The crisis of physiology revisited.

The Crisis of Physiology: Why Energy Is No Longer a Nice-to-Have

In 2015, I published an article in Tid & Tendenser, a Danish magazine focused on emerging trends. I called it The Next Crisis: The Crisis of Physiology. In it, I wrote:

“As an Executive Health Strategist, I must forewarn you of what I see as the next big crisis: The Crisis of Physiology. From my unique vantage point, we are witnessing the emergence of an energy-bankrupt population on a global scale. This will have implications for us as a society and for companies that depend on human capital.”

I asked a question that, at the time, sounded dramatic: Are we as a global society going to have to declare personal energy bankruptcy as we slowly burn out in the 21st-century work environment?

In 2015, even my husband — a top executive — felt I was being too dramatic. But the statistics were screaming at me. And so was what I was seeing with my clients lives… I realized our lives had changed even more than what we were aware of, and how we were caring for our body was decreasing in quality and scope resulting in us inadvertently degrading our energy and setting ourselves up for a major physiological crisis.

It is now 2026. I was not being dramatic. If anything, I understated it.

Our Times Have Changed

In that 2015 article, I referenced a term used by the US Military to describe the environment we live in: VUCA — Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity.

Even one of those conditions places enormous demands on the body. All four together create a perfect storm of stress, signalling an urgent need for increasing energy. Add to that the speed with which everything now changes, the overload of information, and the sheer relentlessness of modern leadership — and you begin to see how complex it is for the body to fuel the demands of our world.

In 2026, the world I warned about has arrived. The old order has fractured. We are building something new — new alliances, new technologies, new ways of operating. That is exciting. It is also physiologically punishing. From my vantage point today, i believe there is not one of us (in any age group or work designation) whose body is not affected and who doesn’t need access to more energy reserves. The more complexity you carry in your role, the greater your need for access to energy reserves.

Stress After Stress After Stress

In 2015, I wrote that stress was not forecast to decrease but to increase and become part of our way of life as society grows more complex and accelerated. I also wrote that I worried about our populations statistics for stress following our obesity statistics (from 1980 to 2015 we were every two years adding new obesity categories).

I worried we be adding new stress categories every couple of years as we became more and more burned out. And I ended my article by by asking the questions: Will we become a global society of zombies, living dead, not able to keep up with the pace of life, just surviving instead of living life to the fullest. And what happens to a society that has more stressed people than unstressed people inhabiting every home, office and school.

Since then: a global pandemic, climate events, war, mass migration, political upheaval, economic disruption, and the collapse of structures we assumed were permanent. One crisis after another, with almost no recovery between them.

I do not see this easing. We are moving into a world of AI, robotics, and entirely new economic and political structures. This transition demands that we are hardy, resilient, and able to operate in environments where the path is still being laid. Not being able to handle sustained pressure is simply not an option.

The Body Is an Energy-Producing Factory

In 2015, I wrote: Think of your body as an energy-producing factory. Every thought, emotion, and physical action either drains energy or builds energy.

I would add to that now: with depleted energy, you cannot sleep well, think clearly, regulate your stress, or even recover from a normal day. Literally everything you want to do — perform, decide, lead, be present for your family — requires energy.

So What Is the Crisis?

Our world has grown more complex and demanding, and our body is now subject to new stress tolerance and energy requirements. But we find ourselves unable to supply it — for three reasons.

First, most people do not even know their body is an energy-producing system. Second, they do not know how to activate their energy-building capacity or what options are available to them. Third, they do not know how to fuel or maintain the equipment — the body itself.

The result is that we are producing less and less personal energy in a time where we need more. This creates a serious mismatch between the demand for and supply of energy and results in what we popularly call stress — the reduced ability of the body to cope physiologically with both internal and external pressures.

When the body is depleted of energy and can’t fuel its cumulative stress load, it shifts into emergency protocols. Energy is rationed and redirected toward internal survival and repair, leaving almost nothing to fuel the activities of work, leadership, or life. You can’t push, pull, punish or reward yourself or another to perform at this stage… without increasing energy availability.

The Way Forward

The grander our vision, the more difficult the journey, and the more will be required from our body. For us to break through to a new level of performance, we need our body to tolerate a new level of challenge — and that requires access to a new level of energy.

In today’s environment, yesterday’s energy supply will at best be mediocre.

Today, you need what I call Long Haul Energy™.

It is your body’s own deep reserve system — nearly bottomless, steady through the full day, available on demand, and still there when you walk through the door at night. It is the energy that makes sustained leadership possible. You cannot get this from stimulants, drugs, or any of the usual ways you may think of. It requires a recalibration of our body on a physiological level.

And restoring your access to these energy reserves is the foundation of everything I do.