Episode 13 Final Mix
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Extraordinary Life Podcast from the creator of the Extraordinary Life Tribe, Crystal Obregon, the self-development podcast propelling you forward toward your goals. Using science backed high performance habits. Reach the next level in your physical and mental health. See new Heights in your relationships.
[00:00:18] Gain clarity on your purpose and live your extraordinary life. Welcome your host writers, speaker and coach crystal over gone. Hi there. This is Crystal from Crystal Obregon Coaching with episode number 13 of the extraordinary life podcast. Today, I'm moving on to the second of the six high-performance habits, which is generating energy.
[00:00:47] And it makes sense that it's hard to accomplish your goals. If you don't have enough energy and studies by the high performance Institute, do show [00:01:00] that the more energy a person. The more likely they are to have a high level of success. And people that have a high level of energy also tend to pursue more education.
[00:01:15] They tend to be more creative and they're even more assertive. They even have better relationships. And so what comes to your mind when you think about energy and do you feel like you have enough. Today, I'll break down energy into three types, physical, mental, and emotional, and I'll go into more depth this time on why mental energy is important.
[00:01:49] The signs of slacking and how to build in habits to prevent the burnout associated with not having enough. [00:02:00] And overall, I will keep coming back to the fact that you get to decide how much energy you have. Like my mentor, Brendon Burchard says a power plant doesn't have energy. It generates energy. So the first thing that always comes to my mind is when I think about energy as physical energy.
[00:02:26] I know exactly what I need in my life to have good physical energy. I need to get enough sleep. I need to eat well, and I need to exercise easy, but not necessarily, or we'd all be running around with plenty of energy all the time, but it can be a great place to start. And most people really do need to get back to the basics.
[00:02:52] So try these things for starters. Like I said, get seven to eight hours of sleep each night. [00:03:00] Whether you think you need it or not, there are lots of tools for getting good sleep. I'll link to them in the show notes, exercise at least 20 minutes a day or 20 minutes at least five days a week, depending on your fitness level.
[00:03:20] And then eat three healthy meals a day. Those are the basics. And I know that I fall off from that sometimes, even though I know, and I'm sure you do as well, I will put a link to my free seven day wellness challenge in the show notes. You can do it any time on your own, any time you feel off balance or that you want to just get back to the basic.
[00:03:50] So emotional energy is a second type of energy. And obviously it's very important as it affects both your [00:04:00] mental and your physical energy. So positive, emotional energy is one of the main keys to happiness. And I know we've all experienced feeling down and wanting to stay in bed or on the couch all day, not really wanting to do much of anything.
[00:04:20] And then the opposite feeling of when you're happy of having a ton of energy and wanting to run around and accomplishing all kinds of things, just because you feel happy. So. Like I said, we're responsible for our energy. And so some of the things that you can do to generate positive energy are realizing that you're responsible for the energy that you bring to your day.
[00:04:50] Nobody else gets to decide, so choose positive emotions. And some of the ways to do that is deciding how you're [00:05:00] going to bring meaning to your day. What are you excited about? What are you hoping to accomplish? Practicing gratitude? Of course always comes back to gratitude, make it a morning habit to ask yourself what you can be excited about each day.
[00:05:18] And even the most mundane of days, you can find something to be excited about, and it really does change your emotional energy. And anticipate that your interactions with other people will be good and that your day will go well, you can have that expectation and you get what you expect. And then with that, appreciate the other people in your life.
[00:05:50] Even when they're not. We'll spend the rest of the time talking about mental energy as that's an area [00:06:00] that I very recently became aware that I needed to work on. I'm taking closer, looks at my stress levels since I've had a stiff neck for about two months, and I had attributed it to hitting a branch when I was riding my mountain bike.
[00:06:21] Jarred me and it's been stiff since then. And it didn't really seem like a big deal at the time, but it's gotten worse over time and I've tried to do a lot of stretching and I've gotten a little bit of body work, but it still seems to be persisting. And if I think about it, that is sometimes where I hold my stress.
[00:06:46] And one of the things I decided to do is. To start doing some tapping meditations, EFT. I still owe you an episode on that [00:07:00] and I use the tapping solution app. So there's one that's specifically for having pain in your. One of the prompts during the tapping was asking about something that may be creating stress in my life and how I might be holding that stress in my neck and my shoulder.
[00:07:23] And what I realized is that over the summer, And obviously in the past year and a half, I had a lot going on and that there were lots of small to medium stresses that were in my life with getting my daughter ready to go to college and getting our roof done, which ended up being an entire summer project.
[00:07:46] Expecting and some fires that my family had to deal with. All of those things were not huge stressors to really make me pay attention, [00:08:00] but they really all added probably to making that tension in my shoulder and neck. If I didn't pay attention, not go away. And I've also, I've talked about how I wasn't really regular with my meditation practice with kids coming in late and not getting up as early, not as regular about using some of the other tools overall, I've been feeling energetic.
[00:08:27] My mental energy could be better. And even my physical energy has been affected because. Having a stiff neck. I haven't slept quite as well. And those times that I woke up and couldn't fall back asleep, it was probably because I couldn't really quiet my mind. Some of the other effects of not getting into relaxation mode often enough or dealing with my stress is getting headaches.
[00:08:58] The most [00:09:00] common being tension, headaches, and migraines. Chronic fatigue when your body is in a state of fatigue and you suffer a total lack of energy and motivation much of the time, even if you are doing the other, um, things to take care of your physical health, cardiovascular disorders, high blood pressure, heart disease, even heart attacks, gastrointestinal problems in the gestion heartburn, stomach ulcer.
[00:09:33] Uh, poor immune system and getting sick more often, all those things can happen if you're stressed and you're not really doing the things you need to take care of your mental energy, early warning signs that you might need to take a break and relax or yawning or sighing, a [00:10:00] lack of concentration. Feeling the urge to stretch and move about probably means that you should in general drop in performance or feeling tired.
[00:10:12] And then the good old fashion feelings of stress and irritability can all be signs. So if you're aware of the signs and take a break, you can avoid. A lot of the extra stress and fatigue, be more rational and focused and be better equipped to carry on and be far healthier, even better, create a routine for yourself so that you avoid the burnout and low mental energy before it even happens.
[00:10:51] So for me as a result of becoming more aware of my stress levels, I'm trying to [00:11:00] keep my morning meditation practice going. I've been more regular since I got back from taking my daughter to college. And for the last few nights I've been doing the tapping meditation for pain and for sleep once daily.
[00:11:16] Usually at night, I'm finding that that works well because it lowers your cortisol level. And I can really feel the relaxation in my body. So I'm going to try to schedule even more of these relaxation practices. And then also taking breaks is especially important to generate. Mental energy. And even though it seems counterintuitive being relaxed and taking time out, actually improves your productivity.
[00:11:51] And of course your physical and emotional health, if you're like me and probably our [00:12:00] lives, aren't exactly the same. You probably do have huge demands on your life, such as family, your business, or your career, your home. It's just especially important to find your own time and space to relax. So when I'm coaching my clients on generating energy, we often look at daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly practices for relaxation.
[00:12:30] I've worked with many people that do have a hard time relaxing and releasing stress. And even though they initially might find it difficult to slow down and see the benefits of taking more time out, it really doesn't take them long to see the difference. And I often have to remind them that the science does show that taking the time out and doing relaxation practices, [00:13:00] show an improved ability to concentrate.
[00:13:04] You can tune out distractions more easily. It improves your body awareness. So you become more aware of when you're over or under doing it. Speeds up healing time, following an injury. Learning is enhanced. We're all learners. Most likely you are. If you're listening to this podcast, even if it's not traditional learning, we're all learning all the time.
[00:13:33] And it's really a lot easier to introduce new thoughts and ideas when your mind is clear and you're relaxed and there's an absence of tension. Obviously you sleep better, which just feeds the whole cycle of good, good energy. You become more efficient and it really puts your focus back on the present and [00:14:00] gives you a sense of control.
[00:14:04] Starting with the daily practices. I recommend finding at least 20 minutes. Two or three times a day to do some kind of relaxation. And if you can't manage 20 at first three, feel like you can't try 10 minutes, whatever amount of time you do get to relax will benefit your mind and body, even if it's not quite as noticeable.
[00:14:33] So when time is short, there are many activities that will help you relax, such as reading, writing, just day dreaming, sitting quietly, and quite often, whatever you do to relax will be personal and work for you. So you may just need to experiment to find out what works best, what really [00:15:00] is relaxing for you.
[00:15:03] Moving on to a weekly practice that can be time for you to schedule over the weekend. Just time to do nothing, to chat with a friend, be the book. And I've had people ask me about scheduling on weekends and yes. After you've had a scheduled week, it might seem too much first, go ahead and schedule the things that you want to get done, whether it's your exercise housework, whatever's important to you.
[00:15:38] And then also schedule your downtime. You can just schedule a block of time that you get to decide it doesn't have to be down to the most. But if you don't schedule it, it might not happen. I'm sure that you've experienced getting to the end of the weekend Sunday night and feeling [00:16:00] frustrated because the weekend happened too fast and you didn't get to do what you wanted to do, whether it was getting ready for your week or, or just having those moments of relaxation.
[00:16:16] Monthly relaxation practice can be planning weekend to do something fun, whether it's in or out of town and the same with the quarterly practice, but perhaps try to make it a long weekend maybe away. And then for a yearly practice, really try to get a way for at least two weeks a year to do whether it's broken up or not to do something fun, either on your own or with your partner, friends or family.
[00:16:51] It's really important to schedule it because it gives you something to look forward to. And. [00:17:00] Helps prevent burnout and can give you quality time either just by yourself or with others. I'm sure you've experienced that creative energy you get when you've been away in a different environment for a few days or more, that increase in motivation and productivity.
[00:17:22] And that's because you are taking care of your mental energy. So I'd love to hear how you take care of your physical, mental, and or emotional energy. To send me a direct message on Instagram or Facebook, or email [email protected] And until next time, be extraordinary. Bye for now. Thank you for listening to the extraordinary life podcast with Ryder and coach crystal Obregon.
[00:17:59] We'd [00:18:00] love to connect with you outside of the podcast, too, to find more helpful insights, show notes and more about crystal. Go to crystal oprah.com that's O B R E T O N, where you will also find info for the design. Your decade workshop. This workshop will help you to stop drifting. Start creating until next time be extraordinary.
