There is a lot of talk these days about Work-Life Balance, and so there should be. I think this is a very important area of coaching.

I have come to believe there is another area of coaching that is crucial to us: Energy Balance. Although it is linked with Work-Life Balance, it is not synonymous with it. Some people spend most of their life working and their energy is in balance. Others work very little and yet their energy is out of kilter. Of course, it depends on how I define work. Never the less, work can be both a drainer and a replenisher of energy.

It also depends on what I mean by energy. In purely human terms, energy is one of those words that is used, overused even, and yet seldom defined. I am well aware of 'chi', the energy that flows through our body and which can be blocked or unblocked (mostly but not exclusively through Acupuncture). I am also aware of the energy that surrounds us - science tells us that all matter is energy.

But what about energy  as the precious resource (physical, emotional, psychological, mental, intellectual, spiritual) we depend upon so inescapably? We are matter too of course but what is that energy exactly? I know that when I feel tired I need to sleep to recharge my battery. If that is the case, then there is an energy of 'awakeness' that is rechargeable through sleep. When I am exhausted and no amount of sleep makes any difference - I wake up exhausted and I go to bed exhausted - it feels like my battery is flat. I would call that the energy of 'aliveness'. How do I recharge that energy. From a medical/therapeutic point of view, I get two conflicting pieces of advice: rest, or do the exact opposite and start exerting myself. How confusing is that! Besides, neither does any good and both can make things worse....

I have wrestled with this conundrum for a long time and this is what I am learning:

• For me, balance is not a simplistic set of scales. It is more like a collection of spinning plates. A little bit here, and a little bit there.

• My keeping in balance is not about how fast I can keep my plates spinning but rather about how many plates I CHOOSE to spin at any one time. Some days, keeping one plate spinning feels just right. Sometimes, there is real recharging joy in spinning many more plates.

• I have discovered that by CHOOSING which plates I spin and when, I avoid painful/disappointing breakage.

• I have also discovered that I am not the only source of energy to recharge me. I can plug into that big universal battery by exercising mindfulness, known also as meditation. Meditation (which is much simpler than I used to think) is a great way to 'plug into' the energy that is all around me. That way, I recharge my own battery. They say that 20 minutes of meditation is equivalent to 3 hours' sleep and I can vouch for that. Meditation is that rarest of gifts: active rest.

• I watch my energy level when I do something I enjoy. I used to let  my enthusiasm run away with me - I now monitor myself to avoid adrenaline and pure nervous energy taking me over. Nervous energy is like running on fumes and I now know I have done far too much of that in the past.

• I can now tell the difference between joy (a recharger) and over-excitement (a drainer). I am no longer afraid of losing my passion if I tone my energy down a bit. I know that passion is a log-term fuel as well as a flash point one.

It seems to me that learning how to recharge, discharge, and balance our personal energy is an essential part of coaching. I am uncomfortable with the word 'meditation' in a coaching environment because it doesn't translate well into our modern western world. Language is powerful so I would prefer encouraging coaches to practice mindfulness to balance their practice of awareness. As I have already written, awareness switches the light on, and mindfulness switches the light off, hence allowing resting and replenishing. For me this is an essential part of mastering balance in the context of Personal Ecology.

What do YOU think?