Stop leaking energy by considering where and how you need to set boundaries...
Often when we're chronically tired, feeling worn out or feeling like we need more energy, we naturally look to something to give us more energy.
It might be taking a supplement or changing your diet or turning to caffeine, sugar or chocolate for a burst of short lived energy.
Whilst ensuring that you're getting the right nutrition for your body and eating enough energy giving foods is foundational to give you the energy that you need and supporting yourself through some additional supplements or herbs can be very beneficial and effective, sometimes rather than always looking for something to give you more energy, it is helpful to look at your boundaries.
Healthy boundaries are essential to maintain your energy and your health and well being.
With the current societal obsession and widespread addiction to busyness, many of us are taking far too much on and putting huge amounts of pressure on ourselves to be constantly doing more.
To do more requires more energy and it's important to regularly look at and review how much you're trying to do or accomplish and where your energy is going.
How much of this is actually 100% percent necessary? How much of this is important to you? Are there things that you're doing because you think you should? Obligations that you could now let go of?
There are times, particularly as a parent where you do have to do things that you may not actually really want to do, but which you do through love of your children or family.
But most of the time, if we look closely at ALL that we're trying to do or pressuring ourselves to keep up, there are things that we could let go off or at least do a bit differently and this then frees up energy.
After hitting a wall at one point during the school holidays and realising that I was still stretching myself too thin trying to keep on top of family and domestic life whilst also running my businesses I realised that there was a wide range of annoying domestic tasks that I was doing for the children, that they are now perfectly capable of doing, but I was still doing them just because I always had.
Just small tasks around the house that were so automatic, but doing them multiple times daily adds up over the course of the day, leading to a bit of annoyance and resentment and unnecessarily draining my energy!
By deciding that I'm not doing to do these things anymore and that the children need to start doing them, frees up my energy and allows the kids to build their life skills and learn more about contributing to the functioning of our family and household.
Is it time to review what you're doing that others could do if you just asked them?
Some other examples of boundaries that can help you to maintain your energy could be:
-Deciding that you will be in bed before 10pm
-Restricting the times or the amount of times that you spend on social media (potentially a huge energy drain)
-Turning off your phone at a certain time in the evening
-Creating a morning routine by getting up 15-30minutes earlier to do meditation, breath work or something that supports your mindset or goals for the day
-Creating an evening wind down routine other than watching TV, being on social media or on your phone
-Saying No to social engagements that you are only attending out of obligation
-Prioritising a window of time each week that is YOUR time to do something that fills you up and schedule it in your calendar and don't agree to do anything else during this time unless absolutely crucial
Saying no to more things – this can feel hard sometimes, but it gets easier!
Learning to check in with your intuition or your body about whether you need to say yes or no to something can be really helpful
Your boundaries ideally are regularly up for review as your life and your situation changes- but remember its up to YOU to set and maintain them!
