Fill Your Cup

Throughout the day, it is easy to become drained, but it’s not so easy to know why. We all know that a jolt of caffeine can bring us back, but what if we knew the cause for our exhaustion? Could we be able to prevent it? Today, I’m going to provide a look into these questions with current research, and then show a few examples of energy recharging problems with solutions.

The research is in, and it shows that we know a lot of things that are draining our cup, yet we still take part in these activities. In fact, in most cases we are overly concerned about the things that are draining our cup, further enabling the effect to take place. It’s like riding your bike and looking at a nail, concentrating on that nail, and trying to avoid it. The fact is that you’re more likely to hit something you are placing all your attention on.

The Negative Charge

How many times have you sat there and worried about the future so much that when the future arrives, you have no energy to face it?  How many of us know that unhealthy food and no exercise causes our cup to be less than half full but continue to eat poorly and perform with little to no exercise? Or how many of us sit up at night binging a TV show the whole time thinking that we are going to be tired the next day? Other common negative charging events include suffering from a trauma, dealing with toxic people, suffering from depression/anxiety, negative self-talk and dwelling on low self-esteem.

The Solution

If a cup is empty, do you hold it upside down to fill it up? If your phone battery has lost its charge, do you set it next to your charger where it continues to conduct negative energy, or do you plug it in for some positivity? That is the solution. As it pertains to our energy level, we must consider the positive ions more than the negative to fill our cup. We can save the negative ions for our counseling sessions.

Here are a few techniques…

• Instead of thinking about toxic people, spend time with loved ones.
• Instead of thinking about an anxiety-provoking situation, find yourself an enjoyable hobby or simply bask in some well-deserved leisure.
• Instead of engaging in negative self-chatter, find a way to give back to someone in need.

Then of course there are the more obvious ones...

Instead of eating unhealthily and thinking about how bad it is for you, use your energy to think about creative ways to eat healthy.

Instead of worrying about not getting enough sleep, think about ways you can practice sleep hygiene (reading instead of screens, tea instead of coke, quiet meditation instead of drama-filled discussion).

The fact is that if we think about adding positive ways more than we think about eliminating the negative, we do not lose more energy in the thought process.Instead, we begin to develop healthy behaviors that will ultimately serve to push out the negative ones. It may seem obvious now, but once you flip your cup right-side up under the stream of life’s water, there will simply be no more room for negative emptiness.