Key Ways To Build The Energy To Actualize Your Life

What could I do to enhance the enjoyment or fulfillment of this action? Or, how would I relate to this action if my goal was to get as much enjoyment or fulfillment as possible out of it?

If you were to ask yourself what you could do to maximize the enjoyment and fulfillment of sleep, the answers might be things like making your bedroom the perfect sleeping space, get­ting a better mattress and bedding, letting go of stressful thoughts, and avoiding anything that might compromise your sleep, such as caffeine, electronics, or going to bed with a full stomach.

If you were to approach eating from the perspective of maximiz­ing enjoyment and fulfillment, you might find yourself eating more slowly, you might savor the flavors and textures more, or you might visualize the energy from the food being absorbed by your body and distributed to all your cells.

If you were to focus on heightening the sweetness factor in your approach to exercise, water consumption, spiritual practice, and community, at the very least you’d enjoy these activities more. But in addition, you’d likely find yourself feeling more “charged” by them than ever before.

What could I do to enhance the enjoyment or fulfillment of this action? Or, how would I relate to this action if my goal was to get as much enjoyment or fulfillment as possible out of it?


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Key Ways To Build Energy THROUGH SWEETNESS

* Look great, even if you don’t have to.

* Let yourself be fascinated by everything around you. If you look closely, you’ll find amazing things everywhere.

* Practice gratitude. Be alert for gifts! Think about how your anticipation of gifts filled you with a bubbly eagerness on Christmas, Hanukkah, your birthday, or other gift-giving occasions. What if you knew each day would be full of gifts? They may be slightly hidden, but you can find them if you’re alert.

* Serve others. There’s nothing like witnessing the value you can add to others’ lives.

* Do something lovely for yourself.

* Appreciate beauty. It’s everywhere.

* Accept with delight whatever comes to you.

* Share love. Whether you’re expressing love or receiving it, spending time in the conscious experience of love connects you to communal energy and gets you in a mindset conducive to healthy energy.

* Visualize that you’re absorbing energy from the natural things you interact with—trees, clean water, air, the ocean, food, etc.

Once you tap into the reservoir of energy that issues from the experience of sweetness, stoke it. Bounce from one sweet experi­ence to the next—not by stimulating yourself through force of will, but by keeping yourself sweetly engaged with the world in a way that uplifts and nourishes you.

Space for Optimal Energy

Abundant energy requires space. Space is essential to be able to listen to and to feel the influx and outflow of energy.

Only by making space within ourselves, to shift a portion of our consciousness to what’s happening on an energetic level, are we able to feel if we’re needlessly pouring our own vital energy into a project, or giving it away to a troubled friend.

Your Energy Is Yours

Learning to perceive the distinction between your personal energy, others’ personal energy, and communal (or ambient) energy is a valu­able skill. Specifically, knowing how not to give your personal energy away will preserve your energy and promote cleaner relationships with others. Except for perhaps deliberately giving some of your own energy to a mortally wounded loved one, your energy is yours and nobody else needs your personal qi.

Giving a good massage doesn’t require pouring your own energy into your client. Cheering up a sad friend doesn’t require it. Loving someone deeply has nothing to do with giving them your energy. Even making a big difference in the world doesn’t demand your personal energy.

Get It Done with Less

While you may be habituated to using effort to accomplish every­thing, there is nearly always a path of least resistance (or less resistance) available—a way to get the same task done with less of an investment of your own energy.

You’ve seen it before. There are people who find drama in everything, conflict around each corner, and several emergencies a day. People who are drained by anything unexpected. At the other end of the spectrum are folks who are easygoing about everything. Nothing is worth getting their feathers ruffled about.

If a person of each type were given the same day’s work, the first would likely be worn out by the afternoon, while the second would be wondering what kinds of fun activities were planned for the even­ing. People tend to think this variability comes down to how we’re “wired”—a matter of personality that rarely changes—and while that can certainly be a factor, it’s also something that can be learned.

FOUR WAYS TO CREATE SPACE FOR ENERGY

1. Cultivate spaciousness.

Accumulating and storing energy requires space. If you don’t have space in your days, in your mind, and in your heart, the flow of energy through your life is constricted. Qi Gong and meditation are especially valuable in this capacity.

If everything is made of energy, having more of it shouldn’t be a difficult task. Imagine that you’re a vessel for receiving energy efficiently, and that it flows through you freely.

2. Routinely let go of anything—physical, mental, or emo­tional—that isn’t serving you.

Clear your mind and release clutter. While people tend to exercise for its physical benefits, it’s also quite effective at “cleaning out” negative thoughts and emotions and neutralizing deep neurological ruts that drain us.

3. Avoid fighting with life.

Stop creating a struggle where there doesn’t need to be one, going about things the hard way, and investing more of your own energy than necessary. Be light.

4. Take advantage of ambient energy and the currents around you.

Harness the prevailing flows of energy in the world in order to accomplish more with less personal cost. In more mundane terms, this means paying attention to how the world works, noticing how change happens, and being clever enough to take advantage of this momentum.

In aikido and other “soft” martial arts, this means exerting minimal force to beat one’s opponent. Instead, through a graceful combination of timing and biomechanics, you use the opponent’s energy and simply redirect them—to the floor.

In more everyday terms, don’t cre­ate something from scratch if someone else has already done some or all of the work; don’t work against the system when you can work with it; don’t fight with someone when you can ignore them or get them on your side; and carpool whenever possible—and we don’t just mean in the sense of sharing a car.

The more you consciously expand your space and experience the heightened awareness that it brings, the more you’ll notice opportunities to harness the energy around you.

Resources Are A Gift

Take anyone who has accomplished huge things in life, and beyond whatever intelligence, connections, luck, and persistence they had, it’s likely they also learned how to channel communal energy really well (probably unconsciously) and/or they had an abundance of energy to begin with.

You may be wondering, How do I do this? The answer is to make space in yourself. Feel.

Feeling the contours and trajectories of life is tricky if you’re pushing and spending all of the time, so, at least at the beginning, try to access your space during simple, relaxed activi­ties. Perhaps a good Qi Gong instructor could give you more detailed instructions, but ultimately, this is something that can only be learned by practicing it.

Pay attention to what energizes you in a healthy way, and do more of that. Notice what makes you tired, and either stop doing it or figure out how to do it in a way that doesn’t tax your personal reserves. The energy to actualize your Well Life will come.

©2017 by Briana and Dr. Peter Borten. Reprinted with permission.
Adams Media Publications.www.adamsmedia.com

Article Source

The Well Life: How to Use Structure, Sweetness, and Space to Create Balance, Happiness, and Peace by Briana Borten and Dr. Peter Borten.The Well Life: How to Use Structure, Sweetness, and Space to Create Balance, Happiness, and Peace
by Briana Borten and Dr. Peter Borten.

Click here for more info and/or to order this book.

About the Authors

Briana Borten and Dr. Peter BortenBriana Borten and Dr. Peter Borten are the creators of the Rituals of Living online community and Dragontree, a holistic wellness brand. Briana is a Mastery Coach with an extensive background in coaching clients to help them reach personal breakthrough and mastery. Peter is a doctor of Asian medicine who helps people attain whole health of body and mind. He has authored hundreds of articles, spanning topics such as stress, emotional wellness, nutrition, fitness, and our connection with nature. Learn more at: www.thedragontree.com.