I was talking to a depressed business man last night who kept sighing and saying that he wanted and needed to take a rest after the recent upheavals and problems he had been involved in.

He clearly felt tired and dejected - but was this curable by him lying down in a corner to rest? Or did he really need something else altogether - an inspiration, perhaps?

I think in terms of human emotions and emotional states as simply being energy states - how freely and powerfully energy is moving around the energy body. When energy flow is blocked and low, we experience tiredness and depression, we talk of "losing heart" or being hopeless, and that's completely correct. That's what it feels like.

When energy flow is high and fast, correspondingly we feel "excited" just like an excited atom jumps up to action. We feel good, positive, strong, powerful, and the highest mountain becomes a fascinating challenge instead of an invincible obstacle.

As there was nothing physically wrong with the business man in question who was convinced he needed to rest and turn his back on work and business altogether, I started to think that bed rest wasn't what the doctor ordered, and might even turn into real depression if it went on for long enough.

The man needed to re-gain his energy, re-light his fire, become in-spired - to have his spirit put back into him, like a backbone made of energy that collapsed for some reason and at some point.

For my own interest, I asked him if something had happened recently that "broke his spirit" and caused this need to rest and withdraw from normal activities of life, and he immediately told a story about a customer who was very unhappy and had abused him. This had come at a time when stress had already been high and ongoing for a long time, and he said, "I just stood there, took it all and my heart just went out of me I guess. After that, I didn't have the heart for it any more and I decided I needed a break, and a rest ..."

I tried not to say, "Aha!" although I felt like it; instead I said to him, "Wouldn't it be better if you got over that and found some inspiration that will put the life back into you, get you excited about your business again?"

He thought about it and then said sadly, "I'm too tired really, I can't be asked ..."

I thought I'd give it at least a try and started talking to him about the nature of his business, why he had started it, what his unique contribution to customers had been originally, and why he had built this particular business and never wanted to do anything else instead over the years.

It was quite amazing; it didn't even take any much digging on my behalf, he remembered well enough why he loved his work and as he was talking, I could tell the "inspiration" was happening - energy and excitement was returning to his systems and he was waking up, coming back on line, and soon enough, he wasn't tired at all.

We even went on to discuss what had gone wrong with the customer who had had a bad experience with his business, and how this had happened because of all the stress beforehand; and furthermore, he came up with an excellent idea how to avoid this in future. After no more than half an hour, he had regained his "spirit" and his heart was once more in the right place - to create a great product, give a great service that was unique and that was prized by his customers.

I asked him if he still wanted to rest.

He laughed and said, "There's time to rest when we're 6 foot under! Life is for living ... And now if you would excuse me, I have a newsletter to my customers to write ..."

Rest - Or Inspiration?

So I put the phone down and started to wonder how often it happens, and to how many people, that they think they need rest but instead, they just need an inspiration, something to set them on fire and make them come alive again.

I started to wonder how many older and old people especially think that, expect to be wanting "rest" in retirement for example, but just get depressed and need a real inspiration.

Someone to just ask them what they really believe in, what's important to them, what they really love to do, what they're really good at, and how they can do something with that that might benefit not just themselves, but help others in some way too.

In the absence of such a someone, perhaps we can start asking ourselves more often, "Do I need rest - or do I lack inspiration here?"

Inspiration is much better than just motivation. You can motivate people with pain and fear and whips; inspiration is a forward movement because you can't sit still, you have energy and you need to do something with it.

Perhaps we can take it still further and use this not just on big things but also during the day on little moments of feeling too tired to finish a report, or too worn out to pay proper attention to a loved one, or too miserable to pick up a phone and call customers, or "just not in the right frame of mind" to start clearing up, or playing with the kids, or do those things that you know would make your business better.

Just asking the question of, "What inspires me to be a good parent? A good entrepreneur? A good worker? A good husband? A good author?" or anything at all reminds us of why we do the things we do and can help to re-light the fire, to make energy flow again through our systems, and then we find we didn't need to rest at all, we just needed some much-needed inspiration instead.

I think that's an interesting way to think about using energy in life to all our advantage, and get over the things life throws at us to stay true to ourselves, to our paths and to what really inspires each and every one of us.

So here's to INSPIRATION!

Dr Silvia Hartmann

January 22nd, 2011

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