I love how the concepts of science apply to all living things…
Lately, I have been thinking about energy and two thoughts fill my mind and make me smile…
1. You need “closed” loops for energy to flow…
And
2. The path of least resistance can be a dangerous thing…
You can have the greatest generator of energy and yet without a closed loop it is simply potential energy… It is a tremendous amount of power – waiting to flow – but incapable of accomplishing anything on its own.
Ashuman beings we are part of an open loop and to ourselves we are a closed loop.
There is energy we can create within ourselves and then there is energy we can create with the world. It’s simple and it’s complicated.
I see the picture of a person with arms wide open, waiting for an embrace… “open loop” that only becomes “closed” when it meets the embrace of another. Part of the reason I love hugs… it closes our loop, it let’s energy flow.
(Look at closed loop systems in wikipedia or on google - SO MUCH is written about them and NO ONE writes about them as they apply to people.)
The visual closing of the loop… people gathered around a table in prayer holding hands… kids in a circle holding hands… people with their arms around each other in a huddle… all powerful visual pictures of people not just connected – but with energy flowing.
The thing is there are PHYSICAL loops that are easy to see and understand, and then there are emotional, psychological, energy loops that are not visible to the naked eye… Think about “wireless” connections, about cell phones…
As human beings, we can’t see those connections and often we are ignorant tothem or careless to them as a result.
People put energy out into the world, and if it’s not received and somehow returned, it is wasted.
Maybe that is where the concept of Karma comes from… all energy is returned in one way or another.
Are you aware of people’s energy? Aware of people’s attempts to connect and to provide for others? Possibly to simply provide for themselves?... the energy they want or need…?
Truth is, we don’t need a ton of energy to survive… but we need energy for joy, for inspiration, for optimizing who we are, for becoming better versions of ourselves…
People are often putting out energy in all kinds of unexpected forms… creatively through music, poetry, art… or philosophically, or professionally, or paternally or maternally, or simply out of curiosity, or altruistically…
All that we do is energy – sometimes very deliberate sometimes subconsciously…
In a conversation, in a professional meeting, in a discussion with our children… there is energy being displaced… and sometimes it is wasted and sometimes it is connected.
That is why it rarely works when one person talks too much… there is no opportunity to close the loop. That is why discussions are much more powerful and interesting when there is exchange, questions and answers, examples of application in the real world… Those are closed loop, energetic meetings and exchanges…
In a meeting or a conversation – how OPEN are you to CLOSE someone else’s loop? To consider what they are saying truly and sincerely and giving them something back that builds on what they are suggesting? Or how often are you (am I) so ready to put out our own energy that we give people a chance to speak, because we know we are supposed to, and then we are ready to pounce with our own energy, hoping someone closes our loop?
Closing someone else’s loop can sometimes be done by receiving and putting out your own energy in a way that connects with them… that is ideal… there are two power sources in that loop. But, most often, two power sources remain open loops because they are so focused on their own energy creation that they fail to connect…
What if in life we were conscious in all moments of closing loops – of helping energy flow – of acknowledging efforts – of noticing people for the energy they are displacing deliberately or subconsciously…
To me the concept of Harmony is about closing loops in every moment… in fact, THE IS of the moment IS the ENERGY – because it is what is real – it is truth – and WISHING is forever an open loop… throwing energy into the desires based on realities that are not possible in the moment.
Disharmony comes from the inability to close the loop… it is the subconscious or conscious realization of lost energy, lost moments, lost time… maybe ultimately fueled by the fear of lost lives…
Harmony comes from the connection with reality… it is the conscious or subconscious realization of connected energy, productive energy, constructive energy… focused energy…
We know the things we know about science. We read them and believe them because they are written in big books (or at least used to be) with diagrams and pictures and someone makes them into a major in college…
But, WHO says that the concepts and principles of energy don’t apply way beyond Electrical engineering courses and college? Who says when we talk about people’s energy the principles are any less absolute or definable?
Could this be a field for future exploration? Could this be part of the “touchy feely” stuff that gets labeled Liberal Arts that us engineers discount as “real” majors?
Could the application – the intersection – of science and art – be where the greatest energy comes from? Where the greatest understanding of human beings comes from? Where the greatest success and harmony ultimately comes from?
Onto ourselves, the amazing and confusing thing is that we can “self” close our loop… but it requires a higher level of enlightenment… because instead of closing the loop with other human beings – we close the loop with the energy that flows around us… within us…
We can close the loop ourselves by feeling deep gratitude… by having complete faith in God… or in simpler terms by shifting our need for energy to some professional football team…
Ithelps me understand WHY some people can become SO completely engaged with things that mean nothing to me… they are seeking energy…seeking closed loops… and they attach themselves to things around them that give them energy… at times, I believe, losing discretion as to where the energy comes from…
But, how cool is it, that we can create energy within ourselves… by connecting to nature, by connecting to spirituality, by feeling grateful… by being more aware of our blessings … our great fortune… our IS.
We can create a closed loop with our own IS…
I see this so clearly… and my own lack of enlightenment makes me struggle to enjoy a round of golf or a ski session down a mountain on my own… because when you see a beautiful sight, when you experience something amazing – there is no one there to “close” my loop… to high five… to look back at me and smile…
But I am learning and growing and developing – and my need for closing loops is evolving… at least with people…
My ability to close my loop with spirituality , with gratitude, with my own IS… is happening more and more…
As I become more aware of it - I AM SORRY - SORRY to so many people in so many countless moments where I have "left them hanging"... my parents (my father - oh how open my father has always been), my wife, my sisters, my friends, my colleagues... I have left so many people hanging in so many moments... but "WISHING" that I could have those moments back will get me no where. I have lived and continue to live conscious of the concept of harmony - and indirectly of the concept of closing loops... and I will simply work to be better... and do better.... and close better.
I actually think it's one of the things that works about me for people... I consciously work to close loops - and people feel it and gravitate to it (even if they wouldn't describe it in these words).
Yet the words we use are so often the same... "connection", "contact", "energy"... why not "closed loop"... the words we use over and over again - why do we think the underlying science and intelligence doesn't apply? Just because we havent figured out how to measure it in a lab?
What if Harmony was simply the moments we spend in closed loops, and Disharmony was the moments we spend in open loops…
What if someone wrote a new textbook… applying the principles of science to everything…
Most people would laugh at the discongruity… it fails to match a pattern we expect… a truth we know…
But what if the greatest application of the principles of science
Was to understand each other and ourselves?
I will have to write about the “path of least resistance” tomorrow…
What if the whole world connected? TRULY connected and fed energy back onto itself... ONE person, ONE conversation, ONE moment at a time?
What peace and joy could we achieve?
What if we simply took on that challenge for ourselves?
Or just for this day or this moment?
Could it be the start of a whole new way of living... a whole new consciousness... a whole new ENERGY?
There is too much energy flowing…
I’m heading out to close my loop ;-)
In harmony,
Nestor