What does it look like to feel energized and connected?
Many women tell me they want to feel more energized and connected. They’re feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, stressed, depleted, and they feel disconnected from themselves and others. They feel alone, and maybe even lost.
What Does it Feel Like to Be Energized and Connected?
My own journey had so much to do with my day-to-day intake.
We digest everything we take in, not just our food but the experiences, who we’re with, and the energies around us.
For me, it’s been this incredible journey of slowly shifting my diet, finding the food that works for me to keep me energized so that I’m not getting that three o’clock slump where I feel exhausted and ready for bed, or to just cancel today and move to the next day. I literally don’t get that.
It’s not that I never get tired. I do, but I don’t have that predictable three o’clock slump that often comes from struggling to eat a healthy, balanced diet that really aligns with me. A lot of times that slump is a carb crash or a sugar crash that’s happening. Many of us have gotten stuck in those patterns.
What Worked For Me?
I wrestled with eating disorders in college, being overweight, and constantly trying to figure out what would work for me.
Ultimately, what helped me in that domain was surrender — surrendering to listening to my body and ultimately saying, “Okay, I’m not going to diet. I’m not going to try to follow some calorie counting process or anything like that. What I’m going to do is start aligning myself with Nature,” because I knew Nature energized me and definitely helped me to feel connected.
When I can be in Nature, I have this sense of my feet on the ground. I have a sense of being supported and nourished, symbolically and literally.
It’s this idea of drawing from the well of our being, drawing from the well of the Earth and all of the sustenance that She has to give us. Sadly, we don’t spend enough time with Her.
Many of us are depleted in Vitamin D. Disclaimer, I’m not a doctor, I’m not a nutritionist, and I’m not trying to prescribe anything for you. I’m just sharing a bit of what worked for me and what helped me. Many of us are depleted in Vitamin D because we’re not getting enough outdoor time. We’re not getting enough natural sunshine. We’re not connected enough to the daily rhythms, and the rhythm of the year, and the natural rhythms.
We try to be in “go” mode all the time, and it’s simply not sustainable. Even Nature knows this.
Nature knows it can’t keep blossoming and blooming 24/7. It has to have time for rest. It has to have a time of regeneration. It has to have a time of turning inward.
During the Celtic festival of Bealtaine, May Day, the buds are popping out on all the trees, and the blossoms are blooming.
Many people think the Earth is so awake and alive. In some ways, that’s true, but actually Mother Earth is actively doing most of her work during the Winter below the surface.
What we’re seeing in the Spring is the beautiful result of the Winter effort that She makes. By the Springtime, She is resting to prepare herself to do the work again in the next cycle.
We want to honor that need for cycles in ourselves.
If we want to feel energized and connected, we have to have cycles of rest and recovery, along with getting ourselves out there creating, doing, moving, shifting, producing, etc.
However, we have to look at all of the components as they relate to each other.
Attention to Our Energy
There is the need to attend to our personal energy.
Sometimes we don’t feel energized because we’re picking up on the energy of other people, or other situations, or other moods.
We must learn to take a look at everything we’re ingesting, which includes not only food, but also the energy and the environment that we’re surrounded by.
For me, supporting my energy was learning to align with Nature in every way that I could, including my food. I started to eat only whole foods, non-processed foods, organic foods, and biodynamic foods — anything that was truly as Nature intended.
Who Are You Spending Time Connecting With?
I also had to ask myself, “Who am I spending my time with?”
Am I spending time with people that diminish me, deplete me and somehow drain my energy?
Am I connecting with the people I want to be connecting with?
Am I showing myself, allowing for personal visibility so I can be in connection and have these authentic relationships?
I needed to know I could digest what I ingested, including the experience of being with others.
If I was ingesting too much of what wasn’t aligned with me, I would have indigestion, not just physically but spiritually, emotionally, or mentally.
I would feel like I couldn’t move anything in my life. If that was the case, of course I wasn’t feeling energized or connected. I ended up feeling confused, disconnected, drained, and overwhelmed.
Assessing Your Energy
Some questions to consider:
What energizes you?
What do you already know energizes you?
Do you know that a walk in the woods energizes you?
Do you know that feeling the Sun on your face energizes you?
Do you know that eating certain types of foods energizes you?
Do you know that talking to certain types of friends energizes you?
Start to see a pattern of what feels really good to you. And then similarly, consider what drains you.
What are the things that you know drain you?
Are there certain people that drain you?
Are there certain activities that drain you?
Are there certain chores that drain you?
Are there certain foods that drain you?
Have you felt indigestion, sluggish, heavy, and not so energized?
Look at these ideas around your energy. Then, do the same thing for exploring how you’re connecting.
When do you feel most connected not only to others but to yourself?
What are the circumstances in which you feel truly connected to others? to yourself? to Source? to Spirit?
I know being in Nature, I feel connected to Source. I feel energized by Source. I feel like I can be something that Source and Wisdom move through, instead of something I’m disconnected from and not able to align with.
When do you feel disconnected?
What disconnects you?
Are there certain people that tell you your dreams are crazy and you start to disconnect from yourself and your intuition?
One of my courses, Becoming Effective, focuses on effectively moving toward our dreams by connecting to what’s most important to us. This is a crucial step toward creating the life we truly long for, and feeling energized in the process.
Having confidence in our voice means we have to be connected to our voice. We have to be connected to ourselves. We have to be connected to what we care about.
Nothing in this work of awakening our Inner Wisdom is isolated. It’s one of the reasons I have lots of playlists on YouTube and categories for my blog articles, because I can’t talk to you just about alleviating fears without also looking at your values and the rules you might be living by, without looking at the ways in which you’re showing up and the ways your energy is being managed.
We’re going to be far more fearful and anxious if we’re feeling drained all the time, and overwhelmed, and our energy is not in check.
We’re going to feel far more anxious if we’re feeling disconnected from what we really want and who we really are.
These are all so important and they all weave together.
What Energizes You?
Share in the comments:
What energizes you? What drains you? When do you feel connected? When do you feel disconnected? What would it look like for you to feel energized and connected on a day-to-day basis in your life?
For a video version of Ways to Feel Energized and Connected, watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0q1UWCd28j4
