What Is Draining Your Battery?

A gentle invitation to notice, name, and release what's quietly exhausting you.

“Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest taken between two deep breaths.” ― Etty Hillesum.

A car battery can die due to various reasons, including age, a faulty alternator, leaving lights on, extreme temperatures, parasitic drain, short trips, or corrosion. The most common causes are a worn-out battery that can no longer hold a charge, a failing alternator that isn’t recharging the battery while driving, and leaving lights or other electrical devices on, which drains the battery even when the car is off.

In this fast-paced, hectic, demanding, chaotic world we live in, it seems that there is just no room in the schedule to take ‘down’ time to recharge. Everything takes longer than it should. Every checklist of 5 “easy” tasks only turns into 1 task accomplished by the end of the day, and you're always left saying to yourself, ‘where did the time go? I didn’t get anything done!’ And then that realization just sucks the life out of your batteries even more. A little more stress, a little more agita, shaken, not stirred, please.

How have I learned to cope with how life is now? I had to reset my thinking. I used to pride myself on being the guy who could do the work of 3 to 5 people all in one. Well, 4 of those people quit me, and now I am barely able to do the work of one. I had to realize that there is just no way I can do it all anymore. It is impossible. The more I appreciated this and really let it become part of my inner being, the better I have been at handling day-to-day, nonstop stressors. I go into the day knowing that there is only so much I can do, and worrying about what I cannot do will not make things better. Whatever does not get done in the day will be there tomorrow.

There are some days I wake up, and I really just don’t want to do anything. Sometimes, not wanting to do anything is your mind and body’s way of asking for a break. If you tend to push yourself to your limit more often than not, respecting your needs for a rest can help you avoid burnout. So, on the days I feel like this, I will just give myself permission to have an ‘off’ day. I just take it easy. This is actually harder than it looks. How do slackers do it?! It is hard to fight the urge to be productive in some capacity, but invariably, when I do take a whole day off, I do get the juice I need to keep it moving for the next few days.

As a matter of fact, when we take downtime, our brain is not simply ‘doing nothing’. In fact, it is very busy recalibrating, replenishing, and recharging. Did you know that every time we blink or close our eyes, the brain recharges? When we feel our eyes becoming very heavy with sleep, it’s because the brain wants time out to recharge. So, my advice to those of you who have the unrelenting voice in your head to ‘go, go, go’ is this: If you do not take stock of how life is more demanding than ever before, and you continue to push yourself at an unrealistic pace, without taking care of your mind and body, you will find that your car battery is dead.

So, before you push through another day running on empty, pause.

Where are your outlets?

Where are your leaks?

Your energy is sacred. Honor the pauses that restore it.