Hey there my friend!
Happy Monday from sunny Texas. My 16-year-old is off on a school mission trip to Greece, and my sweet 20-year-old is covering the amazing South by Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin for her newspaper (The Daily Texan), so Tom and I are enjoying an unusually empty nest this week…changes all around! 🙂
It’s March! March Madness is just around the corner and my thoughts go back to watching my college Basketball team. Do you remember the excitement of a close game? Back and forth the score went…up by 3, then up by 6, then down by 4, then back up…it was so exciting!
And then in the final seconds, with just 2 points separating the score, your school’s favorite player grabs the ball, races down the court, stops at the top of the key, sets himself, lifts his arms and lets fly the most perfect net-swishing 3-pointer and the game is yours!
You scream and jump and laugh and hug your friends and scream some more. Your body is suffused with happiness and good feelings! Your energy is off the charts and you, along with all your friends surge forward as one, racing onto the gym floor to celebrate together.
Ahhhhhh – deep breath. It’s so fun reliving that moment in my mind.
And this, my friend, is the magic of fully experiencing your feelings. Your body becomes fully alive and you are completely immersed in the sensations generated by your thoughts.
Hmmmm. So what does that example have to do with your life today?
Just as powerful as your thoughts and feelings were back in college, they are the same today.
You think about all you have to do, and you’re suddenly so tired you can’t move.
You think about the last “discussion” (ahem) you had with your spouse, and you can literally feel your blood pressure rising.
You think about the odd comment the mammogram technician said to you this morning when you got your annual mammogram, and your breathing suddenly becomes shallower and your chest tight.
The key in all these examples is how powerful our thoughts are. And how quickly our body will respond.
So if you’re struggling with low energy, apathy, or lack of motivation, I suggest you might want to take a look at what you are spending your time thinking about.
Because when we habitually think difficult thoughts, or maybe we shut those difficult thoughts and feelings down with buffering behavior like eating, drinking, shopping or gossiping, we are shutting down the energy flow.
Just like the energy flow of positive thoughts is overwhelming and all-consuming and like a supercharge to your system, the effort it takes to stop and block the difficult feelings is like a huge, heavy, wet blanket for your energy.
So the next time you’re feeling sluggish, try these quick fixes:
–Step outside and walk 50 steps in either direction…bonus if you move your arms and clap your hands and smile at the sky. Think about the beauty all around and the gratitude you have for being able to move.
–Stand up from your desk, take a deep breath in, lift your arms and eyes to the ceiling, smile big, and say “thank you” out loud…then let the air out, drop your arms, and repeat several times.
These simple physical movements can refill your energy tank and get you back on track.
Then, the next time you feel yourself wanting to go eat, (my issue), drink, scroll, shop, or whatever your buffering actions are:
–Sit still, take a few breaths, and look deep to see what feeling is actually happening inside. I feel my difficult feelings in my chest and am often overwhelmed with the need to get up from my desk and head into the kitchen when I feel an uncomfortable one…I’m working on sitting still to actually identify what the feelings are.
–Then take another deep breath, let the difficult feelings flow and write down the name of the feeling and the sensations I’m experiencing. Shortness of breath, tight chest, upset stomach, buzzing in my ears…how do your difficult feelings present? There’s almost always a physical sensation to match them all.
–Sit still a moment longer…and often you’ll discover that once you let yourself actually feel the emotion and you identify the physical experience of that emotion, you can be curious about the sensation, and soon the emotion is actually gone.
You didn’t die. Nothing really happened except you allowed the emotion, experienced the emotion, and then moved on.
If you regularly allow yourself to do this exercise, you’ll learn a lot about how your body responds to emotion.
You’ll discover what thoughts generate the various feelings you have, and you’ll learn to notice when your body is telling you something your mind hadn’t even registered.
It’s fascinating, isn’t it?
I hope these little suggestions are helpful for you. The world needs you at your maximum energy output! So put these into practice and let me know how it goes.
Love you and Cheering you on!
Christy 🙂