If you’re looking to improve your energy – which clearly you are or you wouldn’t be here – there are a couple of traps to be aware of that will quickly suck away your good energy. They’re super common and we’re all influenced by them to a certain extent. But by understanding them, and most importantly, by being mindful of them, you can drastically minimize their impact on your life.
Energy Waster #1 – Living for the Future
Our modern culture is all about working hard to get the goodies you want. Study hard and get good grades, get a good lucrative job, find a good spouse to settle down with, get that nice house and car, take that exotic vacation, save a lot so you can retire early and live large. And so on…
Of course none of these are bad goals in and of themselves, but they all have one drawback in common – they’re in the future. And even when they manifest in your life they’re quickly replaced by new versions of the same goals, like get the promotion, buy the bigger house, take the even more exotic vacation, boost that retirement account, etc.
Living on the treadmill of desires is an energy waster.
After you’ve been on this treadmill for a while it will likely dawn on you that you never actually reach “the destination.” Why? Because desires are endless. Your ego is never satisfied – its fundamental nature is to want more. If you’re incessantly focused on the future and how wonderful it will be once you’ve “arrived,” you might as well accept the fact that you never will. Or said another way, when you do “arrive” you won’t notice it because you’ll be focused on the next/bigger/better destination.
This way of living is a sure way to drain your good energy. Because good energy only exists in the present. If your mind is always in the future, it will be too distracted to receive all the goodness that surrounds you right now.
Coming back to the present moment and noticing what you already have is an energy booster.
Alternatively, one of the best ways to boost your energy is by being grateful for what you have in your life at this very moment right now. Just as your life is. If you stop and look you’ll realize you have so much to be thankful for – including having accomplished many of those goals you set for yourself earlier.
Now this doesn’t mean you can’t have any desires or wishes. And of course you have to spend a little energy planning for the future. It’s human nature to want to improve your life. And the good news is that one of your main tasks in this life is to improve your level of energy, and as you do your life automatically improves, too. That’s how energy works.
What about all my goals?
The idea is to focus less on the specific goals and more on the level of your energy. A good way to do this is to formulateintentions rather than wishes. A wish is for what you want to have… a certain acquisition, event, or accomplishment. An intention is for how you want to be and feel; an outcome that creates a state of being characterized by happiness and fulfillment. And an intention always includes the qualifier that it’s in the Highest Good.
So you can go ahead and dream about the future, but dream up intentions and not wishes. This involves the very important energetic concept of surrender. You set intentions of how you want to be and feel, but you surrender to Life Force Energy the task of figuring out HOW you’ll get you there. If you live a virtuous life as a kind person spreading good energy as you go, the details will take care of themselves. That’s how energy works.
And that’s what it means to live in the present and not the future. You surrender and trust that as you increase the good energy in your life the future will manifest positively. You’re grateful for what you have and you look forward with anticipation to your future. Not in a specific way but always being open for what wants to happen according to the Highest Good.
That’s how to overcome the living-in-the-future trap. Stay tuned for our next installment where we discuss energy waster #2. Coming soon to your inbox…
Till next time,
Marty