My Energy Pie

My energy pie.  The first time I heard of my energy pie was when a friend of mine shared how an interaction in her day drained her energy pie. At first, I laughed. It was brilliant. It was genius. 

My brain lit up with curiosity. My energy pie?? What is this you speak of my friend? And she explained how she started looking at things and how they affected her energetically, affecting her energy pie. It feels so playful to me.

I started thinking about this a lot. I just started thinking of myself as an energy pie, literally picturing myself as an energy pie. It's a great tool to help me remember that everything requires energy, I have a limited supply of energy and my energetic needs fluctuate throughout the day. The conversation with my friend sparked a perspective shift.

I began to look at different things in my life, decisions, actions, and spending time with people through the lens of my energy pie. What's taking the energy out of me? And what's putting the energy in. It started to be a really interesting shift in my thought patterns and how I made decisions. My perspective shifted.

Now, I make decisions based on how my energy is going to be affected. I'm looking at everything as either taking from or giving to my energy pie. Do I have energy available to do the things I want or am I burning it needlessly on things that I can't control?

I realized that every single thought I have is an electrical impulse. Which is energy. So, every thought running around in my mind is taking energy from my energy pie, leaving me with less energy for the other things I might want to do. 

I have had a tendency to engage in overthinking, in catastrophic thinking. From the perspective of my energy pie, I could see I was consuming tremendous amounts of energy, conjuring endless scenarios in my mind. Worse, each of the thoughts generated feelings that consumed more energy. Typically, none of the thoughts were based on what was happening in the moment, in reality. 

My overthinking wasn't happy thinking. It was negative, catastrophic and generated intensely negative emotions that frequently overwhelmed me.  I didn’t see it or understand the pain and suffering I was causing to myself. The overthinking was a maladaptive coping mechanism I had habituated and used unconsciously to create a sense of control.

And oh boy, I've wanted to control so many things in my life. If I can convince myself I'm in control of something, I give myself a sense of certainty.  But the truth is, uncertainty is a constant and change is constant. So when I construct all these scenarios in my head, it is about creating a sense of control, using narratives that defend or protect me, explain things, or whatever, I'm just burning up the energy. 

Making decisions based on the energy that I have, what I'm going to need as I go through the day, is a helpful shift for me. There are certain things I like to do to start my day, to feel like I am giving myself what I need. I like to get up and stretch, have a cup of coffee, do some breath work, meditate, walk my dog, get early morning sunshine, get in the water. And all of these things require energy. Some may also give me energy.

The biggest potential energy expenditure in the beginning of my day is am I going to get in the ocean? That can require a lot of energy. If there are strong currents or a big swell, that is potentially a bigger expenditure. I may have a packed work schedule So, maybe I'll just walk in the shore break. Maybe, I'll just walk on the sand. So I'm considering the energy that goes into something and how that will affect me, how I will maintain energetic balance.

I can use that idea when it comes to food intake. Is the meal I am preparing going to meet my energetic needs for the next few hours?  I have learned that if I don't put enough protein in my meal, I burn through the energy very rapidly. I have learned that I need the composition of my meal to have protein as the largest component, then fats, then carbohydrates. Otherwise, I experience big crashes. 

My energy pie helps me navigate the day, based on my needs. I  need to have energy to do things I have to do for work, my home, for relationships, for movement, for everything. Everything requires energy, even sleeping. I look at my calendar and know if I have to book a few client meetings on the same day, where I am very present, listening and offering feedback, I know that I will be drained  if I don’t put some time in between the meetings to balance my energy pie.

There are a number of things, other than eating, I can do to restore my energy pie. Some helpful tools for me that supply me with energy are certain types of breathwork, spending a few minutes outside- hugging a tree or walking barefoot on the grass. I can take a ten minute nap. I can do some other types of work that are less intense.

So, through the day, I am maintaining awareness of my needs energetically. I'm playing with the dynamic of what is it that I want to do, what is the impact on my energy pie and is it helping me meet my needs. I do things to create balance for my energy pie. I get joy and excitement from thinking about my energy pie. It makes me happy. It is a tool that helps me stay connected to my awareness, grounded and focused on meeting my needs. It's an interesting way to navigate.