Spiritual Forum

"Energy is the power that drives every human being. It is not lost by exertion but maintained by it."
Germaine Greer

Think about your energy throughout the day. Do you tend to get drained during the day or are you filled with energy? Your energy level is giving you feedback about how you are living your life. Your low energy is signaling that changes need to be made. These changes fall under 4 categories: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.


Physical Changes- This is the most common area people think of when they have low energy. They think–”Oh there must be something wrong physically.” Check the following: Are you getting enough sleep? Are you exercising enough? How is your diet (are you eating too much sugar or having too much caffeine)? Do you have a depression that is affecting you physically–this can lower your energy and make you feel apathetic? Are your adrenals depleted or do you have low thyroid?–check with your naturopathic practitioner about this. One naturopathic physician  said that everyone should be on some type of herbal adrenal support because of the high stress levels of our daily lives. If you are taking good care of yourself on the physical level and you still lack energy–look at the following categories for possible causes.


Mental Changes- What are you saying to yourself throughout the day? Are you judging yourself–putting pressure on yourself to be perfect? This will drain your energy very quickly. Do you have negative thoughts about your future–stifling any thoughts of pursuing or having your dreams? This will drain you. Do you focus on what isn’t working in your life–or all of the things you are grateful for? How you focus your mental energy will affect your energy. So it is important to check when your energy is low–ask yourself “Are my negative thoughts draining me”. Lighten up on yourself, pursue your dreams and focus on what is going right in your life to help lift your energy.


Emotional Changes-How do you respond to your emotions during the day? Do you welcome your emotions as information and feedback–attending to and learning from them? Or do you suppress your emotions? If you have a back log of unexpressed emotions this can drain your energy. Do you let your emotions take over–over-reacting to situations, which ends up draining you? How you respond to your emotions will affect your energy level. If you find you have a lot of suppression of your emotions or over-reactivity going on it may be a signal that some deeper healing is needed for you. Learning to take responsibility for your own feelings–opening up to them and learning from them will help you increase your energy level.


Spiritual- Do you feel spiritual support around you or are you trying to do everything on your own? We are spiritual beings living in human bodies. Our essential selves are Spiritual and we are a part of the Spiritual world–we aren’t separate. If you try to do it all on your own it is like being a light bulb trying to light up without a connection to an energy source. You will tend to run out of energy and feel depleted. Plug into the larger Source of your spiritual connection and this will give you an infusion of energy and inspiration. Whatever your spiritual beliefs are—find ways to strengthen this connection and open up to this support.

The following are other things that can drain your energy:

1. Lack of sleep.

Sleep is a time for repairing and restoring and it is the true source of our energy. I belive poor night sleep is the biggest and fastest energy zapper in most people's lives. One bad night can ruin the next 24-48 hours.

When it comes to sleep, both quantity and quality matter. Lack of sleep, disrupted sleep, and irregular sleep partenns have a dire effect on energy levels, creativity, mental alertness, general wellbeing and health. People who are unable to sleep properly at night tend to be weary most of the time and lack the ability to concentrate.

What to do? Simply trying to go to bed earlier will usually fail. If you go to bed when you are not enough sleepy it takes a long time to fall asleep. The very attempt to force yourself to sleep actually awakes you, making it more difficult to sleep.

Go to bed when you are sleeppy and get up at the same time every morning. If you got not enough sleep one night, you will feel drowsy earlier and get more sleep the next night. If you are full of energy and aren't exhausted, you may need somewhat less sleep hours.

2. Weekend oversleep

Do you look forward to the weekend to sleep yourself out? Carrying a sleep debt throughout the week with the hopes of paying it off on the weekend is a bad strategy. Studies have found sleeping longer than usual on weekends can disrupt your body's natural sleep schedule (circadian rhythm)1.

What to do? I think the key here is to establish your sleep schedule and have a will-power to follow it on weekends.

3. Clutter, mess, disorganization

Our cluttered, disorganized and unpleasant surroundings can drain us of more energy than we realize. According to the American Demographic Society, Americans waste more than 9 million hours each day looking for lost and misplaced items!

Looking for lost or misplaced stuff is a huge physical drain. Being long looking for necessary thing adds emotional drain. And trying to remember where all things are is a big mental drain. Just being in a cluttered room makes a person tired. A cluttered environment tends to clutter your mind.

What to do? Clean your clutter and organize your environment. Give everything a storage place. Throw out items you no longer need or love. Some areas you might consider giving a clean-up: work-place, home, wardrobe, computer.

4. Procrastination: unfinished tasks at work or home and projects

Everything undone, incomplete or unresolved in your personal or professional life drains your energy. As long as affairs are left unfinished they continue to distract you.

Procrastination is quite toxic. I have noticed if there is something I have left undone it keeps running through my mind until it is done. This causes needless energy spending.

What to do? Try outsourcing your life. See which tasks can be eliminated or delegated. Decide what you aren't going to do. Focus on what is really important and can actually be done. Also, don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today

5. Anger

Anger can be a powerful destructive force. It drains your energy and makes you waste your time in negative thinking.

Most people have some difficulty handling their anger. The problem is usually not the anger itself but the ways in which it is expressed. Some people express their anger in aggressive ways, such as breaking things, lashing out at others, exploding in rage, intimidating and offending. Others express it indirectly, in passive-aggressive ways like sarcasm, nagging or silence and withdrawal. All of these ways are destructive and simply don't work, since they just keep you stuck in the anger and drain your emotional, physical, and mental energy.

What to do? Of course there are exceptions: some people redirect anger towards building success for themselves, but on the whole anger is draining rather than invigorating. When you find yourself engaged in anger, change the focus.

6. Information overload & addiction

Do you feel overwhelmed with the amount of information that enters your life in the form of media, books, magazines and e-mail? The information glut drains your time and your emotional energy. Worse, perhaps, it dulls your ability to think. Just because we have access to all the information in the world doesn't mean we can process it all.

Do you like blogs, e-mail and social networking sites to get the latest news and keep in touch? But that love can quickly turn into an obsession if you aren't careful.

What to do? You have to decide which information is important enough to read, watch, or pay attention to.

William Van Winkle observed, "Data is like food. A good meal is served in reasonably sized portions from several food groups. It leaves you satisfied but not stuffed. Likewise with information, we're best served when we can partake of reasonable, useful portions, exercising discretion in what data we digest and how often we seek it out."

7. Resentment: taking offense

Resentment drags you down and keeps you grasped by your past. In most cases where resentment takes place, the only person who suffers is the victim of the incident.

What to do? The only way the sufferer can get rid of the burden of resentment is forgiveness. Yea, this can be very difficult to achieve! But for as long as you continue to resent your offender, he or she will sap your joy for living and haunt your dreams at night.

8. Worrying & Control issues

We spend a lot of time and energy trying to control everything that goes on around us: events, people and situations. Some people feel an urge to fix every problem that comes up but it is impossible to create a perfect world.

Constant worrying drains your brain of energy and focusing power, and it is a waste of your precious time. This is one of the most difficult to get rid of since worrying is completely irrational, yet something so inherently human.

What to do? When you find yourself getting into the worry mode, ask yourself, "What's the worst that can happen?" Though usually the worst doesn't happen, this switch the power from worry and empowers you to come up with a plan. The energy waste is reduced, turning your force into a creative power.

Let go off things you can't control and focus on what you can! Ask yourself if there is some action you need to take. If there is no action you need to take, then say to yourself: "There is nothing I need to do about this right now, so there's no point in focusing on it." and switch your attention elsewhere.

9. Gossiping

People waste so much time, and create a negative environment by gossiping. It is a real energy drain to discuss others negatively. In fact, next time you gossip, take notice how your energy is lower than before you gossiped.

What to do? If you find yourself in a conversation with a gossip, although you may have no other choice but to listen, do not engage. When there is a break in conversation try to change the subject

10. "Energy vampires"

Did you ever talk to someone and felt tired, drained, depressed and exhausted afterwards? We often call such persons "Toxic people" or "Energy vampires". They suck positive energy out of you and leave feeling so mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically drained.

Toxic people are those who complain or grumble all the time, constantly in need for help, advice, sympathy, or confidence-boosting. They always expect the worse to happen. They encourage you to have feelings of guilt, inadequacy or inferiority. They blame others, spoil for a fight, and provoke a quarrels.

However, there are other, more subtle toxic people. Deliberate "energy vampires" may be very appealing, charming, highly inventive or compellingly persuasive.

What to do? One of the first things to do is to be aware of who the energy vampires are in your life. Try to avoid toxic peole if possible or limit time with them. Whenever the negative talk starts just smile and don't say anything. The less you pay attention to them, the less they'll affect you.

11. Poor diet

When fast food and processed food is your main diet your body is not provided with enough vital nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fiber, and essencial fatty acids. You simply don't get what you need. Low levels of B-vitamins, potassium, iron, and iodine contribute to fatigue.

Sugary food may promise a quick rush of energy but are followed by an energy crash. These foods trigger a large output of insulin, which lowers blood sugar and leaves you feeling sluggish.

Too much food is just as dangerous for your energy as too little food. Too many kilocalories will leave you lethargic. Too few and you're deserting without the fuel and nutrients you need.

Waiting too long between meals can also sap your energy. If you skip meals, your body slows the metabolic rate and starts conserving energy because it lacks nutrients.

What to do? Eat healthy! Reduce the amount of processed foods. Focus on increasing fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, low fat dairy products and lean meats.

12. Overwork

Being chronically overworked can seriously drain energy reserves. When your job extends over working hours, the things that could recharge your energy battery suffer as well. You get less sleep, less rest, and load up on caffeine.

What to do? It's important to seek a proper work-life balance in order to maintain energy levels. Work to live, don't live to work. Rushing and multi-tasking, which increases production of stress hormones

13. Endless "to-do" list

Too many commitments is extremely exhausting. Often, just thinking about what you have to do is draining. In addition to the physical force that chores like cleaning the house, cooking, and grocery store shopping demand from you, they drain your time and energy without giving much joy.

What to do? Simplify your to-do list up to the few essential tasks. Organise your list - prioritise which ones you think should be done first. If something can be delegated to someone else, then do it. Also, make sure that once you complete the task, it's done properly. This helps to avoid going back and re-do anything.

14. Lack of exercise

Lack of exercise = lack of energy. It's a downward cycle: If you don't exercise, you can’' be fit, and if you're not fit, you won't have the energy to exercise.

Exercise causes release of chemicals called endorphins into your blood stream. These chemicals give you a feeling of happiness and positively affect your overall sense of well-being.

What to do? Even though it seems like exercise might deplete your last remaining energy reserves, it's actually the best way to beat fatigue and feel refreshed.

15. Email.

The biggest time drain for many of us. We’re freelancers — we need to do email. But we don’t need to do it all day long. Choose a couple of times a day to process your inbox to empty, and be done with it. Otherwise, email is an endless stream of interruptions, and you can never get anything done.

16. Internet.
By this I mean everything on the web that’s not email or chat/IM/Twitter (see next entry) … the blogs, websites and endlessly fun distractions we’re all guilty of … and that drain away our time. I’m all for distractions — at the appropriate time. But when it’s time to buckle down and work, you gotta get rid of this time drain. Disconnect, and get work done.

17. Chat/IM/Twitter.
Related to the above two items, but separated because while it may be a lot of fun, it’s completely unnecessary for most people. Sure, there may be times when an IM session can save loads of back-and-forth emails, but for the most part, it is just chit chat and an unproductive use of your time. And it can end up taking up huge chunks of your time instead of a few minutes a couple of emails would’ve taken. My recommendation: don’t do any of this. I don’t, and it hasn’t hurt me a bit.

18. Games.
Solitaire, sudoku, Internet games, video games … lots of fun, and I’m all for that. But if you are wondering where your day went, when you didn’t really get anything done, it could be this reason. Get rid of the games or block the sites from your browser to free up a lot of time.

19. Television.
Many people spend hours every day watching TV. And yet, our days are so short — why waste our precious hours? If you sleep 8 hours, work 8 hours, and spend another 4-5 getting ready, commuting, doing chores and errands, and eating, you are left with only a few hours each day with which to spend your time. Do you really want to spend it watching reality television? Turn off the tube.

20. Repetitive tasks.

What are the tasks you do over and over every day? Is there any way to eliminate or automate them? Can you get someone else to do them? If not, at least group them together and batch process them, so they don’t take up your whole day.

21. Unproductive relationships.

Similar to the negative people in your life, there are times when you have a close relationship with someone — a friend or family member, a partner or other loved one — but it is just not working out. Perhaps there is some form of abuse, or perhaps you just don’t get along. Perhaps that person is holding you back or is too possessive. Address this situation, and if it cannot be fixed, consider getting out of it.

22. Too many commitments.

Having a jam-packed schedule may make you feel important, but it’s extremely draining. I propose that you take a look at all the commitments in your life — work, personal, civic, etc. — and see which ones drain your time and energy without giving you much joy. Cut them out. It may seem impossible or extremely difficult, but I assure you, it can be done. You just have to learn how to politely but firmly say no. Realize what your time is worth, what your sanity is worth, and protect it. Leave only those few things in your life that really give you joy. Your schedule will be much freer, and so will you.

Also:

Unresolved conflict/expectations with someone
Stalling on making an important decision in your life
Ignoring your intuition

One of the key elements in transforming your life is to eliminate your energy drains and then increase the things in your life that give you energy.

Source & reference:

emedexpert.com/tips/energy-zappers.shtml

freelanceswitch.com/productivity/20-time-energy-drains-you-can-eliminate/