Keep Your Energy On A Budget

Have you ever heard someone say that they are on an energy budget? I have had encounters with people who give me puzzled looks when I tell them that I prefer to move according to my energy budget.

This concept originates from the Earth's energy budget. Norman Loeb, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center Virginia explains it this way:

"Earth’s energy budget describes the balance between the radiant energy that reaches Earth from the sun and the energy that flows from Earth back out to space".

In similar fashion there is a constant flow of energy that's happening within you and in the environment around you. Your environment includes your friends, neighborhood, apps on your phone and everything you are exposed to under the sun.

So what exactly is this energy budget for human beings? According to me

An energy budget is a budget that monitors the quality and quantity of the mental, emotional and spiritual energy a person has and how much they spend on and absorb from the world in order to have a balanced energy.

Everything requires a balance in energy to function properly. The Earth-atmosphere system is in charge of constantly maintaining a balance between the energy that flows into the Earth from the sun and the energy that goes out into space from Earth. In your life, you are the accountant that is incharge of monitoring this balance.

The best way to maintain balance in your energy is to keep it on a budget. This means you have to intentionally watch what you spend your energy on, the things you think about, the people you talk to and what you see and hear.

Time also plays a critical role in your energy budget. What you spend your time doing is essentially what you spend your energy on. Also, whomever you spend time with you simultaneously trade energies with hence it is paramount to manage how you spend your time too.

Let me put you on some of the practices I have realised are great for maintaining a healthy balance. These are things that should go into your energy budget.

1. Be financially intelligent

Finances like time also have a huge effect on your energy. Being broke usually drains energy so it is important to manage money properly.

Not being broke does not necessarily mean having millions, just being comfortable is better. More often than not this has no impact on your energy. It's great not to worry about food, or what you could be doing or what could have had if you had used your money better. Those thoughts drain your energy.

2. Spend some time alone

This entails getting to know yourself, falling in love with yourself and enjoying your own company. The same way you affirm people you love is the same way you should affirm yourself by practicing positive self-talk constantly and affirming that you are enough and you love yourself. Positive self talk is always a positive inflow of energy courtesy of yourself.

You will start to value a lot things from yourself and become your own verification. This reduces the amount of times we feel the need to rely on others for validation.

Sometimes we believe what people think or say about us more than what we truly think of ourselves deep in our hearts. If you are on an energy budget, you focus on yourself more than on other people.

3. Stay on the grind.

It is important to make sure that you don't idle your time away. Staying inactive (and spending too much time alone) usually leaves room for the mind to wander too much and overthinking can be very taxing on your mental energy budget.

Find a hobby, project or skills to work and consistently work on it. Having a purpose fuels you with energy and allows you to have something to focus on. When you focus your energy on something that builds you up that can make you feel happy, relaxed, hopeful and energetic which are all emotions that add positivity into your energy.

4. Only spend energy you can afford to lose.

You should put yourself and your energy above everything in all situations. There are times where as people we become overly responsible for making those around us happy and sometimes it is at the expense of our own happiness.

In trying to be better friends, siblings or partners we choose to match our efforts to the needs of those we love despite those efforts costing more of our energy than we can give. When you are on an energy budget, you only allow yourself to do as much as you can afford to do not as much as the other person needs.

Remember that your worth is not measured by how much you give so it's okay to say no or accept that you cannot help people all the time.

5 . Set boundaries

Being honest about boundaries is a life changer when it comes to your energy budget. The thing with boundaries is they need to be very strict and followed in that regard.

Setting your boundaries includes guarding your openness and not opening up to just anybody about yourself. Be picky with who you give access to your energy to and how much access you permit them to have. If they happen to cross those boundaries, you have every right to be honest with them rather than holding back and allowing them to overstep. If you allow it once it will happen again usually.

People overstepping in your life usually takes away from your energy.

6. Watch out for unequal energy exchanges

Take note of how you interact with people and how they interact with you. Pay attention to people who don't clap for you, people who don't feed into you and also people who are there for you.

You need people who match your vibe and people you vibrate with positively. In a similar way we need to understand we might not always be what the other person needs and take such misalignments as vibrational not personal.

The law of reciprocity and mutual exchange in intimate relationships is that you should give positive energy to others as much as you should surround yourself with people who give you positive energy. If it doesn't work, don't force things.

7. Be a good communicator

Say what you need to say and turn away from suppressing your emotions. In a similar manner never assume somebody knows how you feel without you verbally communicating it. Internalising your feelings leads to internal violence and uncommunicated expectations. Communicating allows you to feel lighter and to be heard. Whatever you hold inside you need to pay for with your energy so avoid such unnecessary expenses.

Secondly give over explaining and justifying your choices a miss. Trying to convince someone who has strongly differing opinions from yours about your actions or choices is useless. Cut such arguments or conversations short, agree to disagree and just stay and live in your truth. You can't be upset that someone has a different view from you.

A good communicator is also honest. Lying is so exhausting when you have a conscientious mind. And lies usually require more lies making it a liability that you have to keep paying for. Be honest with yourself so you can be honest with other people as well but don't harm people with your opinions.

8. Observe don't absorb

Monitor how much energy you absorb from everything that goes on around you including events, conversations, social media and your own thoughts!!

Discernment is key to being able to choose what to absorb and what to simply observe. If you can't control a situation and it doesn't affect you personally, learn to passively observe it. Sometimes as an empath I find myself upset over sad news I see around the world when I absorb the sadness.

If it is a situation that you can control, absorb it by finding solutions to it, not staying in it. It's good to bask in happy moments but don't dwell in the sad ones.

Conclusion

Honestly there are so many more things I apply in my life to avoid an imbalance of energy in my life. Everything above put simply would be do more of the things that make you happy, proud, and relaxed and avoid people and things that make you sad, frustrated and angry.