Conserving Energy During These Wild and Changing Times

There are many changes going on in the world today. Somedays it may feel like dominos with the chain reactions that ripple forth.

How many things have changed for you personally since February 2020? How much has changed in the world around us?

Change is not easy especially when it involves something outside of your control as a no-control situation. Change is challenging even when it is within your control following a decision you make towards a positive change.

When you resist change and experience stress, it will deplete your precious life force energy or Chi. This is the energy that contributes to your vitality in terms of your health, hope and happiness. Energy loss is a real threat in these days of this wild ride we are on. When you see the prices of everything in your world going up how do you keep your own energy from going down? Energy is the vital commodity for everything you do in your life. It fuels your creativity and your capacity to be productive and solution oriented. Energy conservation is key to building resiliency during these wild and changing times.

There are two things you can do when life presents you with a situation beyond your control. You can change your attitude towards it, and you can change your approach or how you engage with it.  Your attitude and approach require that you have self-awareness to be able to see the option then to be able to make a choice. Without self-awareness you will stick to the default patterns of your hard-wired beliefs and modes of engagement. Interestingly, in the world around us, there are more and more of you who are gaining in self-awareness to see that you can make a choice to get out of your default patterns. You can see it through a new lens or find a way to engage differently to gain a different outcome.

The next time you see those high food costs or the price for a tank of gas, how can you look at this differently to gain a different perspective on what for most of us is a no-control situation?

If you are triggered into self-pity, resentment, or stress, you will lose energy over a reality that you can’t change.

Find a new perspective that will shift your attitude and support you to stay calm and clearheaded to the reality of current inflation. This response will be energy conserving.

• Perhaps a gratitude practice to focus on what you do have and not what you lack can support a shift in attitude. For example that you do have the resources to pay for your food or fuel.
• Sending a prayer to those who are burdened by these high costs or to those policy makers may support you to feel more resilient and less triggered.
• Only you know what new perspective will support you to change your viewpoint to not go into the emotionally triggered response that is so costly. On the lighter side, snap a photo at the gas pump and share it with friends to see who paid the most for a tank of gas this week like a competition. Seeking humor can help your mindset to lighten up and not take this situation so seriously, even though it is very serious for many of us, it is not helpful to be burdened by what is beyond your control.
• A final attitude shifting option when you see the total cost for food or fuel may be to simply take a few breaths into your center, 2-3 finger breadths below your naval, and take a pause for a mindful moment to re-center and focus.

When you intentionally make a change to your approach, you are taking responsibility for the change by taking control of what you can do differently in your engagement with what is beyond your control.

To find a new approach to these high prices you could hop on your bike, ride public transport, or pack your lunch. What are the health benefits to driving less and eating out less if you were to make some changes to the patterns in how you are consuming food and fuel? How creative can you be with the groceries you purchase so your money goes further? Money and energy are linked, conserving money is like conserving Chi or energy. Conserving energy is the same for your body as it is for your vehicle. No one wants to feel depleted of either money or energy. Running on empty has high a cost with many consequences.

Here we go back to the domino effect that when you make one change in your attitude or your approach, you have enough self-awareness to see what you can do that is solution oriented rather than stewing in your triggered emotions and energy loss feeling at the effect of life’s circumstances that you can’t control.

Coaching can support you with tools and strategies to keep moving forward no matter what demand life is presenting. It offers a path out of the hard-wired patterns and supports you to successfully navigate sustainable change. Stress Mastery Coaching supports both self-awareness and stress resilience which go hand-in-hand. Resilient people have often found a way to use minimum effort with maximum efficiency to conserve their precious life force energy in both their attitude and their approach.