercise. Clasp your hands together as if in prayer, fingers interlocked. Now push with all your might, using the muscles of both arms. Concentrate on trying to move your left arm with your right one, all the while pushing back with equal force. If you’re like most people, nothing’s going to move (because the left and right arm muscles are of equal force). This kind of exercise is known as “isometrics” (iso meaning “same” and metrics meaning “movement”). There’s a lot of energy expended, but nothing actually happens.

Now do the same exercise, but instead of pushing back with the right arm, simply stop pushing back, let go, and lift your right arm out of the way. What happens? You left arm moves effortlessly through space and winds up on your lap. No more resistance, no more need to push.

No more energy drain.

LET THE HORSE LEAD
Now back to Werner, the Cow Palace, and the threatened earthquake. Wearner had decided to proceed as if there wasn’t going to be an earthquake, but not to resist if there turned out to actually be an earthquake. The point of his comment was this: It’s way easier to ride the horse in the direction it’s going.

Contrary to the initial impression he undoubtedly left on many reporters, he wasn’t a delusional madman who thought that by as sheer force of will he could act like God and determine that there wouldn’t be an earthquake. He was simply illustrating an enlightened principles for dealing with the world – choose what is. “If you hear the earth rumble, you know I’ve changed my mind”, is one of the wittiest ways to illustrate this principle, which is at the heart of many Eastern and spiritual philosophies – choose what is.

It’s about not resisting. It’s about moving your right hand so your left hand can travel effortlessly through the air, meeting no resistance. It’s about choosing what is.

When you choose what is, you are essentially riding the horse in the direction it’s going. If you’ve ever ridden a horse, you know that riding it where it is going anyway takes a lot less energy than trying to force this 1,000-pound headstrong animal to do something it doesn’t want to do.-Not only is that easier on the horse, but it’s also way easier on you. Too top it off, if you’re willing to take the ride first, rather than fighting the horse at every corner, you have a much greater shot at eventually moving the horse in the direction in which you want to go. Fighting takes energy. Hanging on and going along for the ride… not so much.

ENERGY CREATED BY DOING NOTHING
Whole systems of marital arts are built on this principles. Aikido, for example, basically teaches you how to get out of the way and use your opponent’s own energy to defeat him. You don’t resist; you just conserve your energy while your opponent uses his to slam into the floor.

You can use this principle to immediately increase your daily emotional and mental energy. Riding the horse in the direction it’s going is like plugging one of the biggest energy drains in your life. Think of the amount of energy you expend fighting things that aren’t going to change, at least not in the immediate future, and at least not because you’re raging against them. (I know what of I speak. Let me remind you that I live in Los Angeles and have to deal with absolutely insane traffic on a daily basis. Guess what I found? Resisting it doesn’t make that traffic go faster. Resisting it doesn’t make a whit of difference, except, of course, to my own energy levels!)

Think of one thing you spend a lot of energy resisting and, just for today, try this lesson from Werner Erhard: Choose it. Embrace it. Go with it. Go along for the ride. Make up something good about it. (In my case, I bought Sirius satellite radio and learned to look at the traffic as a great excuse to listen to classic jazz for an hour or so a day.

Now, when the freeway is like a parking lot, I simply “choose” traffic and jazz. (Of course, if the traffic moves like the wind, you’ll know I changed my mind).

If it’s an evil colleague whom you’re resisting, try saying, ‘Well, that’s just Steve being Steve”, instead of trying to change him. If it’s an airline delay, go read a book. If it’s traffic, buy a satellite radio.

There’s an old saying from science fiction writer Robert Heinlein: “never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig”. Couple that with another saying of undetermined origin: What you resist persists. The more energy you spend trying to resist what is, the harder the universe will press back. Stop resisting, get out of the way, and what you’re resisting will disappear. You’ll have freed up more valuable energy for yourself instantly.