Spending Wisely

How are you spending your emotional energy?

We put lots of work into maintaining our physical energy. We strive to get enough sleep, eat well, exercise. When we need a boost, we always have coffee to turn to. But what about our emotional energy?

This emotional energy is what we utilize every day as we interact with others, react to situations with positive or negative emotional responses, and empathize. We wake up every morning filled with this energy; picture yourself waking up every day with a wallet full of cash. As we move through our days, there are certain things that we HAVE to use cash for, such as food. When we use our money for necessities, it doesn't feel like a loss; it's simply us using our money for our needs. When we use our emotional energy on our regularly scheduled life activities such as chatting with coworkers or mingling with the neighbors, it's akin to spending that energetic cash on food, gas, etc. And some thoughts and activities will actually give you a return on your investment! Performing a kind act, telling someone you love them, taking a moment to bask in how awesome you are...these are all investments that will increase your emotional energetic cash.

Imagine yourself window shopping. You know how good it feels when you buy that perfect shirt and love it even more the next day, when you realize the quality of the product surpassed your expectations. Few things in life mimic the satisfaction of a good spend. Conversely, we all know how it feels to waste money on a bad purchase. Throughout the course of the day, there are tons of ways to waste our energetic cash and throw it away haphazardly. Examples: worrying about things that we can't change, ruminating over the past, obsessing over mistakes, getting angry over small things. Every time we stew in negativity, spend time marinating in fear of failure, or do things that fall outside of our boundaries, we're leaking this energy all over the place. We might as well be opening our wallets on a windy day and letting fate take its course.

And this is why so many of us face burnout and exhaustion. We have emptied our energetic wallets on things that we don't value, and now our pockets are empty and we have nothing to show for it.

This week I'm going to follow my own words of advice and ask myself every day: How can I spend my energetic cash wisely? What am I allowing to drain me unnecessarily? Which people are picking my pockets? And conversely, what am I spending my energetic cash on that feels good, what are the things that I value so much, I'm happy to spend my energy on them?