Energy Literacy: Learning to Budget Your Life Force

We all know the importance of literacy, numeracy, even financial literacy. These systems give us a way to understand concepts, methods, and frameworks so we can live with clarity and capability.

But what about energy literacy? Who has ever taught us how our energy really works — how to use it, replenish it, protect it, and plan with it?

Lately the energy pouring in has been extraordinary. Many of us have felt it: bursts of bliss, moments of profound light, a sense that something new is arriving. And yet, even abundance comes with challenges. The other side of receiving more — more opportunities, more clients, more light — is that you can burn yourself out trying to respond to it all.

"Just because you can doesn’t mean you should."

Think of it this way: imagine you’ve worked so hard on your garden, planting vegetables and fruit. In the past, not everything worked out, so you planted more seeds, filling your garden with every possibility. Through labor of love and connection with Mother Earth, for the first time everything grows at once — abundantly, beautifully, ripe at the same time. You had dreamed of a garden like this.

But now you face a choice: if you try to consume it all at once, you’d become sick, unable to appreciate the abundance, perhaps even resent it — and you wouldn’t know how to care for your garden in the future. If you leave it and don’t do anything, it will just go rotten, wasted and unusable. Or, if you only take what you want, everything else will still go rotten.

The wiser approach is to plan ahead: see what’s coming, decide how to share, store, cook, or distribute it. You can sow seeds for different crops at different times, ensuring the harvest is sustainable and enjoyable.

This is exactly what’s happening in our lives now: the seeds we’ve planted through our growth, practice, and effort are all coming to fruition simultaneously. This abundance is an opportunity to grow through love — love for ourselves, love for others, and gratitude for what is being delivered — while learning how to wisely steward the harvest we’ve cultivated.

Your Energy is Like Your Money

Think of your energy the same way you think of your bank account. You only have a certain amount available at any time. Spend it all without thought, and eventually you’ll hit zero. When that happens, you can’t just keep going — you’ll need days to reset, restore, and regenerate before you can function again.

But what if you were proactive? What if, instead of waiting until you hit zero, you budgeted your energy in advance?

Better yet, what if you regularly “deposited” energy into a kind of term deposit, where it earns interest? That might look like:

• Scheduling rest each week — not when you’ve collapsed, but as a non-negotiable practice.

• Bringing in nature, joy, connection and play, which naturally regenerate your system.

• Planning your month so you can see what’s coming and prepare, rather than reacting on the fly.

These deposits mean that when unexpected costs arise — an emotional demand, a friend in need, a sudden change — you’ve got reserves to draw on.

Energy Planning for Practitioners and Teachers

If you’re a practitioner or teacher, it’s important to consider the full amount of energy required — not just to hold space, but also to prepare for it. If you’re filling your week with clients and then running a workshop or event on the weekend, especially at a new location, you need to account for the energy it takes in the lead-up, the preparation, and the energy required to fully hold space for the number of people attending.

It’s a really interesting time where we’re being gifted the opportunity to truly feel the weight of what that feels like. For those who are responsible truly with this type of sacred blessing — and I’m not talking about spiritual entertainment, because I don’t believe there’s much holding space there — I’m referring to truly holding space for someone else’s growth. That requires a huge amount of energy. 

And I think this is a wonderful opportunity to just truly be very mindful of the impact that it has on us, for one, and also where you’re putting your attention. Your attention should be on yourself, because you want to grow your own light and be a beacon for others — and you do that by really supporting and loving yourself, and honouring what your needs are. Then your candle will light the candles of others, and they will light the candles of others, and they will light the candles of others. But if you’re walking around frustrated, tired, depleted, exhausted, your life is not going to be bright. You’re not going to be lighting candles for others, and you’re not opening yourself up to the divine wisdom and guidance needed to grow or hold space.

We really need to plan our energy like we would anything else, because it’s the same as planning your schedule. You want to be proactive and determine how much energy you have to spend on others, on your growth and all your tasks, way in advance.

Energy Planning for Spiritually Minded People in Mainstream Roles

Many of the concepts I’ve discussed for practitioners and teachers also apply to spiritually minded people working in mainstream roles — managers, team leaders, educators, customer service staff, or anyone whose day involves holding space for others. These roles require constant engagement: listening, supporting, and responding to people throughout the day. By the end of it, you might feel depleted, exhausted, and stretched beyond your limits.

Energy Awareness in Daily Interactions

You might start noticing how you feel after each interaction. For example, as a manager or team leader, much of your work is essentially counseling: holding space for your team, helping them process challenges, and guiding them through decisions. Similarly, educators hold space for every student, and customer service staff hold space for each client they encounter. It’s easy to just notice physical tiredness, but if you start observing more closely, you’ll see how much energy is actually expended and how quickly it depletes.

The Cost of Continuous Engagement

Holding space all day without rest has real consequences. If you’re moving from one interaction to the next without reset, you’ll likely feel impatience, frustration, or even anger. You may stop truly listening, simply enduring conversations until they’re over. That is not holding space — it’s survival mode. The challenge in mainstream roles is that breaks often aren’t enough to fully restore your energy.

Intentional Breaks and Micro-Replenishments

Even if you have breaks built into your day, are they truly restorative? Many of us spend them switching off, scrolling social media, or running mini-tasks, which doesn’t restore energy. Intentional replenishment is key. Find multiple ways to ground yourself and restore your capacity:

• A walk outside
• Sitting under a beautiful tree in the shade
• Using a break to engage in creative expression or passion projects
• Organizing something you’re excited about for the weekend

The idea is to break up your day with multiple moments of restoration, not just one. These micro-replenishments help maintain your capacity for holding space and managing high-energy interactions.

Building Capacity with Morning and Evening Practices

Consider your morning and evening routines as “term deposits” for energy. What you do at the start and end of the day builds reserves to draw on during high-demand periods. Getting up early and dedicating time to something meaningful — a practice that connects you to yourself — sets the tone for the day. Your morning routine might change from day to day to keep it fresh, aligned with your energy, and to avoid monotony.

Managing High-Energy Situations

When you’re dealing with particularly intense energy, like back-to-back meetings, workshops, or challenging interactions, the cost to your energy can be significant. For example, in my workshops, I need to eat a lot of sugar to help ground myself and digest the huge volumes of energy I’m channeling. Similarly, in your role, you might need strategies to replenish quickly between interactions. The key is to plan multiple resets throughout the day, rather than trying to push through each interaction.

Practical Daily Energy Planning

Think about your commute and transitional times: are you scrolling social media, which drains energy, or listening to something inspiring that regenerates you? When you arrive at work, take a few minutes to sit quietly, set intentions for the day, and align yourself with your tasks before engaging with others. Build in breaks between meetings, classes, or client sessions, and actively choose activities that restore your energy. Over time, this conscious approach reduces depletion, increases resilience, and helps you hold space more effectively.

Recognizing and Maintaining Your Energy Levels

The first step is recognizing the kinds of things you reach for when your energy dips. You might think, I’m tired, I’ll have a coffee, or I need an afternoon snack. These quick fixes can make you feel like you’ve regained a little energy to focus on the next task, but they aren’t actually replenishing or growing your energy levels — and they’re not increasing your capacity for what’s coming next. The goal is to maintain and increase your energy, not just return to zero before the next task.

You want to plan in advance so that you have additional reserves — the “interest” from your energy term deposit — to pay the “invoices” of your day without constantly hitting zero. If you operate in a pattern where you spike and crash repeatedly, you’re not managing your energy proactively; you’re just surviving.

For example, this week I have an enormous schedule. My personal life requires attention, responsibilities are demanding, and I’ve stretched myself so far that I’m tired. On top of that, I have two major events this weekend. I spend the week intentionally “depositing” energy so that the interest from that reserve allows me to meet the demands of both events, as well as a deeply personal commitment the following Monday.

If you were planning properly, you’d have mapped this out well in advance — knowing what your weekends look like, how you’re managing your daily tasks, and when you need to earn extra interest in your energy reserves. Simply pushing through exhaustion, hoping for a future break or holiday, means you’re always behind, always depleted, and never truly proactive about your energy.

Think of it like managing a bank account. You wouldn’t spend every dollar as soon as you earn it and expect to survive the month. Living perpetually in credit, constantly paying off a Visa card, is exhausting — and it’s exactly the same with your energy. Only spend what you have, and always set aside savings to earn interest for the tasks ahead.

The Trap of Abundance

This is where many of us stumble. Abundance arrives — people want to work with us, opportunities open up, life feels expansive — and we think we must say yes to everything.

But abundance without boundaries will drain you as quickly as struggle does. It’s easy to confuse “I can” with “I must.” That mindset will leave you exhausted, disorganised, even making mistakes that wouldn’t happen if you had slowed down.

Energy literacy teaches you to pause and ask:

• Is this aligned with me right now?

• Do I have the capacity for this?

• What’s the cost to my energy if I say yes?

• Could I reschedule, or refer this on to someone else?

Remember: You don't have to accept everything that comes to you.

Proactive, Not Reactive

Too many of us wait until we’re depleted before we change. We know the tools — cutting cords, calling back energy, filling ourselves with light — but they’re not a replacement for simple structure.

Look at your month ahead. Carve out your time deliberately:

• These are the slots I’m teaching.

• These are the slots I’m working with clients.

• These are the slots I’m developing or growing my business.

• These are the slots I’m resting (which includes time for family, nature, internal connection, spiritual growth).

And then protect them. Build in one full day a week, if you can, to stop and reassess: Am I on track with what I planned? What has crept in? Do I have reserves for unexpected costs?

This is the real practice of energy literacy.