ENERGISE!

Health coach Ashdin Doctor talks about different kinds of energy and how to replenish them

FIVE years ago, Ashdin Doctor collapsed. He had been overworked and overstressed, he had been in an emotionally-abusive relationship and that had taken its toll. He says, “I was getting ready for a presentation. I was putting on my shirt when I started sweating profusely. I collapsed. I was 15 kg overweight and I slept for just five hours a night. I realised, at that moment, that something had to change. Imagine, if I had died and gone to heaven and god asked me: did you enjoy the life I have given you? Could I have said it was alright? So, I realised that I had to make my life awesome. My entire purpose after that revolved around this idea.”

Ashdin set himself a tough goal: a six pack. While working his way towards the goal, he fell in love. “The way the body changes – it is never too late to heal yourself. It was no longer an aesthetic goal – I started loving the science of it. The people I was hanging along with were doctors, physiotherapists and psychologists because I realised these are the kinds of people who are making the change. Friends came to me and said they did not have my self-discipline or motivation. I am the least motivated person! All I did was change tiny habits. Each small habit started compounding over time just like my interests. That is why, I say, the world needs habit coaching. So, I started focusing on the five fundamental habits.”

What is a habit, Ashdin asked Rotarians last Tuesday. “Habits are tiny things we do every day which have become a part of our life. We no longer think or worry about them. How many people get up in the morning and require motivation to have a cup of tea? No one, right? It is a part of us. Imagine what happens if you do not have your tea or coffee, how do you feel? That is the power of habit. A habit becomes a routine and that routine becomes a ritual. Ritual is something which, if you miss, makes you agitated. So, the idea of habits is how do you make them a part of you. There are three golden rules:

1. Make it small. We are obsessed with hard and difficult goals that we never get around to starting. The idea is to make it small to enable it to stick.

2. Make it easy to do.

3. Never miss more than two days in a row. One day is perfectly fine – life gets in the way. But if you miss the habit two days, then missing becomes a habit.”

While Ashdin had started off thinking that wellness would bring about a six pack and this could be gained by walking every day or eating organic food. But he realised, soon enough, that it went deeper. “Wellness is coming home after a long and tiring day at work and having the energy to play with your child or comfort a friend who might be suffering. That, according to me, is wellness. It is about having the vitality of being at ease with life and not disease. Wellness, very simply, is about managing the energy that we have throughout the day.”

Wellness is a buzzword that has built up entire healthcare industries but it is a function of longevity, says Ashdin. “Imagine dying young but at a very old age, full of vitality at 120-140. That is what longevity is, that is what scientists are looking at now. Our goal should be to die that way. There are areas in the world called the Blue Zones where people regularly live for more than a hundred years. One of the goals in my life is to create such Blue Zones within India. They exist in Japan and Sicily but not in India.”

Talking about energy, Ashdin categorises them into four types: physical, intellectual, emotional and spiritual (PIES). “We use different energies at different stages of our life,” he says. “When young, we use more physical energy; when working, it is intellectual energy; when we come home and deal with our family, this is emotional energy. Thus, we also use different energies throughout the day.”

Ashdin imagines energy as energy in and energy out. “Imagine energy as a fuel tank of your car,” he says. “You are driving a car and you realise there is a leak. What do you do? Repair the leak, right, rather than adding fuel. In life, however, we do not recognise these energy systems and we keep trying to put in more energy without trying to fix the leak.”

Imagine a fight with a friend. “What is the first thing you do when you get home,” asks Ashdin. “Eat a big tub of ice cream. You have taken low emotional energy and converted into physical energy. You are trying to fill up physical energy. But did the emotions get sorted? No, emotions are still there but now you are more active. Similarly, at work, when we are tired, we drink coffee. Does coffee take care of the intellectual tiredness? No, it is still there. So now we
are tired and wired. This is the problem we keep facing. We feel low, come home and sit and watch Netflix or pour ourselves a drink. Whatever we do, we just distract ourselves rather than solve the problem. This is important to understand.”

“So, when it comes to physical energy, what is the best way to describe low physical energy? Lethargy, feeling of tiredness, sluggishness, aches and pains, you feel inflamed, you feel sleepy, you feel out of breath: these are the symptoms. This is what is happening, you are low on physical energy. It is necessary to fix the drains which include the food we eat. If you eat high glycemic food like rice or dessert, you are full of energy but you crash later. This causes fluctuation in energy. It is important to fix these things to have energy throughout the day.”

“The second is the lack of movement in our life. We do not exercise. Humans are, what is called, piezoelectric beings. That is, the more we move, the more energy we generate. Movement is very important.”

“The chairs we sit on are not designed for our body to sit in that 90-90 position, we are designed to sit on the floor. Not breathing properly – how many of you have thought about that? Look at how you are sitting, hunched over, you have to sit open. Take a deep breath in.”

“Hydration… so, keep thinking to yourself – which of these is relevant to me. What from these am I not doing? Am I
not exercising enough, not sitting properly, not drinking enough water? Put all these down because these are dreams to our energy. My way of increasing physical energy is what I call the ‘Big Sigh!’ To let it all out. It is almost like a bulb went off in your brain — this is the power of breath.”

“The next thing to ask yourself is why are you eating? The habit of hunger is that we never allow ourselves to be hungry. Having moments of fasting is so important because every religion has them. A simple way to ask yourself whether you are hungry is to ask whether you are thirsty. The body does not understand the difference between hunger and thirst. Second, are you bored? Third, are you stressed? Try solving these issues first before eating food. The last thing is to get some form of high intensity exercise. It is important to increase the size of the fuel tank. The best movement for the body is to bounce and feel relaxed as well as silly, bringing out the child in you. Physical energy is the most important thing to live a healthy life. Don’t think of age as a barrier to it, think of it as levelling it up.”

“Intellectual energy: in our life, work is divided into things that excite us and things that bore us. There are routine acts we have to do every day. That is a part of life but you need to know what is draining you. What is important to understand is that creativity is power. Have you ever done something creative and got tired out of that? Impossible. When you are charged, there is no way you will get tired because it increases intellectual energy. You have to keep understanding the fine balance that is taking place. Every time you get bored at work, which means you are doing something that you do not like at that moment, you are doing stuff that does not excite you creatively. Therefore, the drains here are: repetitive work, long emails, task switching. What is multitasking? Either you do this or you do that. If you do both together, you are doing both badly. And it drains your energy.”

“Deadlines. As soon as deadlines approach, you stop enjoying what you are doing. That is a drain.”

“Decision fatigue: should I wear this shirt or that? And, the worst is what do you make for dinner today? Constantly making decisions drains your intellectual energy. You see IT chaps wearing black t-shirts and blue jeans, this takes away the decision fatigue. How do we refill this intellectual energy? The first thing is to do one task at a time. For example, how many of us switch on the TV while we are on our phones? Now, we are using TV to distract and entertain ourselves and we are using phones to entertain ourselves while watching TV? What is wrong with us? We are so used to doing so many things together that we do not focus on one thing. So, let’s start by at least one thing at a time.”

“Next, reorder your day. Figure out when you are at your most creative and fill that time with all the creative stuff. Figure out when you are most low on physical energy and use your intellectual energy that time to reply to mails and do all the mundane stuff.”

“Take regular breaks, move around and talk to people. Often, when working, we sit at one place for two hours and we don’t know where the time has gone. Getting up and talking to someone re-energises us.”

“Find a creative endeavour. Have a passion project, not problem-solving but thinking and exploring. Those are the things that refuel your intellectual energy. For example, I learn a new language if I have to travel somewhere. Passion project or hobby, do it wholeheartedly. Allocate one day in your calendar for your passion project. You have to find creative endeavours because there is no point in living a long time if you are going to get bored.”

“Emotional energy. A key to this is to able to describe how you are feeling. When people ask, we have that typical default answer: ‘So-so, not too bad, fine.’ There are over a hundred emotions and we should be able to articulate them. Get in to the habit of feeling, not numbing. Every time we feel, what do we do? We suppress, bury it down deep. But we are human and we have feelings for a reason. So, please start talking about your feelings.”

“The habit of feeling and not distracting: please feel. The drains are: situations that are out of your control when you just don’t know what to do. You wait for somebody else to make a move. There is a constant drain on your emotions. And it is important for us to know that it is an emotional drain.”

“A loved one being hurt – these are fears we live with but try not to think about. Fighting with people. And, my favourite: emotional vampires. They don’t suck your blood – they take your happiness. You are feeling lovely and suddenly you meet this person and feel like you want to go home, don’t know the purpose of your life.”

“For the new generation it is the social media when you are constantly scrolling to see others who are doing so much and you are doing nothing. It leads to FOMO, fear of missing out. It is an emotional drain.”

“Addiction, a habit which every time you repeat makes you feel worse than you did before. You have one mango, you feel awesome, you have second mango you feel awesome, but after 53 mangoes – what do you feel? That is an addiction. Every time you feel you should not be doing this and you feel bad – you are addicted.”

“Unclear relationships, trying to fit in, drama – how do we repair and fix these emotional drains? One is to have deep conversations: they make a dramatic change. Right now, it is all on the surface. We are so packed but we need moments of peace. Identify this and be with yourself for just 15 minutes. Meditation.

Contact comfort. I have a tiny teddy and it feels amazing. You feel you are so old, you can’t do these things but we need it. It’s human. Music. Getting your playlist in order. Affirmations, put your hand on your heart and say, ‘I am safe!’, ‘I am Enough!’ Affirmations give you strength.”

“Gratitude. It is a feeling that someone has done something for you without expecting anything in return. I tell my clients to write three things of three people that they are grateful for, every day for 30 days, and they cannot repeat the name. Suddenly, you realise you have gone through all these names but there was this one teacher in school that you had completely forgotten about. Gratitude becomes the way.”

“Spiritual energy. It is not about God but it is about being part of something bigger than yourself. The Rotary, you are part of the community – you are something bigger than yourself. Spiritual energy is something that makes you feel alive. It is the stuff that makes us jump out of bed every morning. The drains are when we feel purposeless, we feel that we are stuck in a fantasy land. The biggest drain is when there is no nature – I just don’t feel connected to something. I talk about hugging a tree, it feels so good. Hugging a tree makes you feel bigger and more connected to the world around you.”

“So, where are your dreams? Introspect and understand, ask yourself what to do about these? Start by managing your energy.”