“Manage your energy, not your time.” Unknown
Over the next weeks, my posts will follow a theme – what that theme is, I’ll let you discover as we go. (Consider it a small intellectual treasure hunt.)
As many of you know, I celebrated a milestone birthday last week. With that, came a familiar question: How did you get there?
And no, we’re not simply talking about surviving long enough to collect birthday candles, nor about age-related physical or mental endurance. I mean something deeper.
Before we begin this new path together, I want to anchor us in a shared understanding of one word I will return to often: energy.
Not in a mystical sense.
Not as “vibes.”
Not as something invisible and magical.
When I speak about energy, I am referring to our internal state – the measurable, physiological and psychological condition we carry at any given moment.
Science tells us that our nervous system is always active. It regulates heart rate, breathing, muscle tension, and stress hormones. When we feel anxious, threatened, or resentful, our sympathetic nervous system responds. Our breathing shortens. Our posture tightens. Our thinking narrows. We become more reactive and less reflective.
Conversely, when we feel safe, grounded, and emotionally regulated, our parasympathetic system allows for calm. Our breath deepens. Our posture softens. Our thinking broadens. We become more creative, more relational, more capable of measured response.
I learned this first through necessity, not theory.
This internal state influences far more than we realize.
Cognitive science shows that our emotional state affects perception. When we are stressed, we are more likely to interpret ambiguity as a threat. When we are regulated, we interpret the same situation with greater neutrality or openness.
Relationally, this matters even more.
Human beings are wired for co-regulation. We unconsciously read tone, facial expression, pacing, and posture in one another. When someone enters a room anxious or defensive, others often feel it. When someone is steady and grounded, that steadiness can influence the room.
And the beautiful part is this: while we cannot control everything that happens to us, we can learn to regulate, to reposition, and to choose how we show up.
That choice changes outcomes – not magically, but practically… for real.
That is the meaning of energy I will be referring to.This is not mystical.
It is biology and psychology interacting.
So when I refer to energy in future reflections, I am speaking about the embodied expression of our internal state – how our thoughts, emotional patterns, and nervous system regulation shape what we project outward.
And because our internal state shapes our perception, behavior, and interactions, it influences what unfolds around us…and for us.
Not through manifestation.
Through alignment…or lack of.
Energy, in this sense, is awareness.
It is noticing whether we are operating from fear or steadiness. Reactivity or responsiveness. Constriction or openness.
The next time you find yourself in a situation that is triggering and/or stressful, imagine an internal energy shift. What happens next?
