Align Your Energy

A Vibrant Life is one where we are healthy physically, mentally, and emotionally in each season of life.  We can create practices that help us rest well and stay in aligned energy.  I’ve created a tool to help identify our energy levels at any given moment and notice when we are out of alignment. Your energy will ebb and flow like ocean waves. It’s okay to adapt your routines to these fluctuations. By doing so, you'll avoid burnout and create a life filled with purpose and joy.  Take a listen and find out how.  

Main points: 

• Physical Energy: Are you physically exhausted? Consider activities like yoga, a nap, or just some quiet time to rejuvenate.
• Mental Energy: Are you in flow and handling complex tasks with ease? Identify what drains you mentally and find ways to refill that tank.
• Emotional Energy: Recognize what fuels you emotionally. Whether it's connecting with friends, enjoying solitude, or listening to music. Identify what you need to refresh and feed your soul, like reading scripture, enjoying silence, or spending time in nature. 

Links 

• Join Kelly's Group Coaching Program

Let's connect.

I am cheering for you!

Transcript

0:09

Welcome to the Live A Vibrant Life podcast. I'm life coach Kelly Tibbitts, and each week I'll be here to encourage and equip you with the tools you need to grow in self-awareness and invest your best energy in your dreams and your purpose. I believe self-awareness changes everything. Let's get started. There are times in our life where we can lean into the practices that serve us, and sometimes we need to have a period of time that we rest really well. And so how we can begin to notice this is by using the tool that I've created to help identify the energy we have and where we need some tools and some practices to make sure that we're not living depleted, exhausted lives. To me, a Vibrant Life, looks like a life where I am emotionally and mentally, physically and spiritually healthy in every season. And I say the word season on purpose because it means these different periods of our life. it might be the season of being a mom of young children, or the season as a teacher of report cards in parent conferences. On my Instagram page, you can see the photo that I'm sharing. I encourage people in my group coaching programs to screenshot this picture. That shows you that there's a way for you to identify your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual energy. And as you begin to notice it, you can then make the decision of where you need to invest some time, some resources. If you are getting to a place where you're feeling depleted or exhausted. And it's so common for many of us to begin to feel this in the spring, right? You might be adding in yard work to a life that's already full of to capacity. You might be noticing that your kids from college are coming back home and now you have to bring back all of those practices. Maybe you have small kids, and spring is just full of activity. I know when my girls were little, may was as busy as December. There were end of the year events, baby showers, weddings and so maybe your spring is starting to feel like a lot And you're noticing you're not in high green, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual energy. That's a really big gift we give ourselves. Taking the time we need every day to notice our energy. The reason we wanna notice it is no one else can help me fill up my energy bank. No one else, but you can help you fill your energy bank. Let's just start with mental energy. this is where I've seen the biggest change in maybe the last 10 years. If you had to notice right now how you're doing mentally, I. Would you say you are just in flow, like give you the important projects you have all the energy you need. Would you say you have high green, good energy? You could figure out something complicated. Starting my own company made me more mentally depleted than anything since college. Having to learn how to create a podcast or write a document and then put it into MailChimp, it was very, very mentally draining. I was thankful that I had at least heard of these different centers of intelligence because when we don't understand ourselves we'll notice that we're tired and we might think, oh, I need to go to bed early. And then you're laying in bed and your brain is just running because it turns out you're not physically tired, you're not mentally tired, you're just emotionally tired, and that happens quite commonly. So are you mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually tired? If you are, what tools will serve you? What we offer in our group coaching program as you begin to understand these different centers of intelligence that you're thinking, feeling, doing human, is that you have a soul that goes throughout eternity, that's a hundred percent valuable and a hundred percent loved. If you use a different center of intelligence, you can often allow the center that's exhausted to be refueled. What do I mean by that? My husband does really hard mental work, and if we go for walks during the day, it gives his brain a little bit of a break. Maybe for you walking or yoga or just listening to music, maybe dancing, maybe cleaning. One thing that we say is try to find activities that are not too physically draining. Maybe folding some laundry or just cleaning up a counter. I'm lucky enough to live in an area where you can bring your garbage to the dump, and it's just enough of a little bit of a drive, a little bit of a distraction, and it helps me recover some of my energy. That's what a toolbox is. It's a way for you to know, these are the things that I want to do. These are the things I don't want to do because I'm feeling depleted and exhausted and I want to renew my energy. to renew Mental energy, maybe listening to quiet music, not reading, not watching tv, and definitely not going on your phone. The next one is physical energy, and this is one you may be more aware of. It's what we talk about a little bit more. Oh, I'm physically tired, maybe I'll take some vitamins. Maybe I'll have a nap. Maybe I'll go to yoga or do some strength training. And then emotional energy. What's interesting here is the nuance of it, right? To say, oh, I just need time with people isn't exactly true because there are people who emotionally drain us and there are people in conversations that refuel you and it can actually happen with the same person, depending the energy they are in. Some people do best when there's one or two people, some people. The reason that Starbucks was invented, right? If you can go into a space where there are people and there's movement that can be energizing to you emotionally, I like to go for a car ride and play music that I love and sing that can often fuel me again. But I also like taking a bath or just sitting in silence. I have a pellet stove that keeps us warm in the winter, and I have a pretty porch where I can listen to the birds in the summer and do some journaling. The five S's that I've talked about before might help you create some tools that serve you. Scripture, whatever the way that you get thoughts that are not from your brain, but fill your soul- find a way to read that. How about silence? When was the last time you just went outside somewhere where it was quiet? When I was younger, we used to go camping a lot. I think it really helped my mom to go to a campground where all you could hear were birds and the river. I remember walking alongside the river when I was a little kid. It was very, very peaceful. Silence, stillness, solitude, scripture, singing. Finding a way to make a note for yourself, whether it's on an index card or on your phone app. Maybe it's a journal that you really like. And you start to notice, Hey, today I am feeling mentally drained. Physically, I'm good. Emotionally, I'm exhausted. From a place of love, what decisions would I like to make? Oh, I think I'm going to carve out some time for some solitude, and I'm going to make sure that I get to go for a walk with a friend of mine who, when we have conversations, it fuels me. I think that's part of the reason I love podcasts so much. I just love someone else's voice in my ears. I love learning from other people, and sometimes I just don't have the energy to read, but to be able to walk and listen to a podcast. Is a way for me to refuel myself. To summarize today, your energy is going to ebb and flow like an ocean wave. You're going to wake up in the morning and you're going to notice one type of energy might be very high, the others might be average, or there might be a type of energy that's low. When I wake up before seven in the morning, I have pretty low physical energy and until I began to discern and do this work, I wrongly assumed. That I have completely low energy in the morning. I just don't have energy to go to the gym. I have really good mental energy in the morning, so journaling is good for me. Thinking about projects that I wanna do, making lists, anything like that is really good for me to do in the morning. Then during the day, I usually get a good peak of physical energy mid-afternoon, and my mental, emotional, physical energy, they all drop off pretty quickly in the evening. I'm not a night owl. What about you? How would you describe your energy? One thing I wish I knew back when I was a teacher and a pastor is every day is different. So if as a pastor I gave out a lot emotionally, I had a lot of mental and physical work on a Sunday. It wasn't very kind and loving of me to expect to be able to show up Monday morning full of energy. It would've been kinder for me to take Monday mornings off recover, come back Monday afternoon and maybe move my meetings to Tuesday morning. Those small decisions are what allow us to live a vibrant life. When we are constantly able to think about"what would serve future me?" Do I need rest, do I need to go have some fun, or is it time for me to do my purpose filled work? When we make those decisions on purpose, we're able to create a life where we are doing the things we want to do. We're not frustrated, we're not exhausted. We're not overwhelmed. I hope that our time together has helped you learn a little bit more about your energy. If you'd like to connect, I do do one-on-one coaching where we can spend a few hours together, help you discern and create a path. You can find me over@kellytibbits.com. I'm also on Facebook and Instagram. Talk to you soon. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I look forward to talking again next week. Thank you for joining the Live A Vibrant Life podcast. I hope our time together encourage you and will equip you with the tools you need to move into the vibrant life you desire. I'm here to help you live a brave, creative, purpose-filled life. And if you'd like to learn more. You can follow me on Instagram or Facebook, Kelly tibbits life coach, or visit my website kelly tibbits.com. I look forward to connecting again soon.