Trust Your Energy Waves - Forced Productivity Means That Something Feels Wrong
As someone who likes to do things fast and get a lot done, it hasn’t been easy to learn to sync with my authentic rhythm, which looks unpredictable.
I have random bursts of creativity — ideas flow to me effortlessly, 15 hours of work can feel like 15 minutes, and a lot of work is completed. These bursts are often followed by periods of forced rest and integration — I don’t feel at all like working, daily work tasks feel like a boring chore, and all I want to do is either sleep or dive into my fun hobbies.
I used to think that if I could just press a button that allows my nervous system to fit into the 9–5 life, I would do so. That would have made my career journey so much easier, as I would not have needed to navigate the struggle of figuring out my own life path.
But that is something I have come to cherish. I now believe that many people’s nervous systems do not actually work with the 9–5 flow, and that many of us are forcing ourselves into a mold that blocks our authentic creative direction.
Our nervous system doesn’t always alert us to rest in the ways that we think.
We might think we are experts in understanding what it means to “be tired,” but real fatigue is more than just a break or needing more sleep. Fatigue tells us to slow down, re-evaluate what we’re doing / carrying, and making as many adjustments as possible to feel connected to core selves again.
Our fatigue alerts us through our growing irritability, apathy towards what once excited us, anxiety and worry, headaches, tight muscles, the overall sensation of feeling dissatisfied in life…
For me, apathy is the biggest clue to me that my system is in need of a recalibration. Whereas the sensation of satisfaction — whether seasoned with the relief or excitement or peace or playfulness — is my indicator that I am on the right path.
The reasons that we give ourselves to keep pushing against our flow are just stories that we use to cover up our dire need to pause.
Taking a pause requires us to challenge the thoughts in our head that tell us that:
- you’ll fall behind if you rest
- it’s just easier to synch yourself to other people’s cycles
- doing “nothing” is unproductive and useless
- you’re wasting precious time that you could be using to making money
My longest continuous rest period was 2 years… and that was when the idea of my current business was birthed.
I had never intended to take such a long break. I thought “one month max.” Life forced me to take time off and remodel my inner world to create a stronger foundation for what would come.
Even though I felt like I was failing at the time, I look back and see that I was actually thriving! My survival needs were covered, I had a lot of time to rest and transform, I miraculously received so much abundance, and life just seemed to bring me the exact right people and experiences for my self-development.
Those two years were my (very long) rest and rejuvenation period, where a lot happened behind the scenes that set the stage for the future.
Your cycle is a natural part of you — allow it to shape your lifestyle, rather than shaping it to fit what you think is best.
You are wired how you’re wired. Your natural cycle of stop and go may not look like how you’d want it to look, but honoring it is the only way to move forward with real ease.
This is a reminder that if you are feeling a lack of inspiration, a lack of joy from your tasks, or a change in how you feel about your current tasks, it’s time for you to put it all down and explore another avenue for now!
Explore another perspective, explore play and fun, explore rest, explore new methods … there are infinite exploration paths that can bring you in a totally unexpected but beautiful direction. Be open to all the crazy and unimaginably awesome ways that life can unfold, if you are just willing to let go even further and honor what you are feeling on the inside.
Learn to trust that inspiration will find itself back to you when the time is right.