I love the power of personal energy and love working with clients to build their energy reserves. I’m acutely aware of how much everyday life is impacted when our energy levels are low. You have more natural energy when your environment, relationships, health and emotional balance are operating at high levels and when you have more natural energy your life will flow with greater ease. The trick is embedding daily routines to build your personal energy, whilst vigilantly minimizing or eliminating potential energy draining threats.
Having recently completed a fabulous three-day road trip – horse hunting with my daughter, I returned completely depleted. It has taken me several days to get back into routine and to feel energized again
We had a great trip I really didn’t have to do much, aside from driving 1000 kilometers and enjoy watching my daughter ride. The real issue was three days of poor quality sleep; take away food, no exercise and no meditation. Not only did I return home feeling tired and uninspired, but oh so cranky! All I wanted was to eat some healthy food and get a good night’s sleep. The fridge was bare, no salad in sight. My husband John kindly went to the supermarket to source said salad. He returned with what was an extremely poor excuse for a salad; so limp and out of date it was barely edible. Not the fresh or nourishing salad I was hankering for. All I wanted was to eat something healthy! To say I was shattered is an understatement, I really wanted to yell at him for not providing the delicious salad I desperately wanted. I was frazzled and angry, beside myself. Thankfully my awareness kicked in, I took a moment to pause and remind myself that this was not his fault, and it certainly wasn’t the end of the world. I quietly sat with my annoyance and realized what this was really all about…..
I was exhausted and drained of energy. I hadn’t eaten or slept well, hadn’t exercised, read, or meditated, basically I hadn’t taken good care of myself – for three days. While I wasn’t falling apart I could detect a slight frazzling of my emotions. Just three days away from my self-care routine and the impact was significant. Fortunately, I had the awareness to sense what was going on realizing that this was not about anyone else, it was about my heightened emotional distress due to significant energy drain. The solution; rebuild my energy reserves… A couple of days back into my self-care regime and I was feeling emotionally stable and re-energized.
I had forgotten what a difference a daily regime of good self-care habits makes. Not only to how I feel, but equally how I interact with others and how energized I am to do what I need and want to do. When we don’t take good care of ourselves, it does have an impact on everything around us, including how we show up in the world.
I had three days out of my routine, three days of not taking good care of myself. Imagine a week, a month or a lifetime of limited self-care. I challenge my clients to dedicate a month to adopting a personal self – care routine, giving themselves a chance to see how it feels to run on 100% energy, vs. the typical 50% or lower most people operate on. Not only do they feel more energized, they are happier, accomplish more, interact more effectively both personally and professionally. Simply put, life feels better.
Many people struggle to achieve their goals or follow their dreams, not because they don’t have the skills, the desire or the vision, often it’s due to lack of energy. To get the best out of yourself, feel great, and perform well, we need to invest in taking good care of ourselves.