How to Have More Energy: Busting Top Energy Myths and What Really Works Instead

These days many people are looking for ways to have more energy. It seems that the busier that we get the more overwhelmed we feel, the more burned out we get it. 

Here are some interesting facts:

Many adults over 40 are becoming more reliant on energy drinks just to keep going throughout the day. Relying on that afternoon cup of coffee or eating those sugary snacks just to get that quick boost of energy. Adults over 40 are saying that they’re feeling a lack of motivation and they just can’t seem to get going. They’re not able to perform the way they used to do. A lot of people are gaining weight because they’re using food as a way to get more energy.

Let’s look at five of the biggest energy drains:

1. Too Much to Do with Not Enough Time – When you have too much to do and not enough time to do, that can cause overwhelm that can cause stress, frustration, and burnout.
2. Frustration – The feeling of frustration is number two because they have too much to do and too little time which causes people to feel frustrated.
3. Chasing Shiny Objects – What I mean by that is you might have this feeling that you’re in the middle of doing something and you’re feeling that frustration. But then something else comes into your mind, or somebody asks you to do something and it feels a lot better. So your attention shifts somewhere else to change your state. You chase that shiny object. You decide to go after that opportunity because it looks really good and you don’t like where you are today. So that diminishes our focus as we’re thinking about so many different things at one time. Which, in reality, means that we’re jumping back and forth from one thing to another, which can be a really big energy drain.
4. Lack of Sleep – We’ve all experienced lack of sleep at one time or another. The problem is that when we don’t get enough sleep we’re exhausted the next day and so we look for those things to supplement our energy – those sugary snacks or those afternoon energy drinks.
5. Negative Internal Dialogue – This one might surprise you. If you have a colleague that gets under your skin – that really triggers you – you begin some internal dialogue about how you feel about that person. Maybe they’re working on a project with you and that negative judgment or that internal dialogue. When we have that internal chatter, it can lead to what we call depleting emotions. You get that frustration, that feeling of anger. That negative internal dialogue leads to those emotions and those emotions drain us.

Here’s what happens, as a result of these five energy drains. 

Health Consequences:

• Stress & Overwhelm
• Anxiety
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
• Sleep Disorders
• Weight Gain
• Wreaks havoc on the autonomic nervous system that can lead to chronic disease states

Did you know that 80% of primary care visits are related to stress, but only 3% of patients get help? 

What are these Energy Drains costing you? To your Health? To your Productivity? To your Relationships? 

Cost of Energy Drains to Businesses:

• More than $1,000,000 lost each year to Fatigue
• $270,000 due to absenteeism 
• $776,000 due to presenteeism (lack of focus)
• $536,000 in stress-related healthcare costs 

*Note: based on business with 1,000 employees

The Traditional Alternatives

This could all be avoided with the optimization of better health, better energy, better focus. So, when we think about increasing stress a lot of the times the traditional methods tell us to go exercise, eat differently, avoid smoking and avoid too much caffeine. And, yes, some of those things can work.

But the challenge is they don’t work in the moment.

Right, if you’re feeling that energy drain you’re looking for something outside of you like that afternoon cup of coffee to give you that quick energy boost. Well, here’s the thing. It doesn’t have to be that way where you have to go do something in order to get that energy drain

So I’m going to share with you one of the quickest ways to get more energy and this might surprise you. 

I’m telling you that it works. I know that it works because I’m going to tell you about one of my clients Cindy. When Cindy came to me she just said, “you know I don’t really have passion that I used to have and in the afternoon. I’m tired all the time and I reach for the sugary snacks. I love sweets because the sweets give me that temporary high and then I go to bed and I’m actually drained. I’m exhausted. But I can’t sleep and she says, “I wake up and I’m tired the next day and so not being able to sleep and feeling tired is this repetitive cycle.” 

How to Plug the Energy Leaks

Here’s what I taught Cindy that she’s practiced over and over to literally plug the energy drains, so it doesn’t drain her energy anymore. 

There are different domains of energy. We call these the domains of resilience. 

The first one is physical. The second one is mental. The third is spiritual. And the fourth is emotional. Now a lot of times when we are looking at our energy being drained we look at the physical and we look at what can we change physically to increase our energy and that’s where

We depend on food and energy drinks to help us. Now when we look at the mental domain that’s when you have that negative internal dialogue. 

When we talk about that as one of the five energy drains and the fifth is that mental activity that is a negative internal dialogue where you may be judging a person or saying negative things, not just about that person but the negative things about yourself.

“Oh, how come I just can’t get this?”

“Why am I not smart enough?”

“I’m so stupid!”

“How come I can’t figure that out?”

When you have that negative internal dialogue that affects you emotionally we can feel that on an emotional level that also affects us physically because when we have that it bounces off the emotional hen we start to feel it physically in our body which affects our spiritual domain the spiritual domain is about being tolerant of other people’s viewpoints having compassion for other people so all these domains affect one another and I’ll ask you what do you think is the domain that has the biggest influence on all the other domains? 

You may be looking right there at the middle and the middle is the emotional domain. The emotional domain affects all the other ones and I’m going to lead you through an example right now of why that is so. 

I’m going to take you through an exercise and in this exercise I’m going to invite you, in a moment, to just close your eyes and with your eyes closed. I’m going to invite you to think about something that is stressful in your life. Think about something that causes you that feeling of the energy drain. Think about a person at work that when you think about them you have some stress and I want you to feel the energy drain. Or maybe, for you, it’s not a person, maybe it’s a project. Think about this thing in your life that causes this drain of energy and as you’re thinking about it I’m now going to invite you to notice what is the emotion that you’re feeling right now?

Are you feeling sadness?

Maybe it’s frustration?

Maybe it’s anger?

Notice the emotion and as you’re noticing the emotion now I’m going to invite you to notice where that shows up in your body? For some of you, it might be tension in your neck and shoulders. Maybe your heart is racing really fast. Maybe you have a lump in your throat?  Notice where that is showing up in your body. 

That was a glimpse into how the domains affect one another. So, we thought about something in the mental domain, it affected the emotion that we were feeling whether it was negativity it was anxiety or frustration whatever it was. That affected the physical. You felt it somewhere in your body, which then affects the spirituality of how tolerant we are with others or how connected we are not just with others but connected with ourselves connected to our hearts. 

So, when you think about energy drains in your life the number one thing that you can think of first of all is what is my internal dialogue. What am I saying about that person or that thing or that event that’s happening. What am I saying about that project I have to do. I can’t do it it’s too hard.

1. Notice how you’re feeling when you say a certain thing
2. What emotion are you feeling? (the emotion is what’s going to drain us the most)
3. Notice how it shows up inside of your body. So, if you’re noticing how it shows up in your body that’s draining you on a physical level.

So when we look at energy, it’s not necessarily letting me reach for something outside of me like that drink or that food or go exercise to get my energy back. Those are all things that are on the outside. 

Now I’m going to invite you in the future when you feel that drain of energy to…

1 – Stop, take a deep breath and just notice….become the observer.

2 – Ask yourself…

• What am I saying to myself right now? 
• What am I feeling? 
• How is it affecting me? 
• How is it affecting me physically? 
• How is that affecting my connection with other people and even to myself or my connection to my heart or to my source?

3 – As you notice, make a new choice. What do I choose to think and feel in this moment because you have a choice every single moment of your life. What is my choice to feel at this moment?

I empower you to make a choice that empowers you and empowers the people around you and when you make that new choice I’m going to invite you then to match the emotion with it so you’re aligning head with heart. When you make a choice from your heart and align an emotion that goes with that the quicker you can do this the more you’re going to plug those energy drains, those energy leaks. I promise you you’re going to have more and more energy each and every day that you practice this.

If you would like more information on this I’m going to put the link to a webinar, Five steps to Biohack your Physiology to Decrease Stress and Overwhelm and Increase Energy and Productivity by up 40 percent.  You can watch it here.

Join The Revolution

I know firsthand what it’s like to balance a career and personal life while you’re simultaneously suffocating under a heavy blanket of stress and anxiety. I spent decades as a maxed-out executive before discovering an integrative solution that did more than cure my overwhelm but also provided exponential energy, productivity, and resiliency. 

Most people can’t afford to wait. When your health, job, and family are on the line, months (or years) of talk therapy or medication ‘tryouts’ won’t do. You need a solution that works quickly and lasts a lifetime. If you have a mind and body, then you already have everything you need to get started. Bring curiosity, willingness, and commitment and we’ll supply the rest.  

Schedule a FREE Consultation Today!

Julie Hutchinson    Founder | Resilience Expert    Core Performance    P: 512.656.4822    A: 8222N. Lamar Blvd, Suite E41,  Austin, TX 78753    W: CorePerformance.us   E: [email protected]