The Life Doctor

ARE YOU always tired? Have you lost your enthusiasm? Your joy? Have you stopped finding pleasure in other people's success? Most people say yes (except that many never found pleasure in others' success). Well, fortunately yet another ancient ancient healing method has been discovered (is there no end to them?)

What is appealing about this, Autokinetics, is that it takes no more than ten minutes a day and is no effort whatsoever. If it starts becoming an effort you have to stop.

In essence, Autokinetics is shaking yourself into a bit of a trance and hooking up with the universal life force. The Energy Break by psychotherapist Bradford Keeney, which explains Autokinetics, is published later this month. He says, "I once dreamed of going to the Kalahari Desert and dancing with the Bushmen. My dream was realised. I experienced their healing dance, fell into its trance and felt their healing energy. I learned how it is possible to bring the vital life force directly into your own body."

Cool. But you don't need to discover your own indigenous forgotten people to enjoy the effects. Thanks to the Life Doctor, you can do it in the office. Here's How.

1. Finding your natural rhythm. Sit on a hard chair. Deep breath, eyes closed and slowly start rocking back and forth. Shake all parts of the body vigorously, huff and puff to move chest. Concentrate on moving everything (rude bits excepted) in a natural rhythm. When you reach a climax (see previous parenthesis) stop suddenly and let body fall into a movement that feels right. Swing a pendulum in front of your eyes, watch it's own natural movement. Connect to that pendulum so that you are soon swinging naturally too.

2. The really embarrassing bit. Now your natural rhythm is up and running, it is time to open the flow of improvised energy. Let your energy lead you where it will. Keeney suggests "dance-like movements, body postures or make sounds, chirp, growl, sing." There is no right or wrong, just don't try too hard. The improvisation process empties your mind to achieve a similar state to meditation without the boredom.

3. Enter the tuning zone. The last two stages are, apparently, like preparing to surf a good wave. Only in Autokinetics the next step is not beached- up with wet sand up your nose. No, you will enter the tuning zone, which will re-energises you or, as Bradford Keeney puts it "you fall into a frequency that resonates with the pulse of earth's life force and find yourself being charged with vitality".

Do it every day for a minute to start with, building up to ten, if you want. Do it whenever you feel you need to be refreshed - after a meeting, waiting for a bus.

So does it work? Rachel Strain, assistant director of training at the Central London YMCA, reckons that Autokinetics at least sounds like fun. "The best thing about them maybe is that if you start jumping around in the office it's bound to make you laugh, which is a great stress reliever." And having a bit of a shake will also change your posture. "After a day on a computer terminal," says Rachael Strain, "your shoulders are rounded, your muscles are more tense, this will release them. But I think the main advantage is psychological."

Fortunately, I share my office with open-minded types. We all had a go, with some success. The energy produced by the wiggling seemed to send a tingle round the body. It felt roughly like two glasses of champagne - only cheaper. One word of warning, however. While in many guises Autokinetics has been part of traditional cultures round the globe for thousands of years, English "Shakers" were forced to flee to America in 1780 for being too weird.

I think that may account for a lot.

'The Energy Break' by Bradford Keeney PhD is published by New Leaf at pounds 7.99