As I was going through my existential crisis a few weeks ago (it happens every other month, don’t worry), I came across an article that talked about the 5 different energies. I don’t have the source, but the article explained that we have different types of energy to put to use in different places. We have various amounts of social, emotional, intellectual, physical and spiritual energy to allocate across our day. For example, I’ll run out of intellectual energy if I try to work for every waking hour of the day. However, I can work for most of the day and then make plans because I still have social energy. Of course, each person has varying amounts of each energy, or perhaps even different types. We’re the happiest when we find ways to optimize our energies.
I never thought about this concept before, but it makes so much sense. Even though I’m happy with my life, I felt like I was missing something. After hearing about this theory, I thought I was missing a fulfilling use for my emotional energy. My initial reaction was to be upset and brainstorm ways to correct this. However, as I reflected, I realized that I was searching for something I knew I wouldn’t find because I already have it. You could search the entire world, but you won’t find your keys if they’re in your pocket.
Unfortunately for me, I have the keys but not the car. In the mean-time, I decided to repurpose this energy for other things I can do for self-improvement. I was worried that this would feel like forcing myself to break a bad habit cold turkey. Wouldn’t I feel worse before I felt better? What if I “relapsed?” So far, I haven’t felt that way at all. I was so exhausted from searching that I’m much more relaxed – for now. I recognize that this is contradictory. How can I give myself emotional energy? I can’t, and I was probably feeling that way because I was overextending myself without realizing.
This is fairly cryptic, and it’s supposed to be, but the unintended consequences are clear. I regained control of one part of my life, and regained control of my eating as well. I constantly remind myself that I’m in control of what I’m eating and try to follow my standardized plan. I removed a ton of stress by batch planning ahead of time so that I can run on auto-pilot. I’m not perfect, but I don’t feel a need to be perfect anymore. I feel so liberated now that I CAN control what I put in my body.
I notice that I get strong cravings when I’m overly tired or hungry. This seems like common sense, but I didn’t realize how true it was until this week. If I go too long without eating or am exhausted, I’ll rationalize an impromptu deviation from the plan. I’m working on preventing these situations. As I said before, by the time I’m too hungry or too tired, it’s too late.
I felt like my best self for the first time in months this week. By my best self, I mean my baby abs were back—even though I didn’t eat particularly well or anything. I have to wonder if it’s because of the stress reduction. It sounds incredibly shallow, and maybe it is, but it’s a big deal to me. When I feel good about the way that I look, it translates into all other parts of my life. It makes me more motivated and productive at work, happier to talk to others and just generally happy. I never know how long the baby abs will last, but I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can. I’ll talk about the rest of the energies another time…
