Energy for a Fresh Start
 by Phoebe Fox

How do you find the energy to start over?  The need to take up one's life again may come about as the result of many things.  Any life-altering experience can cause us to have a break in our life pattern that amounts to a pretty large blip on the radar. 

Here are a few to consider:  getting married, going through a divorce, a move to a different city, the loss of a job or a change in career, the loss of a loved one, gaining or losing more than 25 pounds, finishing college or starting a new degree program, even reaching a different phase in one's life cycle can bring about a great loss of energy resulting from the feeling that one is facing some things too big to handle alone. 

Of course, one can always seek professional help to get the counseling needed to stay on track during the shifting stages of one's life.  If finances do not allow for this possibility, help may be available free of charge at certain community clinics or even through a local church organization. 

It is good to remember, however, that human beings carry within themselves the tools necessary for jump-starting their own energy during times of high stress and adjustment.

 Here are a few self-help suggestions while you re-group: 

1) If your energy is lagging because you haven't been eating right, try a healthy, high-energy shake recipe that won't derail your weight loss program like found in the Smoothie Meal Plan;

2) If you have a problem to sort out but have been too busy to focus on a solution, make time to take a walk in the cool of the evening or early in the morning so you'll have peace and quiet to concentrate on how best to handle the situation;

3) Talk it over with a friend, because few problems look as fearsome once you have said them out loud and, since two heads are better than one, your friend might just have some helpful suggestions for you;

4) Make time in your schedule for enough exercise to diffuse your stress and enough rest to give your system a chance to recover and regroup your own energy balance.

Energy Comes When You Ask for Help, by Phoebe Fox

One of the quickest ways human beings wear themselves out is by trying to do things alone.  Whether talking about rearranging your life or simply rearranging the furniture, most of life's mishaps take place once we try to tackle the thing all by ourselves.  Moving one's entire household seems to be the one task that is so daunting by its sheer size that most people knuckle under and round up some help for that job.  Another reason might be that it takes two people to move a bed without dragging the mattress on the ground. 

I mention this because I am one of those people who has had to learn the hard way a few times that it is often better to ask for help than to stubbornly persist in charging forward on one's own.

A few years back, I ran across this story and it rang so true that it made me laugh until I had tears coming out of my eyes.  See if you recognize anyone in this scenario.  I gladly share it with you.

The Bricklayer:  Trying to Do the Job Alone

Dear Sir:

I am writing in response to your request for additional information for my insurance claim. In block number three of the accident claim form I wrote, "trying to do the job alone" as the cause of my accident. You said in your letter that I should explain that statement more fully. I trust the following details will be sufficient.

I am a bricklayer by trade. On the date of the accident, I was working alone on the roof of a new six-story building. When I completed my work I discovered that I had about 500 pounds of brick left over. Rather than carrying the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley which was attached to the side of the building at the sixth-floor level.

Securing the rope at ground level, I went up to the roof, swung the barrel out, and loaded the bricks into it. Then I went back to the ground and untied the rope, holding it tightly to ensure a slow descent of the 500 pounds of bricks. You will note in block number 22 of the claim form that my weight is 150 pounds.

Due to my surprise at being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and forgot to let go of the rope. Needless to say, I proceeded up the side of the building at a very rapid rate of speed.

In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming down. This explains my fractured skull and collarbone. Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent, not stopping until the fingers of my right hand were two knuckles deep into the pulley.

By this time, I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to the rope in spite of my pain. At approximately the same time however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell out of the barrel. Devoid of the weight of the bricks, the barrel then weighed approximately 50 pounds.  I refer you again to the information in block number 11 regarding my weight.

As you might imagine, I began a rapid descent down the side of the building. In the vicinity of the third floor, I met the barrel coming up. This accounts for the two fractured ankles and the lacerations of my legs and lower body.

This second encounter with the barrel slowed me enough to lessen my injuries when I fell onto the pile of bricks, and fortunately, only three vertebrae were cracked.

I am sorry to report, however, that as I lay there on the bricks in pain, unable to stand, and watching the empty barrel six stories above me, I again lost my presence of mind, and let go of the rope. The empty barrel weighed more than the rope, so it came down upon me and broke both of my legs.

I hope I have furnished information sufficient to explain why "trying to do the job alone" was the stated cause of the accident.

Sincerely,

A Bricklayer
(Author Unknown)

After a rebuilding period in my life, while I was trying to recover a personal setback, my sister asked the question, "Just how many times is a person supposed to pick themselves up and start over?"  Her question was born of a concern that I might be facing circumstances too difficult for me to bear, because it felt so difficult for her to watch me going through it.

The answer came through me, rather than from me, in one of those flashes of insight when we speak the truth without knowing it until we hear ourselves say it out loud.  "As many times as it takes to get it right," I said.

What is the alternative, in any case?  When staying down is not an option, and going backward is never possible even in those fleeting moments when we think we might like to, what are we to do?  We must find the inner strength to get up and try once more.   

Here is the big secret:  Energy comes once you have made the decision to do something different than what you have been doing.  Take note that you must actually make a decision to embark upon a particular change in your actions.  Mere circular contemplation of your circumstances will not get the energy to engage.  It takes reaching a point of decision, plus choosing the action you will take next.  (If you are still in the "I need to do something, but I don't know what" stage, you have some more thinking to do.) 

"Ask for faith, and faith shall be given you," the Bible says.  We can say the same thing about help.  It is amazing the various sources from which help comes once we have humbled ourselves enough to admit to someone that we need it.  Admitting it to someone else, of course, means that we must first be willing to admit it to ourselves.  Sometimes that can feel like the hardest step of all, but it is well worth it. 

And, should you find yourself hesitating to say to someone those three simple words, "I need help," just remember that poor bricklayer.  Ask yourself where you would rather be in your task:  putting your thoughts, energy, and muscle together with someone else's to complete the task successfully OR laying smashed up on a symbolic pile of bricks with only the satisfaction that you didn't ask anyone for help to keep you company? 

Put in that light, the choice seems much easier, doesn't it?

Which will you choose?