Photo Credit Jeffery Erhunse
How To Master Your Energy
BY DR. ERIKA MONTGOMERY
W
hat if the most
important
resource you
possess is not your time or your money, but your energy?
Your mind is an energy-allocation system. A fundamental principle of energy is that your deliberate focus guides and amplifies the flow of your life energy. Every thought you entertain, every emotion you repeatedly nourish, every story you tell yourself about who you are and what is possible becomes part of the inner world from which you experience life. Where you focus your attention shapes your perception.
As a psychologist, I have come to see that much of human suffering is not caused by what happens to us, but by where we continually place our attention and the stories we tell ourselves about who we are because of our past experiences.
Becoming the master of your
energy begins with awareness.
Although you cannot control every thought that enters your mind, you can become more discerning about which thoughts deserve your attention. You can notice anxiety provoking thoughts without becoming anxious. You
can experience anger without allowing anger to become your identity. You can acknowledge fear without giving fear the authority to direct your decision. Mastery is the ability to experience emotions without letting them consume
you. Consider the difference between two people facing the same setback. One asks, “Why does this always happen to me?” The other asks, “What is this asking me to learn, change, or become?” The event may be identical, but the psychological trajectory is not. That is the power of directed attention.
Your energy follows what you repeatedly focus on. If you spend your days consuming rejection, comparison, outrage, and fear, your nervous system learns that these things matter. If you deliberately cultivate curiosity, meaningful relationships, creativity, gratitude, and purposeful action, you give your mind different patterns to strengthen. Your life contains infinite potential directions. Your attention helps determine which possibilities you explore, which behaviors you repeat, and which environments you create around yourself.