ENERGY

Energy is that stuff we talk about every day. "I have no energy for so and so. I felt energized by such and such. I have so little energy these days I don't know what is going on." We all know that we do or don't have enough of it but what is interesting are the stories we tell ourselves about the energy that we do experience. Not only do we quantify our energy but also attach judgment to it. For instance, it is not uncommon to hear someone say, "so and so's energy was toxic, or infectious or draining." These judgments are really just stories we tell ourselves as a way to deal with the ebbs and flows of the energy we encounter. This might not be a problem except that we can get caught in a wave of energy and judge it as bad. From there we might add fear to the story then illustrations of all the other times we felt this way. Now we have renamed our entire experience. Instead of seeing the energy as simply that we have added an elaborate story line that probably makes us feel uncomfortable at best and wretched at worse.

I think dogs are a great way to look at energy. We have all met that dog that just won't stop bouncing, barking, chewing or running. We see a dog like that and we probably have a story but more then likely we recognize the dog energy and leave it at that. We might think its owner needs to run it more or give it a chew toy but even so we seem to accept that some dogs have that kind of energy. Chances are we don't write a story about the dogs motives or feelings regarding that energy. We seem to be able to separate the "dog energy" from the story. We  likely tell ourselvse that some dogs are like that.

Not true of ourselves. We tend not to separate the energy from the story. In fact we use the energy as the basis of the story. We feel that "dog energy" and we tell ourselves that we should or should not feel it. Then we tell ourselves that we should or should not act a particular way. Then we add to the "dog energy" these feelings about ourselves and our worth. It becomes a vicious cycle. The stronger the energy the more elaborate the story becomes and then the more developed the attempts are to contain, explain or repress the energy. What if we just saw it as similar to "dog energy?" 

If we separate the energy from the story and then drop the story line we might be able to channel the energy constructively. Just like when we encounter a dog with that "dog energy", we seem to know to throw a stick for it or take it for a walk. Why not name our waves of energy similarly? Then we could take ourselves for a walk or do something constructive. We might garden or tackle something on our to do list. We could remind ourselves to ride out that wave of energy instead of judge it. After all maybe we are just experiencing a wave of "dog energy." Better to find a chew toy then to gnaw on our self-esteem!