Personal Ecology: Why sustainable performance starts with the body

We are increasingly aware of the environmental costs of overexploitation: depleted soils, exhausted ecosystems, and resources pushed beyond their limits. And yet, when it comes to ourselves, many of us continue to live as though our own energy were infinite.

In a recent talk, university professor Tessa Melkonian introduced the concept of l’écologie personnelle (personal ecology), a way of understanding ourselves as unique, living ecosystems with rhythms, limits, and needs that deserve respect. Listening to her, I was struck by how precisely this mirrors what we see every day in founders and entrepreneurs.

A society at odds with the body

Our society rewards speed, productivity, constant availability and visible achievement. Rest is tolerated only if it is earned, and often only if it can be justified as a way to “optimise performance”. Slowing down, listening to our body, or admitting tiredness can easily be accompanied by guilt or shame.

Dr Melkonian describes a powerful paradox many of us live with:

“My body tells me to rest, but my mind pushes me to perform”.

The thinking mind, shaped by conditioning, expectations and internalised norms, frequently overrides the body’s signals. Hunger, fatigue, tension, the need for movement or stillness are ignored in the name of “just one more task”. And if we do stop, we somehow feel weak, lazy, or inadequate.

Over time, this disconnection takes a toll. The body keeps the score, as we know — through chronic stress, exhaustion, loss of motivation, irritability, loss of meaning and eventually burnout.

From energy optimisation to energy preservation

What Melkonian proposes is subtly but fundamentally different from the usual productivity discourse. The goal is not to optimise energy, squeeze more out of ourselves, or become ever more efficient.

It is important to know our limits, respect them, and preserve our energy.

This requires a shift in perspective: from seeing ourselves as machines to be pushed to recognising ourselves as ecosystems to be cared for. Every ecosystem has a carrying capacity. Exceed it for too long, and collapse becomes inevitable.

Sustainable performance rests on a dynamic balance between effort and recuperation.

Not relentless effort.
Not collapse and recovery.
But a living rhythm.

Effort without tension, rest that is fruitful

Two concepts I found particularly resonant are:

• Effort free of tension, and

• Productive or “fruitful” rest (repos fécond)

Effort does not have to be synonymous with strain. When our energy is aligned, when we work with our natural rhythms rather than against them, effort can feel engaged, focused, even satisfying.

Likewise, rest is not simply inactivity or collapse on the sofa. Fruitful rest restores, integrates, and replenishes. It allows the nervous system to reset, the body to digest experience, the mind to regain clarity and the soul to find meaning.

This kind of rest is not a luxury. It is a biological necessity.

And, yes, it is a rebalancing act that requires self-awareness.

Knowing your rhythms: a forgotten form of intelligence

A key aspect of nurturing our personal ecology is self-knowledge.

When are you naturally more alert?
When does your energy dip?
Which tasks require deep focus, creativity, or emotional presence, and when are you best placed to do them?

Many people know this intuitively but ignore it. Founders in particular often feel they should be available at all times, adaptable to everyone else’s pace, and responsive to constant demands. Listening to one’s own rhythm can feel counterintuitive, even risky.

And yet, it is precisely this awareness that allows performance to be sustained over time.

Ignoring rhythms does not make them disappear; it only increases the cost.

The myth of multitasking

Dr Melkonian also challenges another deeply ingrained belief: that multitasking is efficient.

Research consistently shows the opposite. Dividing attention degrades performance, increases cognitive load, and leads to more errors and fatigue. What feels like speed is often just fragmentation.

A healthier and more effective approach is single-tasking with clear priorities: doing one thing at a time, fully, in the right order.

This is not just about individual efficiency. In teams, respecting different rhythms and modes of functioning is essential for collective engagement. When we are forced into a uniform pace or constant urgency, we lose not only our vitality but also trust, motivation, and meaning. 

Founder first. Business second.

This brings me directly to our mission, here at the Weave.

Founder first; business second.

Without a regulated nervous system, a connected body, and a respected personal ecology, no business can thrive for long. Growth built on exhaustion is fragile by nature.

Founders are not separate from their businesses. Their energy, clarity, and capacity to decide are the business.

Sophrology: cultivating personal ecology in practice

Sophrology offers a practical, embodied way to nurture this personal ecosystem.

Through gentle movement, breathing, relaxation and intentional awareness, it helps reconnect the thinking mind with the body’s signals and needs. It creates space for fruitful rest, even within busy days. It trains awareness of tension before it becomes overload, and of fatigue before it becomes burnout.

Importantly, Sophrology does not ask people to withdraw from effort or ambition. It supports effort that is aligned, and rest that is regenerative, the very balance Melkonian describes.

For founders, this is not about doing less for the sake of it. It is about doing what truly matters, at the right time, with the right quality of presence.

A prerequisite for quality of life and sustainable performance

Nurturing one’s écologie personnelle is not self-indulgence. It is a responsibility.

Responsibility towards one’s health, one’s team, one’s business, and one’s life beyond work.

Perhaps the most radical act in our fast-paced society is to give ourselves permission to listen to: our body, to our rhythms, and to what allows us to endure and flourish over time.

Because without living ecosystems, nothing truly grows.

Join me, Sandrine Singleton Perrin and the team at The Weave as we bring founder wellbeing to the forefront of our mission.

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