WOW. What a week. The past few days have been amazing! Monday I gave a talk in Pennsylvania at a Holistic Nurse chapter meeting. Thursday I gave TWO talks at the Maryland Nurse’s Association Annual Convention and then came home to do my webinar: ‘Breathe New Life Into Your Work’.

It sounds like a lot, but it didn’t turn out as overwhelming as I thought it would. Why is that? Here’s a quick story about how what’s simple isn’t always as easy as it seems.

Monday was a rainy, overcast day here in Maryland. I didn’t have much on my calendar so I did my morning meditation, visualization, and affirmation process and then got online to check some emails and follow up with some deadlines for the week. I didn’t ‘do’ much, but also was surprised to feel sort of ‘down’.

“How come I’m not feeling excited? I have a big talk tonight,” I thought and then even asked my husband when he came home. He said: “I used to get like that when I played sports. If I had a big game; I’d have a quiet day before it started. It was as if I was conserving my energy. That’s all you’re doing. You’ll be fine. Knock ’em dead tonight.”

You know what? He was right.

The talk turned out to be amazing. I felt upbeat, alive, and full of joy as I shared my content, information, and self with the audience. I wasn’t tired, blue, or down at all. It was so much fun!

Fast forward to yesterday, the same thing occurred.

Rainy day in Maryland. Not much on my ‘to-do’ list. Felt sort of tired and (really? again?) blue…

But then I realized. I just gave out so much energy this week. I shared myself for four hours with four different groups of people. That was a lot of ‘on’ energy, up energy. I can only fill myself up by having a slow, relaxed, non-doing day.

Why is this so hard for us to grasp? How come we create ‘to-do’ lists, but don’t find the same productivity in ‘to-be’ lists?

As my husband and I shared a start-of-my-birthday weekend dinner last night, I looked at him and said: “You know what? I’m actually OK with the fact that I didn’t do anything today. I know that I gave out a lot of energy this week and if I want more speaking gigs, more clients, more business to come to me- I’ve got to allow the energy to come back to me. By sitting quietly today, I opened myself up to receive whatever awesome outcomes are on their way to me as a result of this week’s work! WOW. I CAN do this.”

There are several ‘simple’ statements here (which may not always be easy to do):

• It’s OK, even necessary at times, to create and allow a ‘to-be’ list. You don’t always have to DO.
• When you give out a ton of energy, effort, or resources the usual ‘next move’ you may want to make is to keep working on making things happen. Sometimes you just have to rest, allow, and let all of your efforts come to you. Take a break after a lengthy amount of giving.
• Balance giving with receiving, doing with being. Know that whatever you want IS coming to you- if only you get out of your own way. Let your desires come to you by trusting and opening up to the natural flow of life.

Take a look at your own experience. Where might you be forcing? If you are trying to hard, are you getting what you want? Is your life how you’d like it to be right now? If not- what have you got to lose? Open up to a new approach, something you may be afraid to try. See if when you stop and take a break, does your life experience grow into the picture you’d love to see it as? Go ahead and leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you!