Energy is your life-force, it’s the vital energy that flows through your body, helping to keep your body and mind in balance; in Chinese medicine this is called Qi. Your body is designed to be vibrant and full of life but modern stressful lifestyles leave us feeling depleted. There is nothing normal about this and your body is longing to be healthy again!
If you’re looking for help in this area of your life, please read on and discover how you can restore your body’s natural vibrancy, amplify your energy and say goodbye to feeling exhausted!
Before we look at how to cultivate energy, it makes sense to understand what it is that zaps our energy. So first, let’s take a look at what it is about our lifestyles that can bring us out of balance:
Work - We spend a good portion of our waking hours at work. If your job isn’t something you love and feel passionate about, spending so much time there can be a real drain on your energy. Also, work environments can be pretty stressful and often require us to do things that are unnatural for our bodies - for example, sitting in front of a computer 8 hours a day.
Stress - There can be many sources of stress in our daily lives. Worrying about money, relationships, overwhelm, work and family.
Food - Highly processed foods are very much the norm nowadays and these do not provide our bodies with the nutrients and fuel we need. Eating processed foods can also lead to gut inflammation, unstable blood sugar levels and even autoimmune conditions. All of which can have a big impact on our energy levels.
Pressure - Our society puts a lot of emphasis on being perfect, we are constantly confronted by images of perfect looking people, with perfect homes, jobs and families. We are expected to want to overachieve and that can put a lot of pressure on us, leading us to overwhelm and loss of confidence and motivation.
And here is the thing: if we carry on living lives that do not align with what we want and need, if we keep feeling constant stress, exhaustion and overwhelm, eventually we can suffer from burnout.
Signs of approaching burnout are: fatigue, irritability, exhaustion, headaches, stomach aches, reduced creativity and feeling less capable. You may not notice symptoms immediately but once it takes hold, it can affect all aspects of your life.
Now, let’s look at how to get that energy back!
Here are some activities that replenish energy:
- Quality time and conversations with loved ones
- Meditation, restorative yoga, qigong and tai chi
- Reducing use of social media
- Listen to music you enjoy
- Do something that makes you happy like a hobby or a relaxing time with friends
- Spend time in nature
- Getting enough sleep
Doing these as much as possible will help you recharge and bring you into an energy surplus.
If you don’t have enough time to do these things, you can try ‘layering’ tasks; what I mean by layering is, when you are going to do something that drains your energy, counteract it by doing something at the same time that replenishes it. For example, if sitting in front of a computer drains your energy, try playing relaxing music in the background, sit on a stability ball and take 15 minute tai chi breaks from time to time.
When we take time to make sure that we have more energy than we are using in our daily lives, we are creating the conditions that will assure our happiness, health and wellbeing.
I hope you found this blog article useful and if you have any questions, please get in touch!