Fill Your Cup Up – Energy is Everything

So you know, you are going to have days that are up and those that are down. This is true no matter what your business is and what you do. I’ve heard a lot of people this week seem to be having a bad week. Is it because Jupiter is in retrograde right now? Is it Zoom fatigue? Is it COVID exhaustion? Is it Facebook Conspiracy Theory Overload? 

I’m not going to lie. I think it’s a little bit of all those things. At least for me. I’ve been pretty even for the most part over the last couple months, but this week it was starting to hit hard. I’ll call it the COVID Blues. And you may be experiencing this too. It can be hitting you in many different ways and many different angles. If you have little kids at home you are probably feeling this even more severely than I am. Or if you are a grandparent, especially with a brand new grand baby – then this may really be hitting you hard right now.  Really any number of reasons may have you feel like you are climbing the walls right now.

I felt like my energy cup was empty – I realized I’d hit a wall last weekend and by Monday on my first Zoom call of the week a group business coaching call, I knew my energy was SCREWED UP!  Luckily I have an amazing business coach, Teri Karjala and I immediately began to identify that I needed to pull myself out of the muck. I started working on it, but didn’t know where it was all coming from. Was I picking up other people’s energy, or generating it myself?

A trickle of energy began to land in my cup
Tuesday I had my monthly group OSC Chat with all my past and present OSC’s it was wonderful to see their faces and to see how they were doing, at the same time I could tell some energy was off with some of them as well.  Some are just so slammed and over worked and those who have small children at home are having a rough time balancing work, life, responsibility and almost every single lead is now coming through them. That’s a lot of weight on their shoulders. I could feel that weight even though they are keeping an upbeat outlook.

More energy began to enter my cup but it still was a slow fill
By Wednesday I had my monthly local Professional Women in Building (PWB) sub-committee meeting with my Mentoring Committee. I know we felt a little low energy because we were having to cancel a launch that had already been postponed. It was wonderful seeing these amazing women, but I know we all felt a little down about the change in plans, again. This is a group of women I love so much and in person they fill my cup up immediately! One of the last real person-to-person meetings was with these ladies, and I don’t know when we will hit a semblance of normal again.

That afternoon I attended the larger local PWB board meeting and one of my friends said it best, we have to let ourselves be okay with being a little down. At that moment I realized that in my mind I had thought everything would be “Back to Normal” by the end of May and it was quickly becoming clear that it wouldn’t be back to normal. Sub-consciously I had put my eggs into the better-by-the-end-of-May basket. And I’m not even talking about business here. I just mean being able to go out and live as normal. 

Then I had my one-on-one meeting with Teri, my business coach, and started looking deep inside myself and started working on clearing the negative energy that was keeping my cup from filling. It’s okay to have down days, and it’s okay to feel like you can’t make a difference, but it’s important to not get stuck there.

My cup still continued to fill despite the headache
On Thursday I woke up with a splitting headache. I had meeting after meeting and client trainings, and I did it all while working through the pounding in my head. One of those meetings was the national communication and education sub-committee meeting for PWB. Another great group of women who fill my cup up with positive energy! Another realization that while I’d normally be seeing them in about a month at Spring Meetings, that wasn’t going to happen.

I even had an unexpected “Face-to-face” as I tested out the new Facebook rooms with my dear friend Sonya.  I never get to see her, she is traveling around the country in an RV, but she was one of the key people who encouraged me to start my own business over 10 years ago. Catching up with her and seeing her face helped raise my vibration, even through that stupid headache. It was surreal. The headache alone would have sent me to cancel most of my meetings normally – but I didn’t and I worked through it and found great people to inspire me all day, and they kept adding more drops to my cup.

Pouring more into my cup today
Friday, I hit the ground running this morning, headache gone! I started the day with energy both for and from our 8th webinar. Ever since March 20th I’ve had weekly webinars with Kimberly Mackey of New Homes Solutions and Carol Morgan of Denim Marketing.  I realize that these two amazing women ALWAYS fill my cup! I even joked with Carol that maybe I hit my wall since we didn’t do one last week! All of a sudden my energy was back up.

By happy hour my cup was overflowing
Little by little I realized I got to see dozens of women this week who filled my cup, and helped my mood without doing anything but just being. It’s hard not seeing friends and colleagues in person and getting that real human energy. But it is nice that we still get to see each other. It makes a difference. I truly capped off my week with a glass of wine on a virtual happy hour with some of the amazing women I know through my local PWB. We talked about serious topics and silly things, our pets and our people we miss.

It’s okay to have the COVID Blues. You need to feel what you feel, but remember to not be alone with those feelings. Even if you have zoom fatigue you may need to see someone special “face-to-face.” Or talk on the phone with someone who can reassure you that you will be okay. All those things little by little helped me this week and I hope that you will find ways to fill your cup. Your cup will not always be full, but try to recognize when you need help and need someone to help you fill that energy, that void, that frustration, or whatever you are feeling during these times of uncertainty.