Second summer in pandemic times – who would have thought?! These Covid-times are challenging, mentally demanding, no doubt. Yet, there are interesting movements emerging here and there. #TheGreatResignation. #TheBigShift. A movement of people rethinking how they are living their life. 

Beautiful! We all need to have a compelling vision of our lives inspiring us to make conscious and aligned choices. 

How to make those conscious and aligned choices?

We live in a very mind-oriented, rational world where what we know, do and think is all- important. Rarely are we encouraged to tune into our body for answers.

However, our bodies often ‘feel’ things much faster than our minds ‘think’ them. Before we have thought things out, our body has already given us the answer through a form of energy – a need to get up or jump up, a flow in our arms, an increased heartbeat, a knot in our stomach. These are all signs our bodies give us.

Learning to be attentive to your body is an amazingly simple way to access your inner voice and lead you to aligned choices. 

The body never lies. Tune into your body and learn to understand the vital information it gives you. When something ‘feels’ right, stand still for a moment, ask why it feels right and action the clues it gives you. Situations become very clear very fast and this is of huge value.

Don’t just rely on your mind when weighing up what is right or wrong, and what to do or not do. Learn to create that dance between your mind and your body. Magic happens in that space. 

I invite you to become more conscious of your Energy this summer in 3 areas of your life to ultimately increase your energy.

Your Career

Let’s contemplate your activities starting with your energy givers. 

It’s simple: the things you love doing give you energy. Be it: playing with ideas; solving problems; inventing things (processes, a product or service); organising, planning or coordinating; determining the long-term goals; persuading people of something or someone,… 

One way to help you identify those activities is to do the agenda exercise. At the end of the day, check in how you feel. If you feel energized, go through your agenda of the day and make the link to the activities.

Tip: think of how you could get more of those activities in your (professional) life.

Next, identify your drainers.

Energy drainers literally drain your energy: you feel (mentally) low, you might have unpleasant physical symptoms such as a headache. 

When I coach clients around their talents, I make them aware of how important it is to think about what they love doing. It is not about what you can do – hey, you could do anything! Why not? It’s about what you love doing. So likewise, become aware of what you don’t like doing.

Tip: Once you have identified the things you don’t like doing, see if you can find another solution for the task. You might be able to delegate it or give it to a colleague who loves it. You might outsource it. Or maybe just ‘get it done with’ and give yourself a reward once completed.

Make sure 75% of your time you are spending time working with your energy givers.

Your Surrounding

I’d like to split this area further up in two:

Your Tribe

Be attentive to the energy you are getting from others. What is your mood like after you have spoken to a certain person? Reinforce the connections with people who give you energy; weaken the ones which don’t nurture you.

Look at where you can find people who inspire and energise you. In your immediate current professional surrounding and beyond such as networking events or events around one of your passions. 

Remember motivational speaker Jim Rohn: you’re the average of the five people you spend most time with.

Your Environment

Be aware of the energy you get from your physical surroundings, from your (home) office to nature. Having the WFH experience: what do you want more of? What is the balance you care to have?

Also pay attention to the energy of where you actually sit down and work. I have rearranged my office, a couple of times actually, until it ‘felt’ right.

I walk our dog almost every morning and I always choose the woods. Nature re-energises me: hearing the birds, seeing the lake and trees, and watching the dog finding ever more interesting smells.

Your language and thoughts 

Words have an energetic impact. Let’s explore: 

• Think of yourself having an idea you’re super excited about. You share it with your manager and their reaction is: Yes… BUT. 
• Now, same scenario, and your manager’s reaction is: Yes… AND.

Very different effect on you right? Of course, beware that your words have an effect on others too. So choose your words wisely.

And extending to that, are our thoughts. Negative thoughts drain our energy so beware of your thoughts too! Instead of beating yourself up for not having done something well, turn the monologue into something positive: what can I learn from this event? 

These are all situations in which the energy you receive can give you great insight on how to start crafting the life you want. What do you want more of? What do you want less of?