This time of year always prompts calls to make resolutions, define your ‘word’ for the year, create a vision board, give-up a bad habit, or pursue work-life balance. Regardless of what time of year you decide to make a change to improve your health, wealth, relationships or career, there are specific steps you’ll need to take to ensure success. This week, I’ll be sharing with you just that: 12 steps you can take for positive change in your life; developed through decades of experience as a clinical hypnotherapist and profiler.
In Part 1, I introduced the value of leveraging your mindset, personality, and energy inputs for positive change in your life. Today, we delve deeper into energy by exploring energy outputs, charges, and modes and how these affect the quality of our life and the lives of those around us.
Tip Four: Energy Output
Energy output and input are interrelated, because every thing we do has the potential to consume or contribute energy, or both.
Exercise is a great example of energy output, but the flow on effect of exercising is that our energy levels increase as we get fitter, and our sense of wellbeing is greatly enhanced. As we become fitter, we reduce our risk of diseases like cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes.
Ideas Into Action:
It’s all about consciously choosing what we do with our energy. Exercise doesn’t have to mean going to a gym, it’s just about being active. Here are some ideas:
- Walk or bike to and from work.
- Take the stairs, not the elevator or escalator.
- Walk to lunch, then have a stroll afterwards to support digestion.
- Take part in fitness initiatives at work or in your community.
- If working from home, break up being sedentary with active chores, like hanging out the washing.
- Play with your kids.
- Take up an outdoor hobby, something that inspires and excites you…
Just getting your body moving improves alertness, decision making, and focus, so take a break every hour to get yourself moving in whatever way you can. It doesn’t have to be for long, and it doesn’t have to be grand, it just has to be done!
Tip Five: Energy Charge (Attitude)
Have you ever walked away from a conversation feeling drained and unsettled? Being around negative people or participating in gossiping does just that to our energy, shifts it into the negative. Keeping our energy levels high requires us to not only be mindful of our energy outputs and inputs, but also the company that we keep and the content of our conversations. It’s all about attitude. Here’s an attitude checklist to help you locate where you might be losing energy in your life:
Ideas Into Action:
- Do you seek out the company of positive and inspiring people, or do you gravitate towards gossipers and complainers?
- Do you compete with others to emphasise just how bad things are, or do you seek solutions for yourself and those around you?
- Are you present with others, or do you find yourself distracted and wanting to be elsewhere?
- Do others describe you as uplifting, or would they describe you as draining to be around?
If your answers tend towards the negative, it’s time to ask yourself whether this is who you want to be for others, and, ultimately, if this is who you want to be for yourself. Like attracts like, so if you’re in a negative energy space, this will only invite more negativity in yourself and others. Break the feedback loop and seek out more compassionate and constructive conversations and company.
Tip Six: Energy Modes
Energy modes describe the energy level and energy charge associated with a set of behaviors and feelings. Unlike personality and IQ, energy modes aren’t fixed and will vary throughout one’s life, even day to day. Here’s what each mode feels and looks like:
- Reflective Mode: Low energy, negatively charged; lethargic, unmotivated, low self-esteem, pessimistic, negative attitude, unable to complete tasks or connect with others – feeling depressed or unwell.
- Recuperative Mode: Low energy, positively charged; appears restless or lazy, procrastinates. Happy-go-lucky, curious but a bit bored at the same time, easily led, may engage in risk taking behavior for an energy pick-me-up.
- Deconstructive Mode: High energy, negatively charged; negative attitude, highly critical, aggressive (passively or actively), able to lead others (but not always in a positive direction).
- Constructive Mode: High energy, positively charged, optimistic and positive, able to inspire and be inspired, able to work constructively with others and offer solutions, able to lead others and complete tasks on time.
Ideas Into Action:
When you find yourself in one of these modes, what can you do to maintain or improve your energy state? Here are some tips:
- Reflective Mode: Seek support from your loved ones, workplace, and primary health practitioner. Re-establishing a routine that includes a healthy diet, exercise, and good quality rest is essential. This mode often coincides with a life-changing event such as the loss of a loved one, career, financial distress, or other trauma. It can also result from burnout. Be kind to yourself, know that you will re-emerge.
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- Recuperative Mode: Seek balance and rewarding stimulation. Check in on your diet, exercise habits, and sleep hygiene. Address any addictions, including gaming, gambling, drugs, or over-working. Explore new avenues of interest, a change of career, or new activities in your downtime; something that feels fulfilling and engaging for you. Be inspired, whether by visiting some place new, or learning something new and exciting to you.
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- Deconstructive Mode: If you’re in this mode, it’s time to get to the root of your suffering. It may simply be that you’re burnt-out, overstretched, and at your wits end. Or it may be a coping mechanism, a way for you to avoid something painful in your life; by discharging that energy onto others. Whatever it is, it’s time for you to take care of you. Seek the support that you need to work through this, whether that be from family, friends, the workplace, or mental health care. You’ve got this.
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- Constructive Mode: You’re firing on all cylinders and feel unstoppable! To continue performing at your best, be sure to get enough rest and to maintain balance in your life: quality downtime with loved ones, deep rest, and recharging activities that refuel you. If you’re in this energy state, you likely already know what these are for you! Whatever brings you peace and joy: a walk in the park, reading a novel, or enjoying a beautiful meal, perhaps…
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In the next instalment of this series, I’ll explore mindfulness, self-reflection, and the power of releasing old behaviours and beliefs and how this makes way for positive changes in our lives.
Yours in wellness,
Elisabetta Faenza | Leafcann CEO
