10 Ways to Light your Fire Today

10 Tips to Increase Energy by Lighting Your Fire

I believe we are wired to create the greatest level of energy for ourselves on a regular basis. This can take the form of healthy strategies, or unhealthy ones like excessive amounts of sugar, caffeine and perhaps other substances, that gives us a false sense of energy. This has some definite downsides that can be quite costly if we're not careful.

I mentioned in previous e-newsletters that we are in what's called Liver/Gallbladder time of year according to Eastern Medicine (in the Northern Hemisphere). What that means is that if this system is open, healthy and unblocked, this is the time of year when we feel most inspired, creative, and with some great ideas about how we can improve our lives, whether that has to do with our health, our relationships, our work.

So being in that inspired and creative place, I started thinking about how I keep my own fires burning brightly on a daily basis and wanted to share these with you.

Top 10 ways to Relight Your Fire

1. Meditation. To remind me to stay present throughout the day, and to get my foot in the door between my thoughts and a deeper, more true, and meaningful place.

2. Self-Massage. This is my go-to every morning as a way to wake up any stagnant energy and keep me mentally and physically sharp, boost immunity and help to optimize my overall well-being.

3. Diet. I enjoy cooking and always eat very healthy at least 80-90% of the time, which means the rest of the time I am free to tantalize my taste buds with anything I want, with no downsides (well, maybe a little sluggishness :) )

4. Reading and Podcasts. Anything from finely-crafted literary fiction to stuff that makes me question my habitual way of thinking/being. I regularly dive into Eckhart Tolle's stuff and the "The Great Way" by the Third Chinese Patriarch of Zen, Thich Nhat Hahn, and anything else I can read or listen to by wonderful Buddhist teachers.

5. Exercise. Besides my Self Massage Routine, I love to be in water, swimming, and I also walk almost everywhere I go ( I don’t own nor need a car). In my town of San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, what that means is a lot of walking on cobblestones, which feels like I'm burning twice as many calories (not to mention improving my balance).

6. Nature. This one is huge for me. Mountains, deserts, rivers, oceans - it doesn't matter - I get great sustenance from being outdoors.

7. Music. Personally, I gravitate to the more soulful stuff - Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Young, etc., mostly the oldies from the 60’s and 70’s, but also can get into some smooth jazz, and Baroque is great when I’m writing (listening to it now, they say the 60 beats/minute approximates our heart rate and increases brain power).

8. Writing. I have found since I moved to Mexico a few years back that I love to write. The more my fires are burning, the more I feel like writing, and the more I write, the more I feel my creative juices flowing. These e-newletters, my blog, magazine articles, journaling, etc. - writing lights up creative parts of me that nothing else does.

9. Friends. I tend to be quite comfortable being alone, and actually require a fair amount of it, but I also love to hang out with inspiring, creative, positive people – either for deep conversations or deep belly laughs, or both.

10. Dancing. I left this one for last on purpose. I was born with 2 left feet so I try to spare myself and others the embarrassment, but when I’m alone and no one’s watching, look out :)

I would love to hear what you do to keep your fires burning, and I'm sure that others would find it valuable as well. Please feel free to comment below.