Research shows women now have more responsibility for household chores, in addition to juggling childcare and their paid employment. Are you in need of an energy boost?
Deloitte’s report, ‘Understanding the pandemic's impact on working women (2021), found that 65% of women had more responsibility for household chores than they did before the pandemic. Whilst 82% of women’s lives have been negatively impacted by the pandemic, with women working longer hours and juggling care-giving, while working full time.
In her photobook, ‘The Second Shift: Making Visible, The Unseen Work of Home’ (Jun 2019), Claire Gallagher depicts the ‘second shift ’of housework and childcare, which is primarily carried out by women on top of their paid employment, in a deeply moving way.
Low Energy
Is it any wonder that our energy levels can often run low or become depleted? Or you may find that you are so exhausted by your own bedtime, that you can’t “switch-off,” due to the additional weight of the ‘mental load.’ This describes the cognitive and emotional tasks mothers worry about, such as preparing, organising and anticipating everything that needs to be done to keep home life running smoothly.
This is why I’ve compiled 5 Top Tips for working parents and those in need of an energy recharge.
Top 5 tips to boost your energy
1. Understand what drains your energy
According to the Career Counselling Services, the first step to boost your energy, is to notice the signs when things ‘tip you over the edge.’ Being aware of the situations when your energy starts to wane, allows you to take control and decide whether to give or remove your energy, to maintain and protect your own.
The first step to boost your energy is to know what drains it.
“Take a moment to reflect on your week and make a note of the situations and people that lagged or drained your energy. Where and when did these experiences occur? ”
2. Create a mind & body practice
We’ve all heard the importance of working on your mind body and soul but how can this be achieved if you are rushing to and from work to do the school or nursery runs, undertaking the ‘second shift’ or suffering from sleep deprivation?
During my maternity coaching and parental workshops, I encourage parents to pay attention to their own needs and to carve out some dedicated time to nurturing themselves. These needs are often neglected when children are very young both during parental leave and when parents have returned to work.
Prior to thinking about your energy levels, it may be important to consider whether your foundation, (mind and body), is strong enough to build on. In ‘A Path Through The Jungle’, (2021), Psychiatrist, Professor Stephen Peters, explains the importance of “setting your state,” before you begin the day, as one way to achieve a positive outcome. One approach you may like to consider as part of your Mind & Body Practice, is to start the day by creating a vision in your mind’s eye, of your ideal day ahead and focusing on building a growth mindset where over time, you are more readily able to see obstacles and challenges as opportunities for growth.
“What can you do to ensure you consistently consume the right levels of nutrition to fuel and nurture your mind and body? What small things can you incorporate day-to-day, to help you practice healthy mind management? What can you do to work with your emotions and manage your unhelpful thoughts, to achieve positive results? ”
3. Energy boosters
In his book, ‘Happiness: 5 Simple Life Changing Steps,’ author, mentor and business owner, Neil Bowman, considers happiness as a form of energy. It makes sense therefore to pursue the things that make you happy and which provide you with that feeling of ‘joy and excitement.’
In his book, ‘Happiness: 5 Simple Life Changing Steps,’ Neil Bowman considers happiness a form of energy.
A wonderful Tedx Talk by Stacey Flowers, 'The five people you need in your life to be happy,’ outlines the importance of having a cheerleader. You’ll know who they are if you have one because regardless of what you’ve said or done, they “have your back.” They ‘hype you up,’ and believe in you and have a knack of leaving you feeling energised and more positive after time spent with them.
Another interesting fact is that when working on our strengths (our innate talents) and passions, whether at work or at home, this also gives us a natural energy boost.
“Are you aware of your key talents and passions? How could you harness them more often? Who and what raises your energy? How many energy boosters can you think of? What energy boosters can you commit to include within your everyday life?”
4. Reflect and celebrate
Bowman also encourages us to ‘remember how things were’, as a useful comparison to appreciate where we are now. Reflection is a good way to recharge your energy because it gives us hope and allows us to remember our times of growth and achievement. When things aren’t going so well in our lives, taking at least 5-15 mins to ‘zone in,’ reflect and acknowledge the situations that didn’t go well, plus visualising a more positive scenario or outcome, of what you would have liked to have happened, can be a helpful way to manage change and ‘put things into perspective,’ says Bowman.
Reflection is a good way to recharge your energy because it gives us hope and allows us to remember our times of growth and achievement.
Another way to boost your energy is to find opportunities to ‘pat yourself on the back’ and celebrate your big and small wins. Sometimes, we can overlook our valuable contributions to family life and childcare, especially if you feel your accomplishments and motivators are different to those you had, prior to being a parent.
“How many things, (big or small) did you achieve today? What were you most proud of? What will you do to record and celebrate your achievements?”
5. Form helpful habits
Habits form to help us do things automatically, leaving us able to attend to things that need our conscious attention. Habits form as result of us feeling rewarded for our behaviour. While many habits are unconscious, at times, we are aware of them. Sometimes, we can also develop unhelpful or bad habits that can work against us and our energy levels. But habits aren’t hard wired, or genetically determined, so by becoming aware of those habits that drain our energy, we can change them. The best way to do this is to identify what triggers the habit and then replace the trigger or replace the unhelpful habit with a different behaviour.
For example, if you receive bad feedback, do you stay up late at night worrying about it? If so, in this case your trigger is receiving bad feedback and the habit is staying up late worrying. If you wanted to change the trigger, you could reframe the feedback as helpful development goals and identify one thing you wanted to change because of it. Of it you wanted to change the habit, you could replace it with something that gives you energy such as relaxation and meditation, doing some exercise or watching a programme that makes you laugh.
“Which techniques, tips and approaches will you harness to form helpful, healthy habits and boost your energy?”
Created by Czarina Charles, Flourish Careers. First published on Propelelo.