Everything we do - all of our actions - requires energy.

Simple enough of a concept, right? But what does it mean to practice protecting, managing, and activating our energy? That might feel much more difficult to figure out these days.

I wish energy management was a course taught. If you’re in service to others, if you care about making life better, if you want to help or fix or change, chances are you are generous and giving of your time and energy.

Giving away your energy without regular recharging is a critical contributor to the overing pattern.

Educators, professionals, folks with kids, near everyone - we are all under what one of my Overing workshop participants coined the “tyranny of the academic calendar”. It’s the promise of… just hold on until spring break, just get to summer, just get through the week. We find ourselves consistently just holding on until (fill in the blank) – week after week, month after month, year after year. But the break never really comes because there’s always something else.

This is how Overing patterns become habitual and so deeply ingrained in us that we can’t imagine another way. Overing causes you to shift into overdrive. And overdrive causes more overing. It’s a vicious cycle.

You have worth beyond production. Culture and capitalism will tell you otherwise. And. You can choose to shift out of external achieving/validation and center yourself back in your life. You can slow down, feel more purpose and joy so that you take aligned action that cultivates a meaningful impact in the world.

The shift out of overing can create what one client described as finding “liberation within the system.”

We all have realities and responsibilities. And you also can take back your power and re-center yourself in your own life.

“You’re book smart but you lack common sense.”

Anyone else heard or been told a version of this line? 

Well, welcome to the world of my inner stories and how this line popped into my brain so fucking loud a couple days after crashing my bike and my face on the back of a camper van. 

Mind you, no one said this to me. I yelled it at myself as I was beating myself up emotionally. Ouch.

Are you over-ing, especially in your career arena?
Are you someone who over-does, over-commits, over-functions?
Are you ready to stop romanticizing work as your main identity?
Over-ing has REAL health consequences and keeps you out of living your true ambition of impact and goodness in the world. This is one of the messages of don’t be 2016 me.

Neuroscience shows that we as humans can adapt to stress (physical and mental) and grow from that stress, but only when paired with real restorative rest - which is the opposite for many folks on this side of the pandemic or even for work hustle culture generally. I see rest as a critical element of living intentionally and mindfully.

Taking on other’s work as a Rescuer gave me a temporary rush of purpose and service followed by lots of guilt, worry, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion. What it never did was give them the tools to engage in more effective behaviors, or change how they worked or prioritized tasks, or even how to make more value aligned choices.

I’ve found the Rescuer role is the predominant one folks I work with play - in large part because they are servant leaders/educators and change agents so their energy and efforts are outward seeking naturally. The line between serving and rescuing can be blurry. Rescuers lose their own empowerment and sense of choice in relationships as they slide into over-functioning and over-working.

Does drama got you all tied up in a knot? Did you know worms tie themselves up when water/nutrients are scarce…maybe your knotted up stomach is giving you a clue, huh! Get out of the drama trauma cycle and into empowerment.

Autumn has a rich, juicy invitation to transformation. Autumn is a liminal space. [Don’t you just love that word, liminal, liminality] Autumn is the threshold between the growth and abundance of summer and the inner, restorative nature of wintering.

Central to (un)(re)learning Love is how to love self, love others, and be loved in order to fall in love daily with the World. We choose to love. We get to choose mindsets, actions, and behaviors that support and grow Love.

I love this phrase a client used - wanting off the conveyor belt. The conveyor belt is hyper fast paced with continuous noise. It drowns out any voices from within. It suffocates the authentic voice that wants to be embodied.