A funny thing happened this week that perfectly illustrates what I’ve been thinking about this week. I’ve been thinking about how things that influence our energy, which affects our moods and/or our inner presence, can affect our performance.
I was lucky enough to experience a first-hand demonstration of what we call an external influencer. I was working, on a ladder and felt a little pinch in my lower back. I expect some of you are, unfortunately, a little too familiar with this feeling.
Hmm, I say to myself, not too bad, purposely ignoring that something in my infrastructure is now out of line. But, I kept going. I muscled through, pun intended, doing what I do, for a few days, knowing full well something was amiss, but not allowing myself the time to take care of it, to take care of me. Of course, if I had taken care of it when it happened, it would be a simple fix.
Come Thursday morning, I can barely stand, and standing straight isn’t even an option. There goes my day.
This is a perfect example of an external influencer and how it affected my day, actually, days now, in a way that is not really productive.
What are your influencers? Internal or External? Weather? Emotional upset? Physical Pain? Traffic? Other people? Are you involved in something that is not completely aligned with your values? They can affect you if you don’t pay attention to the signals.
Listen to your body. Do you need more sleep? Are you putting proper fuel in?
Listen to your mind. What are you feeding it? Do you watch a lot of TV? Are you a news junkie? Do you read? What kinds of books. When you’re out and about what is the nature of your conversation?
Are you aware of your thoughts and how they affect you?
I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again. Awareness is key.
And with awareness, we -not the world around us- control our energy instead of it controlling us.
Then we live consciously, on purpose.
And that’s a good thing.
Just sayin’