I interviewed two people today about their recent experience of an E Rejuvenation programme. Both work in large companies (I can’t give the names of the companies at this stage) with high levels of pressure, high expectations of performance and highly committed staff. Both are involved to some extent in selling.

At first I just listened to the two clients talking about the benefits they got from the programme. This was hardly surprising. They talked about being able to focus better, prioritise their work clearly, be more positive around their colleagues and achieve financial targets that they had previously expected to fail on. And of course they talked about being less stressed and being able to handle significnat levels of pressure much better than usual. This was, of course, very satisfying for me to listen to, since I had been leading their programmes, but it started me looking at the bigger picture behind their personal stories.

Every company I speak to these days is showing me the same story. Their people are working under more pressure than at almost any time before.  Dedicated staff are working extraordinarily long hours, sacrificing personal lives, at risk of sacrificing their health and often dealing with massive change in their companies on top of everything else.

It seems to me that these people are so valuable to their companies that their employers should be thanking them on a daily basis for handling impossible demands and keeping theoir organisations alive and kicking. They are truly unsung heroes of our modern economy – the sales people and their support teams that constantly bring in revenue to feed a nevern-ending need for productivity and profit.

It is obviously satisfying to make sales and be rewarded by commissions, but there is a lot more to life than cash. I listened to a woman who just managed to save her relationship before it crashed through lack of quality time – caused by working long hours and not having the energy to focus on the relationship at the same time. She loves her job and is totally committed to her company, but she wants to have a personal relationship too!

I have no problem with pressure and believe it is good for people to have demanding targets and to be challenged at work. But I do not believe that people should be sacrificing their health and happiness as a result. And it is not necessary.

If employers understood more about energy they would see that it is critical to support their employees’ energy at all times. They would invest in their people’s energy above all else – knwowing that the return would be incalculable. It is not only a question of increased productivity, but the buzz of a happy, inspired workforce; the long-term benefit of healthy staff who do not waste time with colds, flu, digestion problems and all the other ailments that slow people down on a daily basis; the time saved by work relationships that are free of conflict and misunderstanding; and the satisfaction of supporting people to have enough energy for work and personal life.

It sounds idealistic, but this is not difficult to achieve. I have seen people experience all of these benefits in the last week. Five people have arrived in my E Rejuvenation sessions with colds in the last fortnight and gone out of the session transformed. They had never realised before that a cold can disappear in less than an hour!

It is hard to overestimate the value of healthy, happy people – especially to a company. For sure, with a bit of solid research the value can be counted in cash, but far more important is the value in terms of quality of life. In the end most of us work in order to develop our quality of life in some way, but we often feel we work to make the money to be able to buy quality.

Imagine a world where true quality – health and happiness –  is integrated into our daily experience by working in organisations that value, support and invest in the energy of their people. This vision need not be far away. Significant change could be achieved within a few weeks from now by the company that would be brave enough to set up a simple programme of in-house E Rejuvenation sessions for its key staff. That’s all it takes to get going.

I thought I was doing pretty well considering that I haven’t had a chance to walk up many mountains in the last year. After 15 minutes there was a beep and the machine instantly slowed down. The test was over. I was told that the machine had stopped because my heart had reached its maximum capacity. I was described as ‘very determined’ but with only an ‘average level of fitness’.

A set of other tests followed, including body fat measurements, cholesterol, glucose in the blood as well as questions about my lifestyle and I was given a folder at the end which summarised my health risks. I was told that my risk of heart disease was 2%, which is very low, and all my other readings were also very healthy.

I have never liked to be average in anything, so I wasn’t very happy to find that I was only an average level of fitness. Whilst I don’t expect to be superfit it led me to question my lifestyle and I notice that since then I take every opportunity to run, exercise more actively and yesterday I started to ride my bike again. But the interesting question that arose was about the difference between fitness and health.

A few days later I saw someone sitting in the lobby at E Rejuvenation Centre. I was surprised how much older and less healthy he looked than when I had last seen him around 6 months ago. I was later told that he is running a marathon next week. At the age of 62 that is impressive and yet I couldn’t help feeling that this level of training is not as good for his health as it may be for his fitness.

We often talk about health and fitness in one breath, as if they are almost identical, but my experience on the treadmill and with the guy in the lobby showed me that they are absolutely distinct.  You can be very healthy but not very fit and you can be very fit but not necessarily healthy.

So I started to question what levels of health and fitness I want for myself. I have noticed that when people go over a certain level of fitness it demands more energy and they often seem to drain their own batteries at this point. They start to look older, become prone to injury and have a somewhat strained look about them. On the other hand one of my most enjoyable experiences is being fit enough that my body feels like a well-oiled machine that is ready for anything – full of energy and potential.

However when it comes to health it is impossible to be too healthy. I believe our expectations of health will expand enormously in the future. In twenty to thirty years we will look back on this age with surprise that we were able to tolerate such a mediocre level of health as the norm.

In the meantime I have decided to achieve at least a bit better than average fitness and to keep on improving my health as much as possible. I am interested in longevity. I believe living a long life of high quality requires a lot more than that, but it definitely cannot be achieved without a reasonable level of fitness and excellent health.

Sarah McCrum, 23.10.09

I am going to start by writing about energy – the topic that is closest to my heart. I must say the word energy at least 100 times every day, whether I am talking to clients or talking to myself, and yet it is so difficult to explain what energy is. Every explanation seems inadequate when compared with experience.

One of the simplest ways to look at it is to imagine that our bodies are our hardware – in fact the whole physical world can be described as the hardware of life. When I look at a computer I have no idea what is going on inside. I am told it is based on binary and everything is controlled by a series of ones and zeros. It is very difficult to understand how this translates into documents, drawings, printouts and all the other things I do with my computer every day.

However as long as everything is working and I can do whatever I want with my computer I am happy to accept this mystery. I know that however much I stare at the motherboard I am not going to be able to see a lot of ones and zeros lining themselves up to create different patterns on my screen. And it is totally beyond my understanding how a software CD or download can suddenly enable me to do things that I couldn’t do before. But that is exactly how it works and it’s fine by me.

But when it comes to life I am much more curious. I want to know what is happening and why. I want to be a technician, not just a user. It is not enough for me to accept my hardware and live the life I was born to live. I always seem to want something more than that. I need frequent software upgrades, and from time to time I also need some new hardware.

It was this curiosity that drove me to learn about energy and has kept me working in this field for almost 12 years now. I have learned about the life equivalent of ones and zeros – otherwise known as positive and negative energy or yin and yang. And people call on me every day to help them upgrade their life software, clean out their viruses, organise their files and maintain their life hardware.

It is a fascinating world – and a world that more and more people are becoming aware of. It holds answers to all of our most pressing problems – from sickness and relationship breakdown to poverty and unhappiness. It shows the way forward for all our most urgent systems, including  education, health and the economy.

I believe that all children should learn about energy as soon as they are able to speak – it would not only save a lot of stomach aches but would make childhood (and parenting) a much happier experience. And likewise I believe that all adults should learn about energy too – because it makes us healthier, happier and more peaceful, and that can only be a good thing.

That’s why we have created a new organisation called E Rejuvenation College which will focus on education and training about energy. And we have just developed a new course where you can learn more about energy and explore what is going on behind the scenes. I will post details of the course here (and elsewhere) as soon as they are ready and I hope to see more and more people engaging in learning about energy and exploring the richest area of study in the world.

Sarah McCrum 20.10.09