Did you feel drained of energy in 2021? You are not alone. We are all suffering some level of fatigue largely because of the covidic world we are living in. Here are some of the sources of our energy drain:
- Fear. When we live in a constant state of fear, our bodies down to the cellular level shift from growth mode, which produces energy and creativity, to protection mode, which focuses all of our energy on survival. We will only have the energy to just get by. Fear is like a virus itself and leaves us feeling similar to having a virus—drained. The fear of getting COVID or a loved one getting it is real and ever-present for many people.
- Unhealthy Empathy. Empathy is a very good thing for our world–when it is paired with a healthy sense of boundaries and self-care, or I would call it self-differentiation. Empathy helps us to connect with others and self-differentiation helps us to recognize that the people we connect with are not us. We can get a sense of their experiences and emotions, but not get overwhelmed by them. We can care for others, but also learn to care for ourselves. Without a healthy level of self-differentiation, empathy is a major energy drain. We get lost in the feelings of others and it’s exhausting. Caring about what the world is going through with COVID is good, but it can exhaust us to the point of not being able to care anymore.
- Resentment. Resentment has been connected to several major physical and emotional health issues. It’s an energy killer. It takes a lot of energy to hold anger or jealousy against others. We may think that by canceling them from our lives we have become free from them, but these feelings of resentment accumulate and hold our energy captive.
Is any of this hitting home for you?
Here are three things that you can work on in the new year to combat fatigue in a covidic world.
- Trust. Whether it is trusting in God or in some kind of cosmic goodness that things will work out, trust combats fear. Trust gives us a sense of safety that allow us to rest. Rest helps our brains and bodies to shift from protection mode to growth mode. In growth mode we learn, we play, we enjoy. We become healthier physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Our energy is restored when we trust.
- Self-Differentiation. Self-differentiation combats co-dependent style empathy—empathy that leads to compassion fatigue. Self-differentiation is our ability to distinguish our experiences from the experiences of others. While empathy helps us to connect with people in their experiences, self-differentiation keeps us from being overburdened by the emotions of others. Without it we carry every emotion in our environments. We are only really equipped to carry our own experiences. Self-differentiation frees our energy just by helping us engage with people without taking on their feelings.
- Forgiveness. The Greek word translated as forgiveness in the New Testament essentially means to let go. Whether it is a person that has harmed or offended us or a person that simply sees and does things differently that we do, forgiveness helps us to let go of the anger, the hurt, resentment, or need for punishment. As we let go of all these energy suckers, we will feel so much lighter. I have witnessed many a person forgive and tell me that they never knew how heavy the burden they were carrying was until they let it go.
The GPS Spiritual Inventory© measures our sense of trust in God, our level of self-differentiation and forgiveness, and the healthiness of our empathy. Taking the GPS will give you the awareness to know where to start working on yourself so that your energy can be used for pursuing the hopes and dreams that you believe God is calling you to. It will free your ability to love God, self, and others.
My great passion and love are to help people become free from the things that suck the life out of them and help them in connecting more deeply with God, themselves, and the people they share their life with. I would love to work with you in this new year!
Let’s schedule a time and start freeing your energy.
Rev. Dr. Paul Burns
Executive Director and Founder of Soul Metrics
Spiritual Health Coach
To learn more about the GPS go to: http://www.soul-metrics.com
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