Do you know where your life energy is leaking?

What do naps, water, and scheduling meetings at odd times have in common? They are all elements worth considering when learning how to manage your energy. And we aren't talking about the kind that comes from a wall outlet, but the kind that fuels us every day throughout our lives. How do you make sure you have enough for self-care and productive work? What can you do to ensure your "internal batteries" don't run dry long before retirement? And finally—why is this so important? Our guest today, Dr. hab. Andrzej Silczuk – Nikolay Kirov, an expert in leadership, negotiation, and personal energy management, university lecturer, and creator of original development programs and scientific publications, will answer these and many other questions.  

1. 00:00:00 Introduction
2. 00:00:58 What is life energy
3. 00:01:41 Why we feel exhausted after work
4. 00:04:16 Low-information diet
5. 00:07:26 Information overload, FOMO, and phubbing
6. 00:09:16 Relationships as a source of well-being
7. 00:11:42 Creative and destructive energy
8. 00:16:21 Professional burnout
9. 00:24:09 The employer's role in supporting employee energy
10. 00:26:51 How to set priorities
11. 00:35:33 Managing energy in the morning and evening

Transcript

Dr. hab. Andrzej Silczuk: Welcome to the Multi.Life space. This is the "Dobrzepowiedziane" program, I'm Andrzej Silczuk. Today, I am joined by an expert in leadership, negotiation, and personal energy management. Someone with many years of experience working with business leaders. He is a university lecturer, creator of original development programs, and author of both scientific and popular science publications. In his work, he combines knowledge from psychology, neurobiology, management, and communication, placing primary emphasis on the practical application of this knowledge in professional and personal life. He is the author of one of my favorite e-books, "Life Energy Management," a publication that allows me—helps me—manage my professional burnout, and not just the professional kind. Ladies and gentlemen—Nikolay Kirov.

Nikolay Kirov: Hello, Andrzej.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Hi, Nikolay. I have a question for you – the first of my questions – I wanted to ask you what life energy actually is, given that we can manage it?

Nikolay Kirov: It depends on who you ask. My Qigong master says it’s our cells and the blood flow in our body, how our biochemistry works, how our bones, body, and spine function, and generally the entire set of tools we are equipped with to function well in this life and achieve our goals and dreams.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: And what does Nikolay Kirov say?

Nikolay Kirov: For me, it’s a way to travel, eat well, and meet up with friends thanks to life energy. When we have high life energy, we simply want to do things; we are proactive and have plenty of motivation. When we have low life energy, you know, you don't want to get out of bed in the morning and go to work.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Sometimes we just don't feel like it. We finish work, come home, and feel completely drained—washed out and stripped of all our energy. Why does that happen?

Nikolay Kirov: And we didn't spend the whole day digging in the garden, did we? Why does it happen? Because our brain accounts for 2% of our body weight but consumes 20% of our energy. Energy understood as water, oxygen, and glucose. So, if you imagine sitting at a computer all day, fully focused on Excel, doing various tasks, just imagine that the factory we have inside our skull is consuming massive amounts of oxygen. So, by 5:00 or 6:00 PM, we get up and we are exhausted, even though we basically haven't moved all day, because we lack oxygen in our system, there was a lot of tension throughout the day, and we used up all our water, oxygen, and glucose. And along the way, we didn't take care to rest, to go to the kitchen and drink some water, right? We didn't take a break to take a diaphragmatic breath, and as a result, we feel wiped out.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: And what tires us out the most in everyday life?

Nikolay Kirov: What tires us out the most in everyday life?

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Since we are capable of getting tired just by existing, because we are creatures that—even right now, as we sit here together—are using up a portion of our energy, I wonder what tires us out the most and what we should pay attention to?

Nikolay Kirov: The tension we generate within our bodies. By constantly answering calls, writing emails, rushing to meetings, and drinking coffee after coffee, we fail to notice how much tension we are carrying. And this tension... Imagine how our brain works. The moment tension arises in the body, the brain sends a signal to the adrenal glands to produce adrenaline and cortisol.

As a result, we divert all our oxygen downward to support our muscles, heart, liver, and so on. This is why we feel exhausted—because we are constantly tense, never giving ourselves a break. Generally, we cannot avoid stress because it is an automatic response. As soon as we pick up the phone, our cells immediately tense up.

But we can give ourselves the right to recover. And what exhausts us the most, I would say, is that we don't grant ourselves that right. Look at how we function—from project to project, from email to phone call, from phone call to Teams. We just keep running, running, running, running through life, never giving ourselves the chance to catch our breath.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: In your publications, I noticed you focused at one point on an "information diet." Is that a useful tool here? What is it exactly, and can we use it for support?

Nikolay Kirov: The information diet became a huge hit around the beginning of COVID. In the book you mentioned, "Life Energy Management," we wrote a chapter about it, and we released that chapter as a promotional excerpt to magazines to help market the book.

It turned out to be a massive success because an information diet is about what you consume and how much of it. The news bombards us with war, COVID, and death tolls. Generally, the news industry thrives on selling things that are taxing for our bodies, because our nervous system—and specifically our reptilian brain—has been tracking threats for millions of years. It used to be interested in lions. So, it is hardwired to constantly scan for threats to our survival.

So, this news enters our system very easily because our brain is accustomed to it. But at the same time, it is constantly signaling for the production of cortisol. While our ancestors, who ran from a lion and—thank God—managed to escape, would spend the next three weeks recovering in a cave, we go from one news story to the next, from one email to another.

The thesis we proposed—and it’s not my invention, but a concept that has been circulating in the 21st century for some time—is that we should only consume as much information as we need to make sound decisions. The moment we consume too much, it becomes detrimental.

Of course, this isn't about never watching TV or reading anything online. The question is how much you do it. If you are constantly diving deeper into news about the war, COVID, the economy, or politics, you are essentially telling your brain to send a request—or rather, a command—to your adrenal glands to produce cortisol every time you read the same information. The goal is to read just enough to stay informed and make sensible decisions, without tormenting your body in the process.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: There used to be a pattern we were accustomed to, back in the days of traditional, scheduled television. We would watch news programs one after another: "Teleexpress" at 5:15 PM, then regional news, one or two major evening news broadcasts, and finally "Panorama" at night. Today, we have so many sources. Over a decade ago, it was estimated that we processed about 35 GB of data daily. Last year, I heard that this figure had reached 85 GB. 85 GB of data is a massive information stream. How do we implement self-restraint? We are constantly thinking about energy management. How do we learn to limit ourselves?

Nikolay Kirov: There are two ways. One—we make the decision ourselves. Two—life starts teaching us. The second way is much harder. It means that by the time life starts teaching us, we have hit a wall. We’ve taken on too much, we’re consuming too much negative news, it takes a toll on the body, and psychosomatic illnesses begin to appear.

At that point, we naturally cut ourselves off from the news because we have to take care of our own bodies, right? So, look at the wisdom of the body—through illness, it tells us exactly what we need to stop. However, the second way, the one that is, let’s say, more beneficial for us...

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: ... "proactive"?

Nikolay Kirov: "Original," yes. You simply have to make a decision and tell yourself "Stop." However, a problem arises here, again related to our brain, because our brain loves dopamine. For it, quick hits of dopamine are associated with checking off another email, replying, or answering another phone call, and the brain thinks it is controlling reality. I know, I've read everything in the news, I've caught up on all the news sites. As a result, our ego feels like it's in control of the situation, but it's actually starting to harm our body by simply giving it more hits of dopamine and cortisol.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: We are in a world that is, on one hand, consumed by a FOMO-phobic experience—the fear of being out of mobile network range, that we will miss out on something because of this FOMO. On the other hand, "phubbing" appears in relationships, which is a situation where, while I am in contact with you, I am actually engaged with my phone the whole time. Can relationships—real relationships—help us disconnect from digital content?  

Nikolay Kirov: Yes, a relationship with another person. We will also be talking about this at the conference in October, so I would like to say a bit more there, but here, a relationship with another person is, in fact, what life is all about.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: See you in October at the Wellbeing Summit.

Nikolay Kirov: See you in October at the Wellbeing Summit. However, the Harvard studies, which have been popular for several years and are cited by everyone, and which have been going on for almost 100 years now, show that the only thing that matters in life is relationships with other people—deep ones at that. So, I have formed a hypothesis, which I will want to share at the conference, that in the era of technology and AI, we will need more and more deep relationships, the kind with another human being.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: The real kind. Also, the kind where, for example, fallibility and making mistakes appear, and there is space to accept one's weaknesses.

Nikolay Kirov: That is human, isn't it? But the moment we try to avoid that, a game begins, politics enter the relationship, and then the trouble starts. And that harms our cells because they tense up, stress begins, and that naturalness and authenticity are lost.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Of course. Let's go back to energy for a moment. I'm thinking about energy and the principle of conservation of energy in physics, which states that the total amount of energy is constant. It changes its forms. Could it be similar with life energy?

Nikolay Kirov: You caught me off guard with that question. I don't have a prepared answer, but let's stick to the laws of physics—everything changes its state, so it should absolutely be the case.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: In that case, I will lean on Sigmund Freud, who described psychic energy as one of these forms. And I thought about how this division of energy into creative energy—something that falls within the realm of libido, meaning the desire to act and create (it's not just sexual energy, it's also life energy, the kind that pushes us toward development and action)—could have an opposite, which would fall under the term "destrudo," meaning that destructive, damaging energy that causes us to suffer. Is it possible for this to align with that principle of physics?

Nikolay Kirov: I think so, 100 percent, because anger, for example, as an emotion and the energy it carries, can be used in two ways. You can use it destructively, to damage a relationship with another person or even something in your environment, or you can use that same anger constructively. You can start thinking and planning what you should do to prevent such situations from happening again. That is what we call constructively channeling the energy of anger. So, absolutely, by that principle, we can say that we can use it either destructively or creatively. It is the same energy—it depends on our decision what we do with it.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: So the key here is to notice the emotion within yourself, identify it, and then name it. Because if we are aware that what is happening around us is making us angry, we already have clear information about what is going on, which can serve as motivation for action, and again, we transform it into creative energy.

Nikolay Kirov: Yes. And you can make a decision.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: So this is an element of management?

Nikolay Kirov: Yes. Even the founder of the third Viennese school of psychotherapy, Adler—sorry, after Adler and Freud came Viktor Frankl—he said that between stimulus and response, there is a space for the freedom of your decision. We can make that decision. The trouble is that this space is only two seconds long. And the point is to direct that negative energy in a constructive direction.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: It’s a beautiful thing, this decision-making—I mean, leaving yourself that space to make a decision instead of being overly reactive. We are somewhat tethered to the role of having to act immediately and strive for a goal.

Nikolay Kirov: Life, especially in corporate environments, teaches us that we should reply to emails as quickly as possible, answer the phone, and rush to meetings, right? But we are increasingly realizing that it is worth setting up these 5-second or, ideally, 5-minute delays before replying to an email, going to the kitchen, and cooling down the frontal lobe—that’s what it’s nicely called—and then coming up with a more appropriate response instead of destroying a relationship with the other person. It’s about thinking about where that email and the demand on the other side are coming from, rather than just reactingively thinking, "What do they want from me now?" and so on.

So, that delay—taking a breath, drinking some water, and calming the frontal lobe so it can make the decision, and calming the amygdala—makes sense in today's world, and we see it more and more. That is what all these courses that help us calm down are for.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: I like this "five-minute" idea, because I once worked with an organization on employee support development where they proposed that online meetings should always start five minutes past the hour. They would end on the hour, but instead of switching from meeting to meeting, the team would have those few minutes to get a drink, let their eyes rest for a moment, or prepare for the next meeting. Those 5-minute breaks really resonated.

Nikolay Kirov: Microsoft research from about two and a half years ago on how Teams affects the human body showed that if you run a 2-hour meeting continuously, the amount of cortisol in your body is the same as that of someone who has been speaking in front of a large audience for 8 hours.

So imagine how much stress that is when you are sitting in front of a screen talking to someone or in a small Teams meeting. However, the same research showed that if we take a 10-minute break every 30 minutes to breathe and drink water, the amount of beta waves we send from the brain to the adrenal glands—and consequently the adrenaline and cortisol we create there—remains constant. It doesn't increase. So, basically, your brain doesn't "boil" after a 2-hour meeting when we take those 10-minute breaks every 30 minutes, whereas if we go straight through, everything lights up red.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Listening to what you're saying, Nikolay, I was wondering: did your time management skills emerge spontaneously, or did you develop them over time? Did they evolve? I ask because we’re both personal development geeks—we’re constantly iterating and improving things.

Nikolay Kirov: They didn't emerge spontaneously; they developed over a long period, driven by burnout, which eventually raised my awareness. You know, as I said, at some point, either we make the decision ourselves, or life starts teaching us. In my case—and I’ve observed this in most people on this planet since then—life has to push us to a point where we start learning what is good for us and what isn't. So, for many years, I drove myself toward burnout until one day my body said, "Enough, we’re not going any further together."

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: What happened then?

Nikolay Kirov: My test results went in the wrong direction, and my body gave up. Imagine a sports car that was used to handling 150 meetings a day, 280 emails, and 350 phone calls in between. I’m talking about myself, and I’m only slightly exaggerating those numbers.

Imagine a sports car speeding toward a cliff. Or a wall. Luckily for me, the car gave out—the brakes kicked in right before the cliff—but I managed to stop it, turn it around, and hit the gas in the other direction. I started learning what I was doing to myself to end up in that state. There’s so much to it—from many angles—physiology, mindset, work habits, what we eat, what we consume, how we sleep, and so on.

But because I acted quickly in the right direction to fix how my body was functioning, I managed to get it together—and that’s why we’re talking today. Because a colleague of mine who was in the same state...

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: I’m glad we’re talking today.

Nikolay Kirov: Yes, me too, because I was about to say that my colleague who was in the same state at the time didn't act quickly enough, and he’s no longer with us today. At that time, I was the Director of Development Strategy at the Kozminski Executive Business School. We have over 100 postgraduate programs there. Mostly managers attend. Some programs, like the Executive MBA, are primarily for CEOs and directors. When I went back to the classroom where I was teaching and looked at everyone, I realized they fell into two categories: those running toward the wall who were about to be flattened—just like I had been—and those who already had that experience and were on the other side of the wall. For me, that wall is like a cartoon—the character runs toward the wall, hits it, and then slides down. So, either we have the experience of being the cartoon that already hit the wall, or we’re still running toward it.

I realized that, essentially, there are only these two categories of people. At that time, we had to redesign all our study programs, training courses, and everything else so that they started with what we would call "energy management" in today's world. But back in 2014, 2015, when I talked about energy management, everyone asked which energy sector I worked in.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: So, more about work-life balance.

Nikolay Kirov: Yes, it was about work-life balance. So, we introduced subjects to help managers manage themselves, which we called "Responsibility for Your Own Decisions."

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Nice.

Nikolay Kirov: Right? Because as I said at the beginning of our conversation today, the decisions we make are linked to how our brain functions.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: I fully agree with you, because at the university where I work, a significant block of professional competency courses has also been introduced. Among other things, I taught a course called "Self-Management in Stress" for two years. So, it’s the same wisdom of teaching people at the stage of committing to development how to deal with these problems. I think what I heard in your statement, which was undoubtedly very powerful, was that you—driving that speeding car, which was high-performance and ready for, presumably, very intense work—suddenly not only felt the consequences but realized the causality. Because there are certainly people, like the person you mentioned, who won't realize it in time.

Nikolay Kirov: You know, I think there’s a third group then—those who know, but don't do anything about it because they say, "You know, that's just life, money is important, we keep going," right?

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Meaning they still believe they have time and can keep pushing themselves.

Nikolay Kirov: Yes. And that ends with…

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: What happens next?

Nikolay Kirov: Well, it ends with hitting the same wall, right? Only the second time, the third time—and the question is, how much can the body take?

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: I see. All right. And what else helped you at that time, besides self-awareness, or awakening that awareness? I suspect there might be other factors that could have helped you. Did anything else support you? Did anyone support you in this? We were talking about relationships.

Nikolay Kirov: I think I could 100% count on my wife, who is very supportive in this regard and was with me during that same time and period. So, many of the things I managed to discover were thanks to her. And we come back to those deep relationships that are essential—having another person by your side to talk everything through, but also to support you in such difficult moments.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Could we consider the ability to manage one's own energy a trait that could be a competency for the modern human today?

Nikolay Kirov: Absolutely, this is something that can be learned. Fortunately, in the last five years alone, we’ve seen an explosion of literature on this topic in the Polish market. Scientific research has come a long way. We basically have access to everything. We know what we should be doing. We know what we shouldn't be doing. The only question is whether we make the decision not to do things that harm us and to do things that are beneficial for us.

And that is essentially what managing your own energy comes down to, and that’s when decisions—including business ones—start to make more sense. Because what do we know about the basics? That the brain needs sleep, the body needs rest, we need to drink the right amount of water to stay hydrated so it reaches the brain, we need to eat properly, cut out substances that don't help us in life, and that’s basically it—plus exercise. And some argue for three types of exercise, because…

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Some kind of physical activity, right?

Nikolay Kirov: Physical activity of three types, essentially. We need cardio—we all know and understand that by now—to keep the blood flowing properly. We need strength training so that our muscles work and we maintain proper body structure over the long term, because after the age of 35, muscle mass begins to decline. And the third type of movement is slow movement, such as Qigong, yoga, or Tai Chi.

Why do we need this slow movement? Because it significantly strengthens our ligaments, and the highest number of accidents in the world aren't car accidents; they are simple falls caused by our bodies not functioning correctly.

And this slow movement ensures that when we perform these movements very slowly and with full awareness, the brain receives all those signals, identifies what isn't working in specific areas, and sends back corrective signals. Let’s call it that for simplicity, as there is a lot of literature behind it.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: In that case, from an employer's perspective, does it make sense to support the competency of energy management among employees?

Nikolay Kirov: Absolutely. That’s a rhetorical question. Of course it does. Furthermore, look at what has been happening in recent years—how many companies are actually investing in raising awareness among their employees that they should take care of their energy. Depending on how you look at it, the employer obviously benefits because when you and I are in good shape, we complete more projects, earn more money, and so on. But on the other hand, it’s also beneficial for the individual, so you could say there are mutual benefits when each of us takes care of ourselves.

What an employer can also do is provide us with the space for this—either the tools, the time, or ideally both. In today's world, I’ve even heard that in Poland there are companies that pay you to go to the gym—not just by buying you a membership, but by actually paying you for the time you spend there. For me, that was a "Wow, we are in a completely different place now, aren't we?" I’m not saying it’s everywhere, but I have heard of such a case.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: So, time is set aside for physical activity?

Nikolay Kirov: Yes, it’s scheduled and you are paid to go to the gym. That was the most interesting part to me.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: OK, so if I understand correctly—from an employer's point of view—it makes sense to support employees so that after finishing work, where they feel engaged and have the energy and desire to act, they don't run out of that energy. Because I can imagine that some people work at, quote-unquote, "100%" and get their job done, but then they experience that "unplugged" effect and have absolutely no strength left for anything else.

Nikolay Kirov: And that’s when family relationships suffer, because when I’m exhausted from work and come home, who do I take it out on? My loved ones—the people who depend on me and love me, because they’ll forgive me, right? That’s when home life starts to fall apart, and once things start crumbling at home, it spills over into your work, and the cycle continues.  

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: I’m the kind of person who—maybe not like a high-performance sports car, but I’ve been running at high revs, regularly replying to a huge number of emails, trying to avoid a situation where someone might wait too long for my response. I almost always call back, I’m constantly checking messages on my three messaging apps. On top of that, I’m scrolling through social media in between, but after listening to our meeting, I’d like to change something. I want to change how I manage my energy. Where should I start?

Nikolay Kirov: By setting the right priorities.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Priorities?

Nikolay Kirov: Yes. When you’re on a plane, there’s a moment during the safety briefing when they say: if the oxygen masks drop, put yours on first, then help the person next to you, and then the child. Many people think, "But wait, if I’m flying with a child, I should save them first," right? But look, if we’re suffocating and struggling with the mask next to them, we won’t be able to put it on them or ourselves. So, if we want to help everyone—and what you mentioned earlier, which people often call responsibility—I’m so responsible that I answer every email, return every call, give people rides, help out, stay late, do the project for someone else, and so on—because I’m responsible for my company, my team, etc. But at some point, these people run out of energy and collapse.

What happens then? If we’re lucky, we end up on sick leave. If we’re not, then—as my mentor says—we end up in the ground. And now, if you end up in the ground...

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: A radical solution.

Nikolay Kirov: Radical. And now, if you end up in the ground, what happens next? Your husband or wife is left without a life partner, the kids are left without a dad or mom, and the company and the boss who had a very valuable employee—who handled so much for them—no longer have that person, and suddenly many people in the company are left without that person’s guidance.

So, is it really responsibility if we’ve left them all behind? The point is, if we correctly understand the word "responsibility," we are responsible to ourselves first. Once we take care of this organism, only then can you take care of the whole world—your children, your wife, your husband, and your company.

When we set our priorities this way—and that’s why I said the first thing to start with is setting your life priorities correctly—you know that you first have to plan when you’ll take care of your body: eating well, eating the right food, getting enough sleep, finding time to sleep, finding time to train, to go for a run, to walk in the park. Each of us needs a different kind of movement—choose the one that suits you.

No one is telling you to jump into a gym and start lifting barbells right away, but you can go for a run, a jog, or head to the pool. We have plenty of alternatives. Each of us needs something for ourselves. But look at how most people operate: "I’ll take care of myself when I find the time—once I clear all my emails, put the kid to bed, and take care of everything else, then I’ll find time for myself."

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: There can be even more difficult motivations and goals, like "I’ll take care of myself when I pay off my loan," or "I’ll take care of myself when the child finishes school."  

Nikolay Kirov: Exactly – "I'll travel the world when I retire."

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: For example.

Nikolay Kirov: Exactly. And by the time you reach that point, you no longer have the energy to even start your retirement. I had a friend who claimed he would travel the world once he retired. He barely made it to retirement and now he doesn't leave the house because he physically can't. All his illnesses suddenly flared up. So, if you have dreams, you need to take care of yourself first to be able to achieve them – and you have to do it consistently.

I can tell you about my own experience. Between 2008 and 2010, when I was on the path to burnout, I basically didn't take a single day of vacation. For 2-3 years. Sure, I was technically on vacation, but while skiing, I had headphones in my ears and the phone was ringing non-stop, or I was the one making calls. I didn't even notice the space around me in the mountains.

And that, of course, meant my body didn't have time to rest and recover. In today's world, a few years ago, it used to be that in our company, we would all sit down once a year and say, "Okay, let's plan the most important things for the next two years, and then we'll deal with work." And what is the most important thing? – When everyone is taking their vacation.

And we only planned our projects and the work we had to do around our vacations. Of course, not everyone can do it this way, but if you have the opportunity, I would say you should plan your recovery time first, and only then plan your work around it.

And in today's world, I measure my professional development by the number of days off I take. Over the last few years, I've brought that up to 180. So, in 15 years, I went from a phase of total burnout – not a single day of vacation, thinking, "The world will collapse without me, right?" I thought I was the center of the universe, to knowing that the world won't collapse without me, it will keep going, so I must take care of my recovery. That's why we plan these trips and vacations – to have the strength so that when I am working, I give 100% of myself.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Let's assume we're at work. We feel a solid energy drop and we need to recover it as quickly as possible because we know we have one or two really important meetings ahead of us, but we feel like something is going very, very wrong. Do you have a method for bouncing back?

Nikolay Kirov: What will most people do in such a situation? They'll grab a coffee. And what should most people do in such a situation?

Nikolay Kirov: A glass of water?

Nikolay Kirov: A glass of water. I mean, a glass of water, stand for a moment, look at the greenery around you, quiet your mind, and gather that energy inward. Most people at that moment say, "Okay, let's do something faster so that our adrenal glands provide us with adrenaline and cortisol, so I can push through these next few projects."

I think that calming down and focusing will show us whether it's really worth doing it now, or if it's better to postpone it. Because if these are truly important projects and your brain isn't working at that moment because you've exhausted it with the amount of oxygen-deprived, shallow breathing over the last few hours, your creativity isn't functioning. So, if you want to solve this problem and manage your creativity sensibly, sometimes it's worth resting for a moment so that your brain can work and be more effective and efficient, and you might even come up with a better solution.

In the West, they also came up with the power nap – those famous 15-20 minute naps that are worth taking in the afternoon, say between 1:00 PM and 3:00 PM. A power nap is important because, of course, you shouldn't sleep longer than those 20 minutes.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Yes, because you enter a deep sleep.

Nikolay Kirov: We enter a deep sleep, and then we have the second part of the day... Well, yes.

Nikolay Kirov: Do you think that's possible at work?

Nikolay Kirov: I've seen it in Asia. People are able to take a 20-minute nap at their desks, over their computers.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: So, if we see a colleague at work whose energy has dropped, like a tablet that has completely run out of battery, we shouldn't wake them up, we should give them time, but if it turns out that fifteen minutes have passed, then we give them a gentle nudge.

Nikolay Kirov: Yes, yes, that would be great, but I haven't heard of such a case in Poland where someone did that, because look, why don't we do that? Because the power nap, as some call it, was invented as a slogan in the West, but that West had 300 years to make money. And here in Poland, since 1990, we've only had 35 years to catch up with them financially. So they can afford to take power naps, but you can't sleep in Poland – "Grab the wheelbarrow and keep running," right? Coffee and off you go.

And that is what causes us, because we want to catch up to the prosperity that is understood in the West as material wealth, money, cars, apartments, houses, we don't give ourselves the right to regenerate. Poland is one of the countries with the highest rates of workaholism, right? We are in a specific place, which is why we are learning energy management here. Notice that in the south, Italians don't have to learn energy management. Neither do the Spanish, because they simply have their siesta. They know that in the evening you have to go out with friends for a glass of wine, etc., etc. And there is a different work mode there. In Africa, you don't have to learn to manage your own energy either.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: What happened to us in Europe and in the countries we call, in quotation marks, "developed"?

Nikolay Kirov: We are chasing money, that's obvious.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: OK, so Let's get started. The beginning of the day. How should you start your morning so you don't burn yourself out or waste too much energy?

Nikolay Kirov: Maybe I'll tell you about my morning routine.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Please do.

Nikolay Kirov: I get up between 5:00 and 6:00 AM. I used to have this tendency to force myself to wake up at 5:00, but now I know better—I need to cut myself some slack. So, between 5:00 and 6:00. The first thing I do is drink two glasses of water to hydrate my body.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Right, because you haven't had anything to drink for eight hours, and you lose fluids through sweat and breathing while you sleep, so you're replenishing that.

Nikolay Kirov: Exactly. I make sure to get at least eight hours of sleep. I’m very strict about that. Sometimes I’m face-planting into my pillow by 8:30 PM. But I try not to stay up past 10:00 PM.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: So you also find yourself, quote-unquote, "face-planting" in the evening—meaning you feel completely exhausted?

Nikolay Kirov: Of course. We’re only human. When we work, we also need to recover. So, we wake up in the morning, drink two glasses of water, and then, depending on your needs and skills, everyone should do something to oxygenate their body.

I personally start with Qigong. You see, it involves deep breathing—Qigong is like Tai Chi, if you will, but it focuses on working with your internal organs and energy. Through specific breathing techniques, we pump huge amounts of oxygen into the body. You could go for a light jog or do some yoga instead.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: How many years have you been practicing Qigong?

Nikolay Kirov: Ten years now.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: That’s 10 already, and if someone doesn’t practice Eastern…

Nikolay Kirov: Then they should go to the pool.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Can you just do some breathing?

Nikolay Kirov: You can just breathe. The important thing is to do something for your body that stretches it out and gets oxygen flowing.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Is 10 minutes enough?

Nikolay Kirov: Listen, when I have absolutely no time, and those days happen, 10 minutes is enough. The important thing is that you do something at least once.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: For yourself, 10 minutes for yourself.

Nikolay Kirov: Yes, you don't have to jump straight into an hour, right? But those 10 or 20 minutes are always doable; you just need to get up a little earlier. Some people say, "But how can I get up earlier? I can barely open my eyes." Go to bed earlier. And here we come back to sleep as a key element. Then, once you’ve oxygenated your body, you need a breakfast that gives you the right kind of energy. And then we get to work, and I’m in the same boat as most people—phones are ringing, I’m in meetings, I’m answering emails. Every email, every phone call creates tension in the body. It’s automatic, but I’m burning the oxygen I supplied in the morning, so I don’t have to draw it from my prefrontal cortex when that tension hits. You need a few breaks throughout the day, and you have to do the same thing in the evening.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Wait, we’ll get to the evening in a moment, we’re still at work—tasks come up, sometimes we create extra tasks for ourselves, we’re quite skilled and capable at that, but before we take on another task, in the sense of another action or assignment, shouldn’t we be asking ourselves some questions? Like: "Is it worth it?", "What should I do?" What question would be worth asking yourself?

Nikolay Kirov: People talk about needing to take a moment for reflection. First of all, when you finish a previous task, consider whether that’s everything, whether you want to wrap something up before moving on to the next one, and before you start the next one, ask: "Is this what I should be doing right now?"

Let’s use a metaphor to illustrate this. You have 100 emails in your inbox. 98 of them are things everyone around you needs, and they only take a moment to answer. Then you have two emails that are truly vital for you, your work, and the results you’re responsible for, but unfortunately, each one will take you an hour or even an hour and a half to complete.

What do most people do in this situation? Which ones do they answer? Most people tackle the 98 emails to clear the deck. Unfortunately, while they’re answering those 98, another 30 or 50 emails land in their inbox throughout the day. So they keep clearing emails, and by 5:00 PM, once they’ve finally cleared the field, they look at those two important emails they were supposed to get to and say, "God, I have no energy left. I can’t figure this out today. I’ll do it tomorrow."

Then they wake up in the morning, open their computer, and there are those two emails from yesterday, each taking an hour, plus two new similar ones, and another 98 that are unimportant to them but very important to the world. And which ones do they answer? The ones that are more important to the world. And so it goes. Why do we do this? Because our brain feeds on dopamine. So, the moment I send an email, my brain gets a hit of dopamine—it’s like chocolate to it. And that chocolate says, "Wow, that feels good!" So I get another hit, and another, but I don’t do those two big tasks because getting the dopamine from them requires an hour of work—it’s like waiting for the whole cake.

So, what you’re talking about requires stopping and asking yourself: "Okay, which of these emails should I actually be answering? Which ones truly add value to what I’m doing, and which ones add value to other people’s lives?" Of course, it’s worth helping others, but what is more important for me right now so that I can fulfill my own tasks and responsibilities at work? It’s about taking a moment to reflect on what your priorities are.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: Now, let’s talk about coming home and wanting a nice "landing" approach. We already know that even experts sometimes come home running on fumes, heading straight for the pillow, looking for something to eat like a little hamster. How can we make the evening good for us and turn it into an investment for the next day?

Nikolay Kirov: I’ll counter that with another perspective. When most people come home exhausted, what do they do to relax? They sit in front of the TV, flip through channels, put on Netflix to watch some series, or have a glass of wine—or in the luxury version, a cognac—or maybe a beer.

None of that helps us regenerate our bodies. So what should we do? Here’s the other side of the coin: go for a walk, calm down, take a warm bath, and relax your body. You need to do whatever it takes to reset your nervous system. Everyone will have a different strategy or technique, and different things will work for different people, but the core message is the same: "Reset your nervous system and rest so you can prepare for sleep." Because it’s not as simple as just saying, "I’m going to go to sleep," is it? Most people try to go to sleep, but unfortunately, they wake up in the middle of the night, fail to enter deep sleep, and struggle with it. So, what we need in the evening is to wind down so the body can actually fall asleep, stay asleep, and regenerate overnight.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: And if we have one of those nights where we wake up repeatedly, feeling anxious, stressed, or just having something on our minds, what should we do about a night like that?

Nikolay Kirov: Well, by then it’s already too late. That means we’ve allowed stress to take hold of us. I would say that starting the next day, you need to get to work as soon as possible—find some distance, take a breath, and look for tools to ensure you don’t have nights like that again. We have plenty of tools in today’s world.

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: I understand that we can adopt the mindset of experts in our own lives, including how we manage ourselves. It means that if we are great researchers in other areas—like when you mentioned those two difficult emails—that should be our priority.

Gather the data, think about why you’re feeling bad, why your body is telling you, "Enough, I can’t do this anymore!", why work has stopped being enjoyable, and why you feel no pleasure when you get home. After checking all those things, make yourself the priority. Did I understand that correctly?

Nikolay Kirov: And for that, you have a ton of tools. There are so many podcasts and books out there today that show us what we should be doing. You know, many people won’t just take your word for it if you say, "You should do this and that," but when they read the research and understand why it’s worth it, they say, "Okay, I can take charge of myself."

Dr. Andrzej Silczuk: I think one of those sources is this conversation with you. Thank you very much, Nikolay. It was an intellectual feast and an interesting journey, like writing out the pieces of our everyday lives. This was the "Well Said" program in the Multi.Life space. My guest was Nikolay Kirov. Thank you very much.

NikolayKirov: Thank you