An Energy Secret Shared

WORDS: Faith Canter Health, Wellness & Self-Love Coach and Author

Having suffered for many years with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) / ME and now being fully recovered, I like to think I know a thing or two about fatigue / energy. And, in short what I have found out through my own struggles and that of the people I work with is that having more energy isn’t usually about what you think it is about, in fact it’s the thinking that is generally (but not always) the reason for a lack of energy.

If you have had the blood tests, eat well, sleep well and don’t consume too many stimulants then it’s unlikely your lack of energy is due to anything physical, more likely it is something mental instead. That doesn’t mean you have mental health issues, of course, it’s just means that the search for the reason(s) why you lack energy could be part of the reason and/or it’s getting worse.

In many cases it’s the busy brain, the overthinking, the over-analysing, stress, anxiety and depression that is draining our energy. If you are tired of thinking, it’s likely your body is tired of it too.

Many people notice they are drained when they are stressed or something traumatic happens, but actually even chronic overthinking does it too.

If you keep reliving an argument or a comment from someone, or keep thinking you could do better or be better, how you should have said this or done that, or how many millions of things that are still left to do, all these things will eventually lead to a lack of energy as this chronic overthinking will start to trigger the nervous system.

And, when triggered for prolonged periods of time it goes into the fight or flight response and that draws from other areas of the body for the energy to sustain this response until the threat has passed.

Problem is, it just doesn’t pass, as you are then on to the next thing to overthinking and/or worry about.

Long term overthinking can be just as draining as short-term intense stress.

So, if you have all your physical ducks in order (as I mentioned above), then just maybe the exhaustion is something to do with not having your mental ducks in a row.

And no amount of coffee is going to help this, in fact stimulants like coffee will actually be doing the exact opposite. You think they are helping energise you, but in fact they are messing with your adrenals and in the long run making you more tired. Because they are borrowing energy you do not have and they are spiking the blood sugar levels, leading to search for the next ‘fix’ to bring them up again to increase our energy again.

In this case, my recommendations to you would be to remove / release the mental stimulants as well as the physical ones and watch how quickly your energy, and health in general, comes back to you.

You can do this through tapping / emotional freedom technique (EFT), journaling, chatting and reminding yourself you get to choose your thoughts and you can decide not to fuel the ones you do not want in your life. I know this sounds simple and we all know it is not, but it’s just forming a new healthy habit with our thoughts. I find the simplest way to do this is to set reminders in your phone or on post-it notes.

What you focus on flourishes, so once you become aware you are overthinking something remind yourself you do not have to keep fuelling what you don’t want in your life and let it flow instead. You’ll feel more at ease, healthy and energised (not to mention sleep better too).

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