Don't Waste Your Energy

Energy-drains. Time-sucks. Whatever you call them, they're creepin' in the shadows everywhere we turn.

If we choose to give away our (limited) energy to things that ultimately don't move us forward or effect us in a positive way, we miss out on all of the really great, important stuff that could be nourishing or strengthening us somehow.

In a recent yoga class, our teacher repeated one simple reminder frequently, "don't waste your energy".  She reminded us when we were flowing through vinyasa, when we were in challenging balancing poses, and even when we were on the ground sinking into restorative poses.

Though we hear wisdom of similar sentiments all the time, I think many of us tune it out as white noise (I know I can be guilty of that) - but when broken down into the context of yoga it took on a fresh new meaning for me which has helped me more mindfully apply the principle to the rest of my life.In every interaction, situation, conversation, project, yoga pose, etc. there are a million things that we could focus our energy on, but there are a very small amount of things that we need to focus on to get ourselves closer to our desired outcome.

Take yoga for example. Even in a seemingly simple restorative pose when most of your body is laying on the floor, there are specific places you need to focus your energy to get the results you want.On this particular day I found myself laying in Half Pigeon with my jaw clenched and my shoulders hunched up by my ears. Neither of those things were helping me ease myself into the pose - they were actually taking my energy away from the parts of my body that really needed it, totally defeating the purpose of even attempting the pose in the first place.

There were so many points during class that day where I realized that I was sending way too much energy to places in my body that weren't benefitting me in the moment (or in the long-term, for that matter).

A lot of this comes back to not being fully present, and also to the unconscious habits or routines that we fall into without even realizing it.  It also relates to not setting or being in touch with intentions and/or goals.There are tons of examples of this in our everyday lives:

Disagreements:  Ever had someone close to you do something that made you upset?  Ever sat and stewed on that, along with everything else that they've ever done that pissed you off, for a while only to blow up on them in a way that's totally disproportionate to what they did?  Instead of addressing issues as they arise, you let yourself waste truckloads of energy nitpicking and making yourself more mad, and then ultimately muddy your ability to resolve the one thing that bothered you in the first place.

Worrying:  This one has got to be my biggest energy-drains.  85% of what we worry about never ends up happening, and there's no way to know the outcome of something until we actually go through it, so there's no point in letting worries occupy our brain when everything in the present moment is just fine.  Plus, worrying causes stress within our bodies, which leads to a weakened immune system, increased inflammation levels, and greater risk for disease.  So not only are we wasting our energy worrying about stuff that probably won't happen anyway, we're also putting our health at risk.  Totally unproductive.

Comparing:   How many hours have you spent scrolling through social media feeds comparing yourself to everyone else resulting in you feeling bummed out and insecure?   Have you ever paused to think about what your intention is beforehand?  Maybe you want to connect with friends, maybe you want to catch up on current events, or maybe you're looking for some inspiration.  Whatever your reason for logging on, if you don't keep your eyes on the prize it's incredibly easy to get carried away into a parallel universe full of expertly curated photos of people you don't know and ending up feeling bad about yourself because you don't think your reality is as good as their "reality".  This tendency turns a seemingly mindless pastime into something that's energy-sucking and destructive.

Pickin' up what I'm throwin' down here?  Potential energy-drains are all around - they're present in every single situation - especially if you're not fully aligned with your intentions.

Since energy isn't an infinite resource, it's helpful to think of it like a currency - you get a certain amount that you can budget to spend each day, and you need to spend wisely.

So, say you have $100 in energy to spend each day - think about where you want to allocate that to best serve you - and when you get sucked into an energy-draining vortex, think about how many dollars you're wasting on something that has no value.

You don't want to spend $30 of your daily $100 agonizing over how much you don't want to go to the gym, right?  Hell no!  That $30 would be way better spent getting your body moving and, as a result, getting yourself closer to your health goals.

Wasting our energy takes away our power and effectiveness, and it also makes us way less productive - but if we're able to look at familiar situations with fresh eyes and really connect with our intentions we can minimize the amount of energy dolla billz that we're mindlessly tossing to the wind.It's all about doing less with more focus.