Bouncing Back: Resilience and Energy Management
Are you rising or falling, upbeat or downtrodden, enthused or burnt out? Fierce winds blow, followed by calm. But we seem to just push on and on. When we feel depleted physically, mentally and creatively, get sick or depressed, we think something is wrong. Often it is the wisdom of our system creating a balance when we don't know how. The ability to rise and recover - from anything - is called Resilience and it is woven into every life. But we do have a choice to ignore, resist, or work with nature's rejuvenating way.We were all born with an energy "trust fund", a personal store of life force that is used and replenished like interest earned. Some people have more and some less as a baseline. But learning to be good stewards or energy managers of this precious gift of "prana" is each living being's privilege and responsibility. Each day you have a certain amount of incoming energy available. Yogis understand this as Prana. As it is spent, it leaves you. This is Apana.A breath comes in to give your cells life, then the breath carries away the by products of metabolism that you don't need; exhaust fumes. THAT ONE BREATH IS USED AND GONE! What did you buy with it; did you gain or lose from the trade? You got a few seconds of living. At the end of the day you are tired. You sleep and your energy bank account is refilled. What did you get back from your day's efforts? Over many decades there is a collective depletion we call aging. The "bank account" of physical energy is not longer replenished as fully as before. Net loss? Not necessarily!Consider that air, food, water, sunlight all bring you prana, but so do environments, people, attitudes, thoughts and emotions. Prana is subtler than electricity and calories; it spans the non-physical worlds; it is vibrational. If you are spending your energy to increase peace and beauty around you, wisdom and mental fortitude within, neutrality and emotional resilience as a habit... this is a good trade! Like good financial planning, wise energy management can afford you a growing body of all the happiness you need. The first step is to review how you are spending your life force. What are you investing in? What are you getting in return?Examples of poor investments that deplete you:Spending time with people that bring you down.All work and no play.Blaming and complaining without working to resolve problems.Allowing yourself to be mistreated.Negative self-talk.Worry, doubt, confusion, despair and depression, unresolved anger.Thoughts and feelings can gain or lose LOTS of life force. But remember these "Senses of the Soul" can also be used to guide you out of trouble; that is their purpose! Allowing these energy drains to go unresolved is the source of greatest exhaustion for modern people. When you live close to the "edge", it is like bankruptcy, struggle and suffering. Time for an energy-management makeover?Take a year to clean up, retrain or change the environments, relationships, personal habits and behaviors that drain you, stress you, don't uplift you. Just make a list of the all that bothers you. Then, a list of fanciful ideas; what you can do to stop the energy bleeding and switch over to healthy feeding off good vibes.More on managing your Prana and Apana for resilience next week....
