The Energy Perimeter

Have you ever stopped to notice the peaks and valleys of your energy?

Maybe you'll start the day slow, and finish the day strong.

Or maybe you are a fully charged battery in the morning, that is drained by lunch time.

Each of us has bodily rhythms, and some of us even experience discord when we push beyond our energy perimeter.

Our energy levels are likely to dictate how well we will perform a task.

If we are nurturing our basic restorative means of functioning in this world, then chances are we're getting by okay with enough rest.

Other biological and environmental influences often ensue their agendas for our capacity to perform daily activities.

Aside from those factors remain the premise that we can't expect ourselves to keep on going without any time to "juice up."

Consider the values that feed your energy.

If you think about it, wouldn't you agree that you only have so much energy?

In other words, it's not infinite and boundless?

You, along with the other humans, crash like normal, and only have a certain percentage of which to give.

Exceeding too much extra from your allotted amount, is what we call "out-doing" yourself.

It's hard to do that without damaging your emotional well-being.

Doing more than you can take often brings about a temper tantrum that screams, "I can't do this anymore! I need a break!"

And we all need a break.

We all need our energy banks refilled.

Take a look at your life, and examine the areas where you feel maxed out.

If you acknowledge that you're going to run out of gas, don't shun your much-needed times of relaxation.

Make sure you stop periodically throughout the day to sit, or sleep, play, or create.

You will soon discover that the more you tend to your need to "reset," the more motivation and energy you'll have to "conquer the world."

Redefining Your Standards

One thing that has really changed how I see life, is the realization that life doesn't consist of one broad, blanket set of standards.

What makes someone happy may not add to another person's feelings of contentment.

Consumerism doesn't give you permanent joy.

Trends come and go in fashion, home decor, and toys.

New products are constantly being released, and to keep up with the latest gadgets will drive you crazy.

Other aspects of life we can build and construct until we're blue in the face.

And, on top of that, we have ideas about what is socially acceptable about our ideas.

We worry about our education, our progress in the workplace, and our kids making it to the Ivy Leagues.

Meanwhile, our stress levels are sky high, and we don't know why.

Maybe we're measuring with the wrong tools.

We are all uniquely different, and possess varying qualities that give us our interests and enjoyment.

There can't possibly be only one way to live.

This points to a very important question that must be answered.


What things do you need on a regular basis, that will bring you satisfaction and achievement, based on your own terms?


What things do you do, because you feel like you should be doing them, based on societal measurements of success?

What things are you expecting too much of yourself, with little or no rewarding return?

Why do we waste our time on things that we don't really need to be doing?


Try to list some of your needs along with your perceived needs.

Some of them might be:

• Educational success and achievement with time to learn

• The pull to create vs. the need to fulfill the activities of the status quo

• Setting realistic boundaries 

• Cutting away from the tight restraints of time in order to focus on larger, more satisfying pockets of creativity and responsibility

• Enough time to enjoy beauty and nature

• The painful process of becoming yourself

• Removing the old, toxic layers of your former frame of mind

• Helping a child with special learning needs or different learning styles

• Personal interests that don't align with social standards

• Enough time to connect with spirituality, nurturing others, and healing yourself

Once you have familiarized yourself with what truly makes your life feel charged and meaningful, you can gradually begin to let go of the past and let purpose enter in.

Finding Satisfaction

I know I'm busy keeping busy. Most of us are. It's "rewarding" to be busy.

But what are we getting as a result of our hard-earned investments?

It's easy to get caught up in a cycle of "doing" this or that all the time.

But, then we run out of time, and we find ourselves searching for more time to do every little thing under the sun that grabs our attention.

Our mental to-do lists become unmanageable due to all the chaos and constant changes in what we think we should or could be doing... if we only had "more time in our day."

Sometimes we are running so hard and so fast, that we miss out on what we are actually doing.

We experience feelings of failure, because we're doing a whole lot of unnecessary labor.

And for what?

What exactly are the motives that drive our busyness into burnout?

Are the hours of mental focus, physical action, and emotional energy worth the cost it takes to maintain our investments?

What are we getting in return for all of this?

You can generate more reward for your endeavors, by incorporating the activities that will give you the best opportunities for fulfillment.

To begin this process we can start with a few key steps.:

• Identify. 

What are you doing now? Jot down the events that consume your time.

• Relate. 

What does your ideal picture of life look like? 

• Compare.

Which one gets more of your time and energy?

Which would you prefer to be doing? (within realistic measures)

• Realize.

What kinds of adjustments can you make to your plans that will bring your dreams into focus?

This will mean changes in your life. 

• Adapt.

After you think about where you'd like to be, you have to adapt to the ideas that are closer to your heart.

What will happen if you resist the changes that need to happen?

• You may feel unsatisfied, like something is missing.
• You may find yourself looking for something to fill your emptiness.
• You may feel like you're spinning your wheels in the wrong direction.
• You may find yourself feeling hopeless and scared, uncertain if you'll ever find your niche.

Which leads me to conclude this:

You have to see what you're doing and make changes for the things that really matter to you.

Do what you can to reap the rewards of satisfaction, by doing more of the things you love.

How to Live a Surprising Life

Anticipate the surprise that awaits each day.

Can we try to focus on life through the lens of surprise?

What can be discovered, awakened, or intensely satisfied by holding on to life?

• Where are we going? 
• What will we do when we get there?
• Who will we encounter on our journey?

These are the kinds of questions children ask as they anticipate the future.

Can we stir a similar sense of wild wonder within us?

How can we interact with the beauty around us?

Some ways to enhance our connections to encourage life-filled, energetic moments are to:

• Disbelieve.

Isolate yourself from the current emotions you have attached to the experience. Remove your preconceived notions about it.

• Perceive. 

How can you view the situation differently?

• Make Believe.

Get out of character. When all else fails, and you want a sure-fire boost of excitement, acting out of your element and normalcy will certainly give you another perspective to see life through.

Tips for Solving Problems

We all have challenges and issues that we face every day. It's a part of humanity, and how we succeed in surviving.

How can we approach problems in a new way to actually reap a return on our investments?

Identify what the possible solutions or angles for perception could be.

i.e.:  When am I at home to work on those projects that need to be dealt with at home?

That questioning could give more insight as to how to activate involvement with an issue.

In Algebra, there are equations for solving problems that include variables representing the components addressed in the problem.

If you are looking to find the slope of a line, and you have two points, your question looks like this:

m = y2 - y1
       x2 - x1

To find your answer, you have to define what the variables are, plug them into the equation, and then, solve.

If only life could be so easy, that you had a set of equations to turn to and get your results and directions from.

I guess that wouldn't make as exciting of a life, now would it?

We can take something away from this example to aid us in our problem-solving strategies, though.

How can you break down a big issue into smaller pieces, and visualize a solution for the whole picture?

• Identify the problem to be solved.

What are you looking for in life? 

What's missing that you want to find?

• Define the variables.

What are the things holding you back?

What are the things you need to get you to your answer?

Simply, what are the obstacles and what are the action steps?

• Insert the obstacles and action steps into your equation.

Visualize where you need to give a little more, and let go a little, too.

• Solve.

When you bring about new changes in your life, it requires some substitution of older things.

This means that you have to deduce and simplify what you have and what you're doing to make room for new possibilities.

• Circle your answer.

Remember what you need to do to start and finish a task, and do it.

When you forget what you're doing or where you're going, revisit the problem and review your variables.

Are your action steps working?

What obstacles remain? 

(By the way, there will ALWAYS be obstacles. Better to understand that now. Life is a constant flow of opportunities that require our adaptation.)

• Adjust to infinite possibilities.

Don't get so fixed on one way of doing things. 

There are several ways to bring about the changes you seek.

Comfort your anxieties by knowing that there are infinite solutions for solving many problems.

Be courageous enough to always return to a problem with new variables to try, for this is the spice of life.

What is one problem you can work on solving today?

The Nature of Change

In sitting with my pain, I have become aware of more aspects of the nature of change.

Change is uncomfortable. It is an unpredictable way that is pulling you into its course.

You may not have decided to give into the change. Sometimes we don't have a choice but to follow a new distance.

In situations of natural catastrophe or even in moments of what we could classify as "positive" change, there exists a measure of willingness to allow at least a portion of the event to happen.

Some things we cannot control, no matter how hard we try.

Even as other emotions such as denial and anger surface, we can't always defend our happy, homeostatic selves.

Life, in itself is continually changing and bending to evolve to the next part of its winding and eventful path. This is the essence of presence, and what life can be when we live in cooperation with it.

Life is not static.

But we are.

We can get so ingrained in our ideas, our perceptions, and expectations for how we think our life should be, and how we think we want life to be, that we miss out on the movement of existence.

This movement is fluid in its function, with the means to carry on from one thing to the next.

We must always be pushing forward, and not standing still with our walls of limited sight and less understanding. Our unwilling attitudes for connecting with the adaptation that is constantly happening all around us in our natural world will strangle us for it, in the end.

We can't stay in our sheltered states of resistance, and not allow life to happen.

If we do, we may be harmed by the dangerous temperament of change that often occurs even when we're not ready to embrace it.

In my state of pain, I am realizing more that life is not still. It at least has breath, and therefore, it's always going in some direction.

We have the burden and the responsibility to decide how we'll respond to change.

Can we learn to expect that the nature of life is a cycle of constant change?

Can we be willing to accept that, therefore, our lives may not always be exactly the same?

Can we confirm that in order to move forward, we must embrace change?

Can we respect that the duties associated with change involves us moving out of something? Whether moving out of our own provisions and security, or altering our expectations a little, movement requires a shift from one point to the next.

Are we brave enough to welcome what is outside of our sphere of knowledge and comfort?

Are we bold enough to believe and approve what life is asking us to do?

If you are alive, align yourself more with the profound awareness that life exists fluidly, and is constantly changing.

Then, it will be up to you to decide:  Will you move with life, and follow the ever-present and sustaining energy it supplies? Or will you move against it, and continue to feed yesterday's life by dwelling in the places where you once were before?

Embracing Stuck

We have various options as to how we respond to life. Sometimes we get stuck so deep, that it feels like we will never get out, and no matter what methods for escaping or respite we use, they just all seem to fail.

Being stuck is something I know very well. I felt stuck in my living environment for 11 years.

I was a country girl growing up, and wasn't used to all the hustle and bustle on the streets, loud sirens, and stacks of smoke filling my starry sky.

I craved surroundings slightly more green, where the limbs of trees seemed to stretch to the sun, spilling through the air like varicose veins.

Even though I had a few things I enjoyed about living in the city, my heart really longed to live in an Anne of Green Gables-esque environment.

I was very distraught trying to figure out how I would get "back home" to that kind of living. I jotted down notes, and connected the dots, but nothing ever really got me to where I wanted to be.

Then, it became clear to me that I had existed in the city for so long, and that I wasn't probably going to get the chance to live in the country any time soon.

At first, it was denial. I kicked and cussed, and stomped my foot. "It wasn't fair!" I thought, to be stuck like this, living somewhere you don't want to be.

When I came to my senses, and my analytical side took over, I found a surprising bit of hope to cling to.

After Googling on the topic, I found a few blogs that knocked some sense into me, and I knew that what they were saying applied to me.

Instead of trying to get away, and escape what I had, I had to accept what I had.

Not only did I have to accept it, I had to genuinely embrace it, and become involved in it with an excited spirit.

I had to fall in love with the city.

What did this mean for me? It meant, relief first of all.

Relief that I wasn't failing in fulfilling what it was that I really wanted.

I didn't have to beat myself up over that anymore, because I was allowing myself to be where I was.

I had welcomed the idea to wanting what I had.

Gradually, I have grown closer to the city, and closer to my husband who loves it here, and has great success here.

I started looking for ways to fall in love with what was. And, in the pain of letting go of my prized ideas of happiness, I found that I really did like it here after all.

In being stuck, when I decided to welcome it, and observe it, and allow it to be as it was, I let go of my stress and failures, and am happy I did.

When we are stuck, we can stop, and feel the situation.

Is there something that your life is trying to tell you?

What is it that you need to do or stop doing?

What kinds of things can you learn from being stuck?

I'm stuck now, and let me tell you... It's a very painful process, but with the pain I can let it move through me.

I can watch it leave me.

And I can watch for what is coming next.

We can learn from being stuck, if we let it speak to us.