It is now easy to see how sleep, nutrition, movement, stress relief and emotional control, and thinking—the physical, emotional, and mental components of the energy elements—can benefit a person. These five elements are an integral part of any health education or wellness program ever created, and no doubt your doctor, workplace wellness coordinator, or life coach has studied them. Get more restful, restorative sleep. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Be physically active every day. Control your stress. Think positively.

But despite your best efforts, you may feel as if something is missing. A person can never reach their highest bioenergetic potential unless Community and Purpose—the spiritual component of the energetic elements—is included, and there is a reason our genes are wired this way. This mutual symbiotic dependence was the only way multicellular life evolved. We are what we are today because cells worked together in synergy to form the complexity of life on Earth. Our cells—and ourselves—are meant to thrive as individuals, of course, but ultimately as a group, so that we can give back and uplift the community for the greater good.

For example: A heart cell needs to be the best heart cell it can be in order to fulfill its purpose and pump oxygen- and nutrient-enriched blood throughout the body as efficiently as possible. The brain, liver and lungs receive life-sustaining nutrition provided by the cells of other fully functioning organs. If the heart cell decides, I’m not going to follow my goal. I want to filter the blood like kidney cells, not pump the blood, not only will this cause the circulation to collapse, but the cellular process of converting one type of cell into another is what causes cancer.

The whole organism will only flourish when each cell fulfills its unique purpose and maximizes its potential. And this can only happen when the cell receives signals from a high bioenergetic state.

Excerpt from Thrive State, 2nd Edition: Your Blueprint for Optimal Health, Longevity, and Peak Performance Kien Wu, MD, by permission of the publisher.