Negative people are not the only ones bringing you down😒
Welcome back to The Microdose Diet a newsletter about personal and professional growth using alternative medicines, such as microdosing psychedelics. 🍄
Being successful, passionate and happy is as much about bringing more of what you want in your life, as it is about cutting what doesn’t serve your highest intent. When we hear about energy vampires, an image comes to mind right away: a person sucking up your energy. The negative co-worker, the complaining sibling, the angry neighbor, the fearful friend,…you get the drift.
But above and beyond people, many things rob you of your energy and some of these things are actually more leakages than vampires.
If you desire more in your life (or simply more life), carefully read the list below, be on the lookout for the ones that apply to you, and be ruthless about eradicating them.
You can also watch or listen to this episode.
🧺Clutter and Dirt
In the past, I mentioned decluttering in the post “🚀How to unstuck yourself - Do less & different, Think less & different!”. I am not having a senior moment; this is how much a clear space is important for your energy. You can’t think clearly in a messy and unclean environment. You can’t be at your best surrounded by papers, books, magazines, clothes, crumbs and so on. Constantly seeing stuff and stain in your field of vision is draining. So if you want to regain more energy, or at least stop the energy leakage and improve the quality of your energy, start with a good cleaning session.
📝Unfinished Things
Items that have been lingering on your to-do list or in your mind create not only stress but also a crowded mind. Constantly, or even just frequently, thinking about a (usually) boring item is a total downer. I deal with these pending items in two ways; 1) I allocate entire blocks of time (sometimes a full day) to just clear out stuff off my to-do list; 2) I go through one item a day in addition of my regular day. I also have a more “direct” way to address some of them: I just don’t do them and let them go. 😁
📚Old Broken Stuff
We are all guilty to some degree of keeping stuff we don’t need, “just in case”. Whether we are talking about the old CFA books 😒, prom gowns, stained ties, ill-fitted pants, painful shoes, out-of-fashion bags, but also the low quality stuff, things you don’t like (anymore), etcetera, etcetera. Here too be ruthless! Fix, recycle, donate, throw away everything that is not something you use often, that you would not want to be seen in, that makes you feel like sh!t.
There is a reason the 12 week process in my book “MORE! The Microdose Diet, The 90 Day Plan for More Success, Passion, and Happiness” starts with clearing; it allows you to gain back some capacity for more exciting things (ideas, projects, people, things,…) to take up the free space .
🍕Nutrition and Digestion
There are two important facts of life we tend to forget; 1) we eat to generate energy; 2) digesting consumes energy. So if we eat a lot of low-energy generating / low quality food, or a lot of hard to digest food (they tend to be the same 🙄), our energy is going to take a hit. In addition, you might have your own specificities when it comes to allergy and food sensitivities. When it comes to maximizing one’s energy nutrition and digestion comes on top of the list. These are not necessarily easy and fast changes to implement. I enrolled the help of a naturopath and an allergologue in complement to colon hydrotherapy (which I will leave to you to research 😆) and got great results.
🛏️Sleep
Stating the obvious, if you don’t sleep well or not enough, you will have low energy. And it will also negatively impact things such as your digestion, augmenting even more your energy leakage. I found that not enough physical activities, too much screen time, alcohol, rich food, stress and worries were impacting my sleep very much. To optimize my sleep, I love to take a shower, go to bed super early and read a low-impact novel (or fashion magazine 😊) before shutting down the lights. I take homeopathy and natural sleep supplements, put a few drops of lavender oil on my pillow, close all the blinds super tight and, cherry on the pie, I sleep with earplugs and a mouth guard: a real vision;-) But I sleep super well!
💤Monotony
A great energy leakage source is monotony. The efficiency of routines is undeniable, so is their ability to be energy and vibe killer. There is no better way to suck the life out of everyone and everything than doing the same thing repeatedly. It is pretty impossible to keep your energy up in a monotonous rhythm. We all have a different dial when it comes to monotony, I personally don’t operate well within rigid routines but I know some people who have a higher tolerance threshold. It is about balancing efficiency and spontaneity / change in a way that works for you and maximize your energy level.
🪑Sedentary Lifestyle
Not moving much will actually suck up your energy. There is an optimal level of activities we need to generate and preserve energy. This is personal, some people need a lot of movement while others not so much. It also changes based on internal (life stages, health level) and external factors (seasons). There is a vicious cycle at play here where low energy breeds low energy. It is a balance between resting and moving, balance that is specific to each and every one of us. The key is to know where you fall on the spectrum at that particular time. Are you tired and need to rest? Or is it just the momentum of not moving that tires you? I work out with a personal trainer and play tennis with a regular partner so I don’t have to ask myself if/when I want to move. I also walk everywhere.
🏪Places and Activities
Similarly to people, some places and activities just suck up your energy just thinking of them. For me, malls and shopping are exactly that. Just thinking of them exhaust me. So guess what, I just don’t do it😁. I go to small shops in very short bursts. For many of you, it might be commuting, family gatherings, networking, work events, and so on. Ideally, minimize these activities and places as much as you can. I know that sometimes you can’t cut the brother-in-law’s birthday party or the lunch with colleagues, but make it as manageable as possible (I don’t mean drinking!), from making a short appearance to picking up a restaurant that you like, there are ways to neutralize the energy leakage. And sometimes going with a good attitude helps as well!
🧩 Being fragmented
An endless list of activities and to dos will not only suck up your energy it will give it a frantic quality. We all know these individuals (never us of course😆) whom constantly seem to have been run over by a bus, hurrying from one thing to the next, always late, always forgetting something. Well, this is another proof, if we needed, that multitasking and too-much-tasking doesn’t work! If this sounds familiar, lighten the to-do list by delegating, postponing, cancelling, reducing and learning to say no. You might think the world will stop if you don’t knit these leg-warmers for the cat’s neighbors, but I can assure you it will not. A good lithium test is: how is this activity serving me? If it is “just” soothing your ego, guilt, loneliness, boredom etc…better for you to allocate your resources to treat the root cause (I have a great book to recommend for that!).
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🧠Busy Mind
One of the “best” ways to leak energy is with mental ruminations. The negative impact of stress, worries and internal dialogues on our physical health has been widely documented. The impact on our level of energy, mental and physical, has rarely been addressed though. Moreover, there is a compounding effect with sleep and digestion that creates a powerful vicious cycle.
When it comes to stress and anxiety (or depression and PTSD), management of the symptoms and control of the external environment have mostly been the directions one is sent to. However, hiding (or more politically “managing”) symptoms through prescribed drugs doesn’t solve the root cause of the problems. Nor does avoiding “triggering” situations. Mental ruminations don’t just vanish one day, you have to take care of them.
I personally can’t think of anything more exhausting than mental loops. This is where the holistic combination of alternative medicines - microdosing psychedelics, tapping, journaling, visualizing - acts as a life saver for the busy minds. As described in The Microdose Diet protocol, by building on the benefits of each modality the mind becomes clearer, quieter, significantly increasing the energy level.
😡Out-of-control Emotions
A close companion to the busy mind is mismanaged emotions. This doesn’t mean that one is acting like a lunatic. It means that internally there is constant significant tension happening. Which is exhausting. Anger is an excellent example: since our youngest age, we have learnt to repress our anger, but this anger didn’t go anywhere. Suppressed emotions just build-up until they express themselves in the most unpleasant untimely manner - road rage is an perfect expression of suppressed anger. Self-harm is another articulation; self-harm can manifest in multiple ways such as depression, addictions, risky behaviors.
Ultimately, mismanaged emotions have to be mastered. Similarly to mental ruminations, they won’t magically disappear one morning after decades of festering. Mental ruminations and mismanaged emotions tend to go hand in hand, which can be a vicious cycle if let unaddressed, or a virtuous cycle if properly addressed. Here again, the protocol of The Microdose Diet will help you master your emotions, and take back control. It pretty much took me 15 years to develop this regimen and I deeply wish I had it 25 years ago. My life would have been vastly more successful and happy.😁
Now that you have a great overview of the energy vampires acting up in your life, if you start by reducing even by only 10% the energy leakage in three of the categories above you will already be in a way better place. And the more space and capacity you create, the more opportunity to move further along on the path of more and better energy to play with.
Good Luck!
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About The Microdose Diet
The Microdose Diet by Peggy Van de Plassche focuses on personal and professional development using alternative medicines, such as microdosing psilocybin, tapping meditation, journaling, guided meditation and visualization ✨
I am Peggy Van de Plassche, a former banker and VC who spent 20 years in the financial services and technology industries. I now speak and write about the benefits of alternative medicines, such as microdosing psilocybin, for professional and personal growth. I created The Microdose Diet - the 90 Day Plan for Success and Happiness🍾 My book will be published in 2024.
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This newsletter is designed to entertain and inform, not provide medical advice. You should always consult your doctor when it comes to your personal health or before you start any treatment 🩺