This month, I am on holiday! Over the years, I have learned to take time off so I can serve my clients better. During this time away, I will reset, refresh and tap even more deeply into my own personal creativity.
Let’s have a “replenish yourself” challenge! Replenish sounds refreshing; like a tall glass of ice-cold lemonade or a much-needed dip in the pool. In years past, I have hosted Holiday Challenges around Christmas and the New Year, including November 2018’s Tap into Your Patience featuring Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, 2017’s 7 Ways to Listen around the Thanksgiving table and 2016’s Setting a Positive Holiday Intention challenge. I would like to invite all of my blog readers to participate! Here’s how:
- Many of my life coaching clients tell me they “need a vacation” but end up not taking one.
- I know that what might not be convenient for my family, clients or boss might be essential for me. I need time off to reset, recharge and replenish my battery pack. I always come back refreshed and renewed for a new season of life coaching!
- Recharging your batteries looks different for different people, but some things are universal.
- My challenge to you, and how to participate: 1) Learn to spot these “Energy Erasers” and find ways to quickly replenish your personal stores. 2) Email me describing your personal experience with one or more of these, and permission to use your experience in a future blog post by July 31. Not only will you feel replenished after trying these out, but you’ll get the chance to win one free complimentary Life Coaching session for you or a friend.
- Please know that if we end up using your experience, we will redact all identifying information to protect your privacy.
Read on, and email any experiences you have Replenishing Yourself to [email protected]. We will announce our winner and share his or her story in September!
1. Energy Eraser: Other People’s Problems
Are someone else’s expectations, hopes, dreams or problems causing you grief? If so, you are putting out energy that never gets replenished. If you are working to fulfill someone else, they get their needs met, but you never do.
How to Replenish: Free Yourself
With the July 4th holiday, think of your own feelings of independence. If you bought into someone else’s expectations, you can set yourself free, too.
2. Energy Eraser: Whose Life is It, Anyway?
As kids, we learned to play by the rules. In the process, some of our energy and creativity may have been squashed. As adults, we might be at a job or relationship or life-style where we have to make compromises or give up on some of our values.
How to Replenish: Make it Personal
Ask yourself, if it were totally up to me, what would I:
- hang on my wall,
- wear to work,
- do for fun,
- to socialize,
- do on vacation?
If you are like me, this will prompt a lot of self-inquiry. Who are you, really? Find areas of self-expression. Experiment! Bring more of yourself to the table.
3. Energy Eraser: Deprivation
If duties, disappointments, responsibilities and draining work fill your days, you may find yourself lacking energy and not taking any pleasure in the long summer days.
How to Replenish: Find Some Legit Pleasure.
Add real pleasure, beauty and fun to your life by doing what you find personally fulfilling. Satisfying experiences, large and small, are the real nourishment you crave. Take a walk in nature. Reconnect with a friend. What nourishes you?
4. Energy Eraser: Jealousy.
Sometimes we find someone else’s good fortune depressing.
How to Replenish: Take a Break for Gratitude
Comparison is the thief of joy. Look at what you have, and actively express appreciation for it. Write it out. Thank someone in your life. Read my previous post on How to Keep a Gratitude Journal for more ideas.
5. Energy Eraser: Being a Worry-Wart
Worry is a useless, energy-wasting emotion, see my previous blog post to find out why. Bottom line: it can’t add a day to our lives. It torments and exhausts us.
How to Replenish: Get Going!
What are you worried about? Have you taken bold action to overcome this issue? Worry tends to bog us down, stagnate us, keep us stuck. Action gets us un-stuck! It energizes! Whatever it is that’s worrying and however out-of-control you feel, there is something you can do. What is it?
6. Energy Eraser: Unfinished Business
Should-do’s and might-do’s and want-to-but-can’t-do’s drain you.
How to Replenish: Stop Procrastinating
Forget about making the perfect decision. Trust yourself and make a choice. Put your pie-in-the-sky ideas in your calendar. If you keep putting them off, take it as a sign that this is not something for you and release the need to do it.
7. Energy Eraser: Trying to Do #Allthethings
If you’re a “yes-man” or woman, always agreeing to additional projects from your mother, kids, friends or boss, you might leave your own personal needs, wishes and desires out of the equation.
How to Replenish: Set Boundaries
What are your non-negotiables? What do you appreciate about yourself? Say “yes” to the things you love about yourself by saying “no” to others every once in a while. You will have a better chance to do the things that light you up – and you’ll have a better chance of letting your light shine!
8. Energy Eraser: Old Losses
I regularly work with clients who have lost a job, a loved one, their health and more. This fresh loss is an emergency. But I also coach clients who have an old loss they are holding on to. I have found that the losses you can’t let go of can limit you.
How to Replenish: Grieve for Real This Time
If you’ve been glossing over your loss, maybe it is to face it head on. Commit some time by yourself to properly grieve, let go and release the hold this loss has over you. Then, go out and live your life. With the right perspective, loss can be something that you can build on instead of a limiting factor.
9. Energy Eraser: Unhealthy Habits
So many studies show that lack of sleep, too much time in front of screens, too much alcohol and not enough time in nature sap our personal and emotional energy stores.
How to Replenish: Get to Bed on Time
If you’re a chronic night-owl, try setting a bedtime alarm. When do you have to wake up? Subtract 8-9 hours. That’s when you have to be asleep. Make sure you’re taking a bath, in bed reading a book with the lights dimmed or doing some other relaxing activity at least 30 minutes to an hour ahead of this time. Put your devices in airplane mode. Start this or another healthy habit for at least a week and let me know how you feel!
10. Energy Eraser: Trying to Do It All Yourself
How to Replenish: Get Help, Hire a Life Coach!
Want to take a real vacation this summer? As with any change, it is so much better when you have an encouraging partner to help you in this work. I have provided these suggestions to get your started, but sticking with it is where many of my clients have stumbled. To enlist the help of a powerful ally, call Catharine Ecton Life Coaching or schedule your free Life Coaching consultation today.
Are you living a life of “have-to’s”? If so, you might find your life becomes a bit dull and predictable.
Everything in life is a choice, even on vacation. A life of “have-to’s” creates stress, feelings of being overwhelmed and discontent. The adventure is in swapping out our “have-to’s” with “want-to’s.” Instead of constantly living your life reacting to the world around you, set your intention and choose the life you want. Make it your work of art.
| ReplyForward |
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.