I awoke to sunshine and felt a surge of energy. I had felt a tinge of good energy the previous night when the clouds finally lifted after several days of rain. From my new, big kitchen window, I can see much more of my back yard than before. On the evening that the rain lifted, I noticed last year’s phlox and ferns, brown and brittle needing to be pulled up so the new growth could be in splendor. I caught a glimpse of my older daughter running in the neighborhood. The outdoors beckoned. I have been spending too much time indoors, trying to keep up with so many projects, and I needed to go out.
I broke the tall, brittle stalks of last year’s flowers. I pawed damp leaves with my hand, too tired to go around the house to the basement to retrieve a rake. I looked up at tree branches full of buds that were caught in the silhouette of the mountain sunset and I felt thankful. I felt a stillness within, a connection to the earth, and a sense that all is as it should be.
When I am tired, stressed, just sick of the rain or resisting something, my energy gets off track. We all have our own ways to get back on track. To restore our connection to life energy.
For me, time outside tuning in to my natural surroundings helps restore good energy. I also access that same natural energy indoors when I write from my desk in the morning and compose without judgement, without an inner critic, simply tapping into a natural flow of ideas.
My natural energy is calm and inspired. Not hyped up with coffee or relaxed with wine, though I enjoy both vices. My natural energy comes from a sense of connection rather than an attachment to the distracting stuff that daily life throws at me. Good energy is always accessible beneath the hum of the craziness, but we sometimes have to change our current space to recognize it.
When my husband and I took our first baby to a small infant care home, the caregiver would walk a crying infant out to her porch to stop him or her from crying. She said the change in environment calmed the baby. I felt like that the other night, simply walking out of my house and into the back yard. Why had I waited so long to change my environment and my energy?
When your natural energy is off, how do you restore it?
*Photo note: I missed the photo opportunity on my evening in the yard and took a photo the following night, yet another grey one. In an attempt to add in the color I saw, I added contrast via the edit mode. The current photo soothes me. I hope it does the same for you.
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Originally published at medium.com