Where Is Your Energy Going?
Check in with yourself and protect your energy!
It’s almost two months into the new year and it feels like it’s time to check in with yourself. I’ve honestly never been one for New Year's resolutions because I believe if you are motivated enough and driven you can complete that supposed resolution at any point in the year. Anyway, it is vital to see how you are feeling about the start of the year, about winter, and your outlook on the year ahead. Can you look back and say you’ve adopted a seize the year mentality or that you’ve been consumed by the potential negativities of the winter? Or even that you are just simply satisfied with the year?
You know I had my eyes opened recently to how much pressure we put on ourselves to constantly feel elated and like we have to be excessively happy all the time if not that’s considered sadness. But the reality of the situation is that we should just have a baseline of satisfaction and contentment in life and have minor fluctuations of happiness and sadness that do not completely derail our mentality and debilitate us. Our mood does not need to be a sinusoidal wave with the largest amplitude. We do not need to go from extremely happy to extremely sad. Moods are not black and white it’s a spectrum and if your baselines are right in the middle with minimal shifts from either side depending on the circumstances then that’s good enough. So take a moment to check in with yourself and see how much pressure you are putting on yourself to stay in an extreme mood for an extended period even though that’s not how you actually feel. Also, remind yourself that you are allowed to feel the way you actually feel and there is no “supposed or expected” way to feel.
Back to the beginning of the year reflection. As I’ve mentioned several times, covid has really opened my eyes to the importance of self-care acts and avoid burnouts. So with that in mind, think about how many self-care acts you’ve done so far. Have you let yourself get consumed by life again and lost the thought of prioritising yourself? I’ve tried to adopt the mentality of doing one self-care act a week. It does not mean I need to do an extravagant expensive spa day once a week but it means that I try to do something that I’ve been craving to do once a week. Whether that’s a new activity I’ve never tried like a sound bath or an activity or experience in the city or even just a simple me day where I put no pressure on myself to socialise and just do what I want to do alone.
I don’t know if it’s just me but sometimes I also feel the pressure of the social media healthy influencers who post that they’ve got down their morning routine and night routine and healthy eating and all of their shit together. Then I sit and look at myself like why don’t I have 100% of my shit together why aren’t my routines perfect. But I have to remind myself that first and foremost, social media is never an accurate depiction of life or even someone’s mood when they are living that lifestyle. Think about it like this, if you have the ability and wanted to fake that you have the so-called “healthy” lifestyle down even though deep down you don’t, who’s to say that other people can’t be doing that as well. Also, there is no one “healthy” way or right way of living life. You don’t need to be waking up at 6 am, working out, meditating, and reflecting every day to be living life right. Sometimes those activities don’t work for certain people. As long as you are living your life prioritising yourself mentally without harming others and if you can look back at your day and feel content with how it went and pinpoint one moment to be grateful for then you should reward yourself for living life “right”. Right is subjective in this nature, it’s a to each their own kind of mentality when it comes to ways of life. So when you are checking in with yourself, don’t compare yourself to others. We are each on our own trajectory. Compare yourself to yourself, am I feeling better than I did before, or simply am I satisfied? Do I want to do better? Do I want to stop putting pressure? Do I want to motivate myself more? At the end of the day, it’s all about doing you and what you want to do not what you feel you are expected to do. Stay true to your nature and occasionally push yourself out of your comfort zone and just say yes. Try new things, if you do not like them you can always leave, never do it again or simply just remove yourself from the environment.
My approach to 2022 has been to just stay true to myself while finding a balance in exploring new
things. I’ve adopted a mentality of trying a new activity or self-care act a week, pushing myself to attempt new experiences to see if I enjoy them or not, and giving myself days to just recharge and partake in my simple pleasures. Making a vision board has also helped me map out what I want for myself for the year and allowed me to reflect on what my priorities are, which helps me in figuring out ways to make them happen. I can honestly say that I’ve managed to try things like sound baths, a disco rave, and even explore a new country like Iceland. I’m not saying I’m doing anything “right” and that anyone should replicate what I’m doing. I’m saying that I’m listening to myself and what I truly desire and working towards making it come true.
With all that in mind, take the moment to reflect on how your year has been and where you want it to go. Remind yourself that you are in control of what you need to be in control of. Remind yourself that you can do what you truly desire and that above all else protect your energy and try not to burn yourself out.
