This week's message asks the question many of us struggle with, how do you fill your own cup? How do you allow yourself to fully blossom? Are you surrounded by people that exchange energy evenly with you over time or do you have a lot of “vampires” in your life?
I think the GIF itself is nurturing with all the frigid cold, dark days, and overall heaviness that often comes after the holidays and with the beginning of a new year with oh-so-much potential, but holy #$#@, how do I get there?
Even though Spring is not around any corner (sorry, it's just true), in order to expand and grow like this beautiful flower we must allow ourselves to receive what is in our highest and best. Does this flower slap the sun away or scoff at the nutrients in the soil and rain telling them she doesn't need them? No. She follows the natural laws of the universe by receiving and giving (her beauty, her pollen to bees, etc).
I was reminded recently about one such law: energy cannot be created or destroyed. And to quote the editor of the Neighborhood Gazette's recent feedback to my article, it's going “to be knocking around my brain for a while.”
How I interpret this law is through nature (I know, but hey at least I'm consistant):
A plant and its earth cohorts put forth a lot of energy to create a seed, that seed holds that energy safely. When the conditions are right that held energy begins to nudge its way out of the seed and grow towards the sky, nurtured even more by the energy of the sun, rain, soil, etc.
The energy the sun gives to the plant helps them synthesize more food so they can turn that energy into a blossom and new seed. I know this is the most basic way to state a very complicated and miraculous process, so please gardeners and scientists be kind to me here.
Every cell in the human body is an energy exchange. Every human interaction, every cluttered area of the home, every meal, every dollar spent and received, every barefoot step on the earth, everything has energy.
We often talk about time spent and money invested, but I think it’s also time to include energy in our personal life equation.
As I mentioned in last
week's email, you expand more fully when you let go. Where are there any energy suckers in your life? Where do you get off a call or out of a meeting and spend an hour just recalibrating and venting? What makes you feel heavy?
As you let go, you allow in even better for you. Like the flower, you blossom. Not sure what I mean? Check out this beautiful example from a recent
LinkedIn post of someone I really admire.
Here are a few ways you can receive more positive energy into your life that you ripple outward:
- Spend time in nature, root your feet into the earth, allow yourself to feel awe and wonder. I promise you'll carry this with you as the day goes on.
- Make a fancy delicious dinner just for you and your loved ones, savor the prep and savor each bite. Your body and soul will thank you.
- Move your body regularly (this is great because it also allows you to let go!). Consistent body movement is tied to longevity and healthier happier lives.
- Schedule a spa day and, if it's in the budget, make it extra luxurious.
- Make art or play your favorite record or dance in your kitchen (or all of them! Maybe just not at the same time). Creativity lights up other parts of our brains, helping us problem solve better.
- Shameless plug alert: hire a coach. Coaches see you fully, celebrate where you are and help you build toward your dreams. Coaches also help you honor boundaries gracefully with any energy drains in your life. A powerful step to expansion.
- Ask for help from someone you trust in something you're having a hard time with that likely comes easy to them. Chances are they will light up at the opportunity to support you with something that comes so naturally to them.
On the
blog I show visual examples of me holding onto the old and not allowing myself to receive. In this post I also give tiny habits to do regularly that fill your cup. Let's all blossom and expand into our most beautiful and empowered selves this year.
For another take on this check out my most
recent article for the Neighborhood Gazette.
An intention for you: may you see with clarity where your energy exchanges just don't seem to be worth it anymore and know you deserve a cup that's always full.
