Instead of working harder and harder for gradually decreasing returns, change your strategy.
Time isn’t the issue, energy is.
Manage your energy wisely. Much like time, energy is finite.
We only have a limited amount before we’re forced to refuel and recharge.
The Four Pillars of Energy Management
1. Physical
The mind and body are connected. One impacts the other. Exercise is crucial for the mind to work optimally.
In our sedentary world, one thing is for certain: we don’t get enough physical activity.
The body must stay active in order for blood circulation to be optimal.
If there’s not enough blood going to the brain, your thinking becomes sluggish and impaired.
TIPS ON BOOSTING PHYSICAL ENERGY!
2. Mental
Decrease digital media consumption. Don’t fill your mind with junk entertainment and ideas.
And that includes mindless scrolling on YouTube or hours upon hours of social media use – CUT IT OUT!
A clear, unobstructed mind will be of great benefit when maximizing your energy output.
TIPS ON BOOSTING MENTAL ENERGY!
3. Emotional
Find connection and community somewhere, anywhere.
Face and release negative emotions but don’t dwell on them.
This will optimize your emotional wellbeing.
Emotions are best analogized as water. Much like water, emotions need to flow, not stagnate.
Streams of water always flow towards the largest collection body of water. Water always tries to reach the lowest point.
The way in which water behaves holds symbolic meaning for human beings. Everyone desires to find some emotional depth and fulfillment through the physical.
We need places that allow us to feel a sense of stability (AKA community). Without this, our energy gets impacted. We may try to mask the need through escapist behaviors and self-isolating activities.
Numbing our emotional compass creates a negative spiral of energy mismanagement!
Instead of focusing on your craft or passion, you end up numbing emotional pain through an addiction or constant distraction (excessive social media use).
TIPS ON BOOSTING EMOTIONAL ENERGY!
4. Spiritual
Meditation: Take time each day, preferably in the morning, to become mindfully aware of your breath and body, to enter the present moment that exists outside of mental activity.
Visualization: guide your life in right direction and give more purpose and intention to your day. Practice this skill daily.
Spiritual energy allows life to operate with a little more grace. It’s necessary that we open up our spiritual centers (like the crown chakra) in order for cosmic energy to flow through.
TIPS ON BOOSTING SPIRITUAL ENERGY!
Tips on Maximizing Your Physical Energy
Breath. Conscious breathing is a great way to generate more physical energy AND to positively impact the mental state.
Intermittent fasting. Avoid overeating and this will direct more energy towards mental tasks rather than the physical toll of digesting food.
Diet. Try to eat clean, fresh, non-processed foods. Avoid fatty, heavy meats or dairy products. These make the mind sluggish and dull.
Water. Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Stay hydrated, basically.
GET SLEEP. This can be the most difficult task of them all. If you wish the mind to operate at its highest capacity, you’ll need at LEAST 8 hours of sleep each night – if not more.
Create rituals and follow them. Daily rituals make full use of the physical vessel. The body has memory.
When you start waking up, going to sleep, and exercising at a certain time, the body will automatically get geared up for that activity when the time comes.
See? The body remembers.
By creating habitual patterns of behavior to follow each and every day, you’ll be more likely to stay on task and maintain a high level of productivity.
Tips on Maximizing Your Mental Energy
The way you spend your “off time” or your rest and relaxation periods will greatly impact your work.
You must practice focusing the mind intently on tasks all day everyday.
Even during your vacation periods, you should become focused and mindful in everything you do.
If you want to maximize your mental ability, you’ll need to absolutely quit scrolling through social media unconsciously. When you use the internet, use it for a purpose -a defined end goal. This takes up too much mental energy and ruins the ability to concentrate on tasks for prolonged periods of time.
The Power of Concentration, by Theron Q. Dumont, says that if one focuses intensely on pleasure just as one does during periods of intense work, the mind will become disciplined.
Tips on Maximizing Your Emotional Energy
Get rid of toxic relationships with energy vampires (people who drain you).
Set good boundaries. Do not let other people dump their problems onto you.
Say positive, empowering things about yourself. Start to strengthen your inner-conviction in who you are and what you’re worth. Become your own advocate, as it were.
Tips on Maximizing Your Spiritual Energy
Expansion and contraction. Masculine and feminine. Positive and negative. Yin and Yang. This duality is a universal, spiritual principle and exists everywhere. This up-down-cycle also explains how your energy behaves.
The moment you have a spike, you’ll have a fall. Learn to manage these two states.
Have you ever had an incredibly productive day, only for it to be followed by a zombified state of going through the motions and barely making a dent in your goals?
What goes up MUST come down.
This is why it’s important to carefully manage your energetic cycles of exertion and restraint.
- Practice contemplation and going within, withdrawing the senses and focusing on the true self, the spirit.
- Practice mindfulness where you detach your identity from thinking.
This way, you’ll avoid being drained after periods of intense “doing.” You’ll also recover more quickly during your “down time.”
Patience, Energy Management Takes Time
Changing everything about your life all at once rarely ever works. Start small.
Make incremental changes to how you approach and structure your day. Doing some of these things should dramatically enhance your capacity to manage your energy, resulting in a more fulfilling, successful life.
