Conducting Your Personal Energy Audit May 09

Conducting Your Personal Energy Audit by Chris Vasiliadis In preparation for upcoming renovations to our home, we've scheduled an energy audit with a local utility company. That got me thinking: we human beings should periodically conduct energy audits of ourselves. Here, we can identify places where we're leaking energy and how we can generate and recover energy. It boils down to paying attention. How are you consuming your energy? What fuels you? What drains you? We all have the same 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: your energy level is a major differentiator in how you effectively make it through each day. Think your energy needs some tweaking? Try this experiment. For 1 week, grab a journal or notebook, and document your energy as follows: 1. When you wake up in the morning, how do you feel? Refreshed and raring to go, or dragging your behind? Note how many hours you slept the night before, and what you were doing before you went to bed. 2. Write down what you eat for each meal and snack, and when. Two hours after each meal or snack, notice how you're feeling. Tune into your stomach: does it hurt? Feel bloated? Satified? How's your thinking? Clear and high concentration? Or cloudy and foggy? 3. In the middle of performing a task or activity (from changing a tire to watching TV), stop and notice how your feeling. Are you dreading this task, feeling neutral, energized, or is time flying by, because you're having so much fun. ...