So what do I mean by 'emotional energy'. Emotional energy is the sensation of joy and peace in your soul. When I say joy I'm not talking about a frenetic over-happiness but a quiet, serene delight. If our emotional energy 'cup' is full we are en-joying (see what I did there?) our daily lives and not feeling overwhelmed by the mundane stresses of the modern world. Let's imagine if we have an empty 'cup' when it comes to our emotional energy, what would that look like? It would probably look like last week when I was rude and short tempered with my spouse when she asked me to check the mailbox after work.
My emotional energy (EE) was running low so I became irritable and anxious without realizing it, which lead to me being very short with my lovely spouse who wasn't aware of how I was feeling. Our relationships can suffer if we are unconscious to the signs of our EE running low because we haven't taken the time to recharge properly on a regular basis.
Here are a few suggestions for recharging our emotional energy:
Schedule Rest Into Your Day
One of the biggest paradigm shifts I have had in my adult life is the concept of scheduling rest into my day. It is such an important principle for us to take seriously - to schedule rest.
In an ancient book called Genesis there is a story of God creating the universe and all things in it in six days. If you are familiar with the account it actually says that at the end of each day of creation God said, "It is good". The concept to focus on here is that the creator reflected on his work at the end of the day and scheduled rest into the process of his work, even though his work was not yet finished. Rest was so important to the creator that at the end of the six days he scheduled in the whole entire seventh day to rest! If it's an important practice for God to schedule rest then how much more for us human beings? That's a rhetorical question.
Do Something Unproductive and Unhelpful
Ah yes, one of my favorite ways to recharge my EE. The thoughts that this sentence conjures up in the mind always makes me smile. We are all taught that to be successful in this world (and we want to be successful) one must work 'hard' and be a 'productive' member of society. Which is true, these are wonderful qualities to bolster, but how consistently can we work hard and be productive when that's all we ever do? Like it or not, our minds and bodies will eventually burn out and force us to stop being so productive. I'm speaking from experience. So I've learned the hard way to find activities that are unhelpful and unproductive to anyone other than myself. For me, it's going for a drive in my fun car or playing The Witcher 3 on my self built computer. Sometimes I'll binge watch Netflix or YouTube, whatever gets me into 'unproductive' mode. I've found that I've become more consistently productive because of it.
Eat Some Good-Good Food
Eating a healthy quinoa salad is great on a regular day. For sure, we are what we eat so let's be wise with our eating habits on the day to day; but when I say good-good food I'm talking about Big Macs, chicken burgers, instant gratification with fries. I'm all about that burger life when it's time for a comforting meal. Whatever comfort food fix fits your fancy, just remember that it's more than okay to have a cheat day once in a while. It can be downright necessary after a particularly long and eventful day to treat yourself to some good-good food.
