Monitoring my pulse

I am in the middle of reading The Power of Full Engagement. It may be a life-changing book for me. Authors Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz normally work with world-class athletes and high-powered business people, but I suspect their ideas may be even more powerful for someone like me who lives with chronic illness.


"To maintain a powerful pulse in our lives," they say,  "we must learn how to rhythmically spend and renew energy."


Last week, I emerged from a "stuck place" to a few days of fun and energetic visioning about what's next for me.   Yesterday, I started feeling like a worn-out dishrag.  I have noticed – and resisted – this rhythm before.  I want to be doing-doing-doing,  creating-creating-creating.  I love those straight line upward-sloping  graphs.


That is not my life.  Maybe it's not anybody's life. 


Life has a pulse.  Inhale. Exhale. Push. Relax.


Often, for me, days of optimism and energy are followed by days with migraine, where I sit using the television to distract myself from the pain.


I noticed after my written complaint session of 10 days ago that I had an immediate surge of energy. What other activities, I wondered, have such immed palpable effects on me?


Thus far, I have just been observing the rise and fall of energy across the day, affected by water and food intake, affected by movement, affected by weather.  The idea of learning to manage my energy by creating new spending and recovery habits is exciting.