What Feels Draining?

Did you know that Inner Workout is inspired by yogic philosophy? Each of the five dimensions represent energy points within us. When things feel "off", it could be because your energy is unbalanced in some way, and that can be draining. Check in with energetic levels as you listen to this episode.

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of Inner Warmup, where your inner work begins. My name is Taylor Elyse Morrison, I'm the founder of Inner Workout and you as always are our expert guest. Thanks for being here. Here's what I want to do for our check in, if you're in a place where you can do this, I invite you to stand up. Get your feet just a little bit wider than your hips, feel your feet on the floor, circle your hands up towards the ceiling. Take a nice big stretch, and once your hands are up towards the ceiling, kind of take whatever organic movement feels good. Right now it feels nice for me to grab opposite elbows and kind of move around. Give yourself a few moments to stretch however feels good for you. And then when you're ready, slowly release and come back to wherever you are. Maybe you're out and about and you just stopped and did stretch. Maybe you're sitting down listening to this and you grab a seat. Give me a second to settle in and let's begin.

So we've been talking about energy and the energetic dimension this month and the question that I've got for you today what feels draining? I thought this would be a good time to relate this question to the energy points that fall within the energetic dimension. If you've taken a take care assessment before, you know the energetic dimension is broken up into your breath quality, and the energy points and a lot of the questions that I get are around like, what are these energy points? What do they mean? Many of you know that Inner Workout is inspired by yogic philosophy. That's where the initial outline for the five dimensions came from. And in yogic philosophy, they talk about chakras, or wheels of energy or energy points. And that's why for us, it falls under this energetic dimension. And I think it fits so well with this question of what feels draining because when we pose a broad question like that, like what feels draining, sometimes it's really hard to narrow in on an answer. And maybe that's just a me thing. You can find me in the community or find me on Instagram and be like, no, Taylor, I was able to answer the question just fine. I didn't need to go into all of these energy points, pieces. But yeah, when I think about what feels draining, I'm like, I don't know. I guess I'm tired after a long day of work. I guess I'm drained when I get into a fight with someone that I care about, but it's harder for me to drill down into specifics. And that's where I think that these energy points can be helpful because there might be places where there's kind of some energy leakage happening, that you may not be aware of until you take some time to sit with it and to explore. And that's really what the inner warmup is all about, right? So there are seven chakras, there are seven energy points and I'll do like a brief description of each of these.

So the core thing when we think about the first energy point is around security. So you might be having areas of your life where you're feeling drained because you're feeling insecure. Maybe you're feeling not secure financially, maybe you're feeling insecure at a skill or in an ability or in what is up next for you and this upcoming season of your life. And I'm curious, I bet there are some head nods as you're listening when you're like, oh, yeah, me, worrying about how I can bring myself back to a place of security is really draining. And it's just become so normal for me that I didn't realize it anymore. I remember when I first left my full time job and I stepped into a part time job, as I was also building up my own business efforts...what is...endeavors...that's the word that I'm looking for, on the side. It was difficult though. And there were a lot of times where I had a lot of energy that I was focusing on oh, my paycheck does not look like it did before. And that's the only guaranteed money I have coming in, and the rest is up to me. And it was exhausting, it did not feel good to be in that place. So I had some drainage and some energy leakage happening around security. And then moving up to the next energy point, a core focus, a place where you might be energized or drained is around your creativity.

Do you have places in your life where you're able to be creative? Do you feel like you're being too stretched creatively? That might be a place where you're feeling drained. If you're a person who is filled up when you are putting pen to paper, or you're choreographing, or you're cooking up new tinctures and concoctions in the kitchen, and you haven't been doing that lately, or you've got constraints that don't feel supportive, that might be worse than drainage just happening. Up to the next energy point, you can have a conversation with yourself around power. When you have places in your life where you feel disconnected from your own power, where you feel like you cannot access your own power, where you feel like someone in power is imposing themselves on you, gosh, that is exhausting. It is exhausting. And again, with all of these, that's why I'm taking the time to talk through them. It can seem...just...you're so used to it, it seems like table stakes. Like I just have this difficult boss, or I just have this family member who always wants to exert their power over me. And I haven't even given any reflection or thought to the fact that it is draining me. It's draining me. So power is a core thing you can think about.

Next of the energy points, exploring what it looks like to be in relationship with others. We've all got people who energize us. I had a week of just getting to talk to people who inspire me and after I get off of those calls, or those meetings, I am just like, I can conquer the world, I can do anything, I could run a marathon. And then we also have those people, you may have heard of energy vampires, that do the opposite. They suck the life out of you. You go into a conversation with this wide eyed view of what is possible and they narrow it down. They make you feel smaller. That might be a place where you're feeling drained. Or even if you have a relationship with someone that you appreciate but you're navigating a decision together. Or you are taking your relationship deeper in a way that requires intentional conversation, that might be draining for you too. So the draining doesn't always have to come from it being a bad relationship, it could just be that you're putting in some of the work that makes the relationship really good and gives it longevity.

For the next energy point, you can look at self expression. I find that I can be the most drained when I am not speaking my truth. When I am constantly swallowing that thing that is on my mind, when I feel like I have to pretend to agree and nod my head, but in my head, I'm shaking my head like no, no, no, no, I don't agree with this. But for whatever reason, I feel like I just need to smile and nod and act like everything is fine. So self expression, if there are places where you're limiting your self expression, I would guess that there's some energy that's being sapped out because of that, and I would guess that from my own experience.

Then we'll go up to the wisdom piece. So these last two start to overlap with the wisdom dimension and with the bliss dimension. Another thing that I love about this dimensional approach is that it can give you areas of focus but they all bleed into each other. It's not like you're chopped up into five parts. And so the wisdom dimension and the wisdom energy point is that connection that you have to your inner self, your intuition, what we are working so diligently to cultivate here. And if you know in your gut, you can feel your inner voice saying this is the next step to take, but kind of similar to the self expression, for whatever reason, you are avoiding taking that step. You're hearing the voice, but you're trying to quiet it or convince it why it's actually incorrect. That's draining. Having that ongoing energy and effort that you're having to place into ignoring your inner voice. That's exhausting. All of these are exhausting in their own way.

And then finally, there's the energy point of connection. If you feel disconnected from yourself, if you feel disconnected from community, if you feel disconnected from however you relate to something bigger than you, that can be draining. Connection is generative. When we give and receive and exchange with others, and with things beyond us, that gives us the energy to keep going. And if all the sudden you're cut off from that, of course, it would make sense for you to be drained. So as you think on this interview question that I've got of what feels draining, I invite you to maybe pick one of these energy points to focus on and see if there's some drainage, some leakage that you can identify based on one of these: security, creativity, power, relationship, self expression, wisdom, and connection. I'll turn the mic over to you. What feels draining?

I hope this time of reflection gives you an opportunity to look head on at an area of your life or a situation in your life that might be draining to you. And that you can start to take some steps to shift that flow of energy for yourself. If you had any reflections or realizations pop up, feel free as always to share them in our online community or you can find me there and send me a DM. Thank you as always for your time. Thank you for your expertise and take care!