Do You Want Less Strain, More Flow Through The Day?
Why Most Entrepreneurs Stay Stuck in Survival Mode
If your days feel more strained than energized, what you learn in this article may be the best 5 minute investment of your day.
It’s common knowledge four out of five businesses fail in the first five years – because the business owner has too many demands on their time. Of the remaining 20 percent that do pass the five year mark, the majority either just hold their nose above water, or sacrifice their physical / mental health, relationship and personal interests in pursuit of their business success. See: How To Protect Your Energy & Gate The Demands Of Others
These sobering facts deserve serious consideration. To do so, we should revisit WHY we got into business in the first place.
While the details vary, most of us started our business in pursuit of freedom. Whether motivated to have:
- The freedom to express ourselves and make an impact…
- The time and money to customize design our lifestyle…
- The ability not to kowtow or conform to someone else’s agenda.
Or like me, a combination of all three.
The problem is, if you’re straining it means you’re stuck in survival mode. That means you’re cellular intelligence knows your foundation is too weak to for thrive mode. That’s because thrive mode is about sharing your energy broadly to benefit your environment / community ecosystem. See: Balancing Power & Flow To Build A Better Business
Becoming vital by building your vitality.
The good news is, with the right system to follow, it doesn’t take long to put a more empowered foundation in place.
Aligning your business success path with the impact, time, money and lifestyle freedom you started on the journey for in the first place.
3 Principles Of Brain (And Energy) Management
Three principles of brain (and energy) management are foundational to creating success in life and business.
They revitalize and empower you from the inside out. From your physical core (your gut) and your brain stem (inner knowing).
Mastering them empowers you to stand tall and build a business and personal life you are proud of. Allowing your work, exercise and playtime to infuse you and others with energy, instead of depleting it before noon rolls around.
If you want to rewire your brain (and cellular intelligence) to shift from “survive” into “thrive” mode, here’s what you need to do. For entrepreneurs who find this shift especially challenging, managing brain energy and stress flow is a critical first step before the principles below can take full effect.
1. Put Your Health First
The 1st Principle of Energy: Water Up / Fire Down
Using it you’ll release stress, along with stagnant energy and tension from your muscles and joints(blockages). Regaining control of your basic primitive brain function and immune system. For more on how to release stress, see: “Release Stress With Water Up Fire Down Energy Circulation”.
Next you use it to gather energy in your core (your gut) and build vitality by improving your digestive function. Nourishing your internal organs, so you extract nutrients and eliminate waste and toxins efficiently. This is where how the Metal element supports daily energy flow becomes especially relevant. Its influence on the lungs and large intestine directly governs your body’s ability to absorb what nourishes you and release what doesn’t.
This signals to your brain that you are energy efficient, vibrant, with the vitality to meet your basic needs.
Naturally, your interests will evolve from survival mode – to thrive mode.
And evolve from focusing on getting your basic physical needs met, to sharing your energy and deepening your connections to others. Having your emotional needs met. Feeling valuable and contributing energetically to your ecosystem, within your home and community.
2. Get Clear & Focused On Your Priorities
The 2nd Principle of Energy: As Physical Energy Builds, the Heart Opens
The 2nd Principle of Energy: “As physical energy builds, the heart opens, and mind clears”, aligns with Maslow’s Law of Hierarchal needs.
As a modern day entrepreneur and traditional trainer in Tao leadership, I personally find Maslow’s Law of Hierarchal Needs, and the triune brain model an ideal framework to share the 3 Principles of Brain (and energy) Management. These principles have silently informed Taoist practices, eastern philosophy and medicine for over 10,000 years!
Maslow’s theory illustrates the path to human fulfilment. That humans have 3 layers of needs; physical, emotional and spiritual that directly relate to the 3 domains of our brain:
- Our physical needs correspond to our primitive brain(unconscious domain), the brain stem.
- Our emotional needs correspond to our mammalian brain (subconscious domain), limbic system.
- Our spiritual needs correspond with our primate brain (conscious, analytical domain), our cerebrum and neo cortex.
Reaching fulfilment requires all three domains are working harmoniously, on the same team. Resulting in our health, happiness and peace. A peaceful brain is characterized as peaceful, productive, and creative.
To achieve these 3 treasures, in a sustainable way requires building a solid foundation (illustrated with the triangle). To be sustainable it must be built on a foundation of physical health. Then happiness from connection. Then peace and fulfilment by creating.
Getting clear about your priorities, is the foundation of empowerment because it gives you a direction to channel your energy. It connects you to your core on an emotional level. Challenges you to appraise your skills and capabilities and grow. It becomes cellular by clearing energy blockages and stagnancies through your meridians, simultaneously clearing your emotions and subconscious mind.
In Taoist practices we do this by cultivating “Qi- Energy”. Harmonizing your 3 treasures, so you can thrive as your brain was designed and intended. One powerful way to put this into practice is to use 5 Elements Qigong to harmonize body, mind & spirit—a structured system that maps directly onto these three treasures.
It’s no coincidence as your Qi-energy flows your mind, and day does as well. Or that as your physical body empowers, your confidence grows. That’s just another view of the shift. Your brain knows…
With confidence, you’re more likely to try new things, grow to the next level. Take calculated risks to develop new skills. Secure in the knowledge a few mistakes and scrapes won’t destroy you.
It allows you to “zoom out” into the bigger picture. Be more objective and emotionally mature. Less ruled by passing emotions. This, in turn enriches your relationships while inspiring respect and loyalty from others. Building this emotional steadiness also means managing emotional triggers under stress so reactive moments don’t pull you back into survival mode. It provides a farsightedness, that easily trumps the short term needs, frustrations and desires that sabotage those stuck in survival mode.
Clearing dross from the subconscious mind, removing obstacles, changing your character and self sabotaging behavior. Practitioners find their step is lighter and heart more open, less guarded.
The ultimate in this stage is creating higher purpose, generosity, wisdom, acceptance, and unconditional love. Knowing who you are, what you want, and staying centered and connected to create it. One practical tool that supports this is to get centered and grounded fast with belly drumming. A quick reset that brings you back to your core when the day pulls you off balance.
3. Harness Your Mind & Energy
The 3rd Principle of Energy: Where Mind Goes, Energy Follows
Now this gets interesting! The 3rd Principle Of Energy: “Where mind goes, energy follows, matter forms”
This is where ancient practices developed over thousand of years by the worlds finest minds all find common value… Even though application and context vary through the ages and socio-economic factors.
This principle involves brightening your mind to a finely tuned stated of awareness. Synchronicity becomes the norm, and daily life feels miraculous. Which it is.
The 3rd principle of brain and energy management will guide you to quieten the noise, and hone your mind to a crystal clear state of awareness.
Leveraging the power of your body, mind and spirit to move with an economy of motion to maximize your results.
Stay tuned for next weeks article, where I’ll share exactly how you can harness your mind and energy to double your impact with less effort.
