Our body’s energy levels are fluctuating all the time. In today’s world there are so many factors that influence our energy. Diet, sleep, exercise (or lack there of), stress, hormones, disease, and even our environment has an influence over our energy. There are naturally times when your body has extra energy to burn and times when it needs more rest. The problem is that we don’t tend to work with these energies, we try and fight them instead.

This past week I’ve been exceptionally fatigued (In fact I’m still pretty tired and will probably take a nap right after I’m done writing this). Since this was my first week off in a very long time I had the freedom to sleep in and take more naps. But if you’ve been reading my blog you probably know by now that I don’t really like to rest. It makes me feel lazy and also anxious because I can’t stop thinking about all the things I should be doing. After graduating last week I was ready to start this new phase of my life and dive into launching my business as well as taking on a few other projects that I committed to. But apparently my body had other plans, namely sleeping.

For the first half the week I tried to ignore my bodies calling by covering it up with an extra cup of coffee, or a few pieces of chocolate for a sugar high. But these efforts were only temporary. I was desperately seeking that enthusiasm and energy I needed to get these projects off and running. Mid-week I decided to give up and give in. I realized that fighting your body’s natural rhythm is probably not the smartest path to take. I’ve done it many times in the past because I believed I had to due to my hectic schedule and responsibilities. Yet it always ended in me coming down with a cold, the flu, or some pretty intense headaches. This time I thought maybe I should give in and let my body get the rest it seeks before it starts to break down on me.

So that’s what I’ve been doing, trying to give my body more time to rest. I’ll admit I’m not perfect at this yet. I still catch myself trying to push through the fatigue, but I’m working on it. Because what I do know from studying the body for years is that it is a self regulating system. It will ultimately balance itself back out. In fact just in the past few months I can remember weeks where I had an over abundance of energy. Just like everything in nature from seasons, to the ocean, to the moon cycles, there is an ebb and flow of energy and our bodies are no exception.

This week got me thinking about how I could structure my life to work with this natural energy. I am big into routine, structure, and goals. I always plan out my days deciding what work I’m going to do, how much, what type of exercise I’ll do, etc.. And once I come up with a plan I like to stick to it. But what happens when I have a day packed full of activities and my body is exhausted? Until now I’ve never taken into account my body’s needs when I’m planning my day, but I’m going to start. This will definitely require some flexibility in scheduling which is not always possible in our society. Obviously there are dead lines and obligations that need to be met. But if you’re like me you probably tend to fill your day with more things then you actually have to do. Let’s look at today as an example. My must do’s are write this blog, write this weeks recipe, go over some finances for my business, go to the dentist, and pick up some more cat food. Essentially thats only 5 tasks, but they actually take a good chunk of time. Now my original plan for today had about 5 more additional tasks on there, such as running errands, writing emails, working on a photoshop project, and other side work that have no deadlines. These items aren’t musts for me. In fact I can do them at any point this week. So when I started my day still feeling pretty fatigued and run down I decided to drop the additional items. Cause I know that if I listen to my body and give it the extra rest it needs now, chances are I will have a lot more energy  towards the end of the week to work on these side projects.

Now the caveat to scheduling in this method and working with the natural rhythm of your body is that when you have extra energy you need to use it! If you are feeling wide awake and inspired to stay up all night working on a project, do it! I know I’ve had many weeks where I am feeling really energized and seem to function fine on a little amount of sleep and rest. These energy bursts are your productive periods. That is when you can tackle all the extra “to-do’s.” So take advantage of these times and have projects set aside that you are ready to take on.

Now I know some of you are going to say “But, what if I’m tired all the time?” That’s a deeper issue that needs to be addressed. If you are always fatigued it’s time to look at your lifestyle, your diet, your sleeping habits, your hormones, etc… It’s time to make the doctor appointment, go on a cleanse, find ways to reduce your stress, and so on. I’ll be diving into this topic more in upcoming blogs, stay tuned. But for now just start to take notice of your body’s natural rhythm. Where are you at today? And depending on how you feel, ask yourself what work should I do today and how much? Start to pay attention to how your body fluctuates throughout the month, when are you feeling tired, and when do you feel unstoppable? You might find an interesting pattern emerge for you .

Give it a try this week and let me know how it goes. Okay time for me to stop writing so I can go back to napping.