Energy shift

Have you ever noticed that you can be tooling along, enjoying your life with everything going great and you wake up one day and you feel totally different? You don’t know why. Nothing has changed, you just feel different. What felt great yesterday, feels annoying today. What brought you joy last week, makes you feel antsy or anxious.

It’s the strangest thing and I don’t know why it happens. I will sometimes sit and think about what could be causing it. Is there some unconscious thing happening? Am I getting sick? Am I having PMS? What the heck happened?

Energy is an amazing thing. It flows and it moves and it gets stuck at times as well. When things are fluid and free moving everything seems great but there are times that energy can get stuck. There can be a myriad of reasons and sometimes it’s helpful to work through it but other times it’s just OK to get the energy moving again and not worry about the why.

Here are a few ways to shift your energy.

Go for a walk- Get the energy moving through your body. Walk with the purpose of being in the moment. Feel how you are feeling as your body moves along the terrain. See the sights around you. How do they make you feel? Does your environment uplift you or does it make you anxious or drain you. Pay attention.

Create a light hearted piece of art- Get out some colors and doodle, smear the paint around and just have fun. Rip out beautiful images from catalogs and magazines and create your own beautiful image. Doodle on it with pens and write uplifting words to yourself. Have fun without any preconceived notions of how it will turn out.

Purge- Take some time alone and write out every thought that is going on in your head The good, the bad, and the downright ugly. Don’t censor yourself. Allow the emotions to flow. Stay in the moment with what is happening and if you notice a judging voice pop up, thank it for its concern and tell it you are perfectly safe and continue to let it all out. When you finish, you can burn the pages and watch them go up in smoke. You will feel lighter.

Practice gratitude- I know this is an old standby but it can’t be forgotten for the way it can shift a mood. Start simple if you can’t find much to be grateful for and see where your energy leads you. Try to feel the emotions that rise up. When you are feeling grateful for your family, spend a moment feeling how that feels in your body, let it grow and expand and fill you up. You will find that each swell in emotion will carry you higher into the next emotion of gratitude and it will grow like a wave that moves through the ocean toward the shore. Ride the wave.

Be present- Sometimes you need to have downtime. You can’t live your whole life in an elated state of mind. There has to be ups and downs. There has to be moments when you are out in the world and then there are times when you pull back within yourself to reflect. It is natural and it is healthy. Stay in the moment and experience it all.

No matter what, be gentle with yourself. Treat yourself as you would a small, sad child. Nurture yourself and be patient. This too will pass.