10 Energy-stealing Habits
Some attitudes or ways of thinking wear you out both physically and mentally. Sometimes you take on certain energy-stealing habits even without realizing it, and you waste your energy on worries and negative thoughts that make you feel bad.
After all, humans are energetic beings. Energy is the engine that drives your motivation and helps you take advantage of all the opportunities you get in life.
Energy is what pushes you to do what you want and be successful. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “energy is essential to meet your most basic needs”.
Do you feel mentally exhausted, unmotivated and worried? Do you feel that you do not have enough energy to do what you have to or want to do? Maybe you have adopted some energy-stealing habits. Below you can discover ten of them.
1. Energy-stealing habits: Living in the past
Living in the past means that you continually relive things that have already happened. You long to go back in time, to the way things were. Unfortunately, you can not change the past. It is not possible to change what has already happened.
On the other hand, the present and the future are in your hands. Being stuck in the past instead of focusing on the here and now is mentally exhausting. Wouldn’t it be healthier to spend your energy on something you can change? You have the power to change the present. Use your resources and energy now instead of dwelling on the past.
Guilt
In her book, How to Say No Without Feeling Guilty: And Say Yes to More Time, More Joy, and What Matters Most to You , Patti Breitman argues that guilt requires a lot of energy. As a consequence, accepting the past and letting go of guilt you may feel will allow you to live in the present and plan for the future.
3. Energy-stealing habits: Not being determined
Why is it so hard to say no? Too many people are used to giving, to doing things just to please others. They are afraid to say “no” because they do not want to seem self-absorbed or “go against the flow”.
If you always say yes, you will have time for everyone except yourself. You will forget yourself so that you can please everyone else. If you do not know how to say “no”, you will quickly use up both your mental and emotional energy. When you are busy doing things for everyone else, your own needs and desires are put in the back seat.
4. Not being able to ask for help
There are always some who prefer to commit suicide in an attempt to solve a problem, rather than asking for help. Some even prefer to make the mistake of letting someone else participate in the project.
Regulating your resources intelligently means knowing how to delegate, how to ask for help, and how to take advice to solve problems that are too big to handle on your own. This is especially true in the modern world. We no longer live in an economy where we can barely keep our heads above water. Instead, everyone specializes in one service or another, while leaving everything else to someone else.
5. Energy Stealing Habits: Worrying too much
Much of what we worry about has to do with things that may happen in the future. This raises this question: Does it make sense to be anxious about something that has not happened yet?
People who have a habit of worrying spend a great deal of emotional and mental resources dealing with these “what-ifs”. Worrying about everything that can happen is without a doubt an energy-stealing habit. Thinking about things that have not happened yet takes a lot of time.
6. Complaint
Psychologist Joan Garriga wrote that “complaining lowers people’s vitality”. Constantly complaining about the things that are happening in your life is another energy-stealing habit.
The downward spiral that is complaining is completely unproductive. It is paralyzing and prevents you from doing good things with your time.
Complaining can sometimes be used as a way to “release steam” or escape from what you are experiencing. It allows you to react in a certain way. However, when you cling to it, you are wasting a lot of energy.
7. Energy-stealing habits: Postponing things
Sometimes you postpone plans or responsibilities because you do not want to do them. Waiting with things until tomorrow is like creating a storm cloud. Eventually, all the things you exposed will rain down on you and cause many negative situations in your life.
8. To always look at the negative side of things
If you always see the glass as half empty and are always afraid that bad things will happen or that things will not go well, you will develop a bad attitude.
This will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sociologist Robert K. Merton writes: “The self-fulfilling prophecy is, to begin with, a false definition of the situation, which evokes a new behavior that makes the original false perception come true. The dubious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a period of error ” . As a consequence, according to Merton, if you think something is going to go wrong, it probably will.
9. Trying to control everything
Trying to control everything around you can be exhausting. It requires a huge amount of effort which is really futile because in the end there is very little that you can actually control. Adopting energy-consuming habits causes frustration and anxiety because you will never actually have control over everything.
Constantly trying to keep everything exactly the way you want it is impossible. After all, you do not live in a bubble. The people and things around you affect your life.
10. Not letting yourself stop and rest
This is the last of today’s energy stealing habits. Sitting on the couch, taking a relaxing shower, watching a movie with your better half, reading, or calling a close friend… There are many ways to stop and unwind, and doing just that is vital to your health and well-being. . Maslow includes rest as an essential part of the equation in his hierarchy of human needs.
To conclude, remember that living with worries and doubts leads to a lot of suffering. Instead, try to laugh, cry, love, and feel. If you waste a lot of time worrying about what could have been or complaining about things you can not change, you will forget the present moment. You will not be able to enjoy the sensation of the here and now.
