“If you can make friends with your high and low-energy states, both become places that you can enjoy and draw strength from as you go through your daily life-journey!”
Dear Integral Meditators,
This week’s article invites you to take a more nuanced, playful approach to times when you feel energised, and times when you feel tired, and how you can be creative with both!
This week’s Wednesday & Saturday meditation classes are on the subject of the article ‘Playing with high & low energy states’. We will be looking specifically at how to transform our stress using this angle in meditation.
In the spirit of highs & lows,
Toby
Anxiety & depression or excitement & calm? Playing with high & low energy states
October 10th is world mental health day, so this whole week for me is busy with giving talks and meditation sessions to companies and organizations, focused on building sustainable inner wellbeing. Over the duration of the week, I will be experiencing both:
- High-energy states, coming from the anticipation and then the execution of the session’s facilitation
- Low-energy states following on from the energy expenditure, the fatigue, after executing the trainings. This is on both a daily level, as well as cumulatively over the week
The question for me to be curious about is; how can I navigate these ups and downs in an enjoyable, life-affirming manner, as opposed to a dis-orienting, energy-sapping high-low rollercoaster?
This article explores our experience of both high and low energy states, and how we can find ways to experience the balanced, positive expression of both, rather than being stuck in imbalanced high-low variations.
The mindful flow principle – not too high, not too low
If you think of 10 as absolute high-energy effort, and 0 as absolute exhaustion, in terms of our everyday ‘mindful-flow’, we can aim to be spending most of our time around a 4-6, feeling relaxed, and somewhat focused in a pleasant, sustainable manner.
Two sides of the low-energy state
If you then think about low-energy states as when your energy level drops, you feel tired, a ‘3-0’ range. There are two ways this can go:
- Low-energy in the sense of feeling depressed, overwhelmed, helpless, lacking in not just energy but also self-esteem and personal value
- Low-energy in the sense of being at peace, regenerative, tired-but-satisfied, restful, calm
Playing with low energy states
When you are in a low-energy state, if you can combine it with mindful awareness, you can actually steer the state towards an enjoyable one, rather than getting unconsciously caught in a ‘negative’ low energy state.
Two sides of the high-energy state
Like low-energy states, we can mindfully play with high energy states, the ‘7-10’ range:
- If you find yourself feeling angry, you can practice directing that high-energy state toward doing something constructive and useful, ‘riding’ your anger toward that destination. The anger becomes determination
- If you are anxious about an uncertain outcome, or before having to do something in public, you can practice moving the anxiety toward excitement, optimism, anticipation or a combination of any of these
Accepting your state
The ‘first position’ with this type of state training is to notice, become aware the state you are in at any given time. From this awareness you can then accept that state, whether high or low. With acceptance you can then notice whether this energy state is in it’s balanced or imbalanced expression. In a playful manner, you can then start to move your low-energy states toward peacefulness and calm, and move your high-energy states from anxiety toward excitement (for example).
If you can make friends with your high and low-energy states, both become places that you can enjoy and draw strength from as you go through your daily life-journey!
Related articles: Using mindful flow to train in strengths-building
Moving From Anxiety to Excitement
© Toby Ouvry 2026, you are welcome to use or share this article, but please cite Toby as the source and include reference to his website www.tobyouvry.com
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