Balance your energies…Balance your life

Work-life balance…Work-life balance…Work-life balance. We often hear this, day in and day out. One perspective suggests that work is a part of life and there is no life without work, so why is there such a huge cry on creating a balance?

Well, it is not only about managing time, which is outside, but also about managing our ENERGIES which are inside. When we manage our energies well, we can manage our work and life well with a positive outlook.

These energies are mental energy, emotional energy, physical energy, and spiritual energy. Author Robin Sharma defines it as four interior empires: Mindset, Heartset, Healthset, and Soulset.

I read the idea of four interior empires’ in Robin Sharma’s best-selling 5AM Club book in 2020 during COVID time and have tried to practice it ever since. Sharing here my personal experience from the learnings of this life changing book.

As per the concept, our body is divided into 4 compartments: – Mindset, Heartset, Healthset & Soulset .If we want to lead a positive, productive, and impactful life, then we need to nourish it by making it a part of our daily ritual to touch these four interior empires.

Mindset: ?It says that ‘your mind is a garden; your thoughts are seeds; you can grow flowers; you can grow weeds.

Mindset is about psychology.

Early in the morning, we wake up with lots of pressure, looming deadlines, and stress. Working on mindset means calibrating our mind from a negative bias to a positive one. Daily practice of affirmation writing, journaling, reading books, and taking nature walks can help change our perspective to a growth mindset. Mindset calibration is nurturing our garden (mind) by feeding positivity and growing.

Tip to practice: 10 pages of Reading a book or listening to audiobook while traveling can help make us wiser and develop new perspectives. I put in my practice of reading books while commuting to work, listening to audio books during my morning walk, and learning new things.

Heartset : ?A great mindset with a poor heartset is a giant reason that good people end up dissolving their attempts at greatness.

Heartset is about emotional energy and managing our emotional lives.

If our hearts are full of negative emotions like envy, hatred, hurt, guilt, and ego, then it affects our lives. Sigmund Freud once said, The unexpressed emotions will never die; they are buried alive and come into our lives in an ugly way. Thus, it is very important to keep our hearts healthy by releasing and dissolving these negative emotions.

The 3 Rs—repair, rebuild, and reinforce—help keep our hearts healthy.

Repair the emotional scars of past lives by healing through the practice of forgiving and gratitude.

Rebuild it by reflecting and seeing those experiences as learning lessons. A simple perspective on all life experiences helps us improve and become a better version of ourselves.

Reinforcement is fueling this lesson to see things from a new perspective. It is also about understanding, helping, and contributing to the growth of others and promoting service, love, and gratitude.

Tip to practice : 15 minutes of journaling practice helps release these negative energies in the form of words. Helping in healing the emotional scars and reflecting to grow. Practice journaling by freeflow writing without thinking too much and writing from your heart.

Healthset: There is one thing common between all of us. We all want to have a long and healthy life.

In an interview, when the question was asked to Bollywood star Akshay Kumar about how long you see your career compared to all the Khans, His answer was simple: We all have our individual strengths and talents, but a long career depends on how we focus on our health and fitness. The answer was clear.

‘Longeivity’ is a new differentiator. If we want to lead our field and experience continuous escalation, then do not die.

Healthset is about physicality and managing our energy.

Focusing on healthset means taking time for our body and working on it consciously to improve it in the long run.

Everyday can be dramatic better with some exercise as it increases our energy and reduces stress. When we do high-intensity workouts in the morning, it releases BDNG (brain-derived neurotrophic factor), which repairs brain cells and supercharges them. Moreover, exercise decreases cortisol and decreases stress, fear, and anxiety. Make it a part of your daily routine by spending 1 hour of the day.

Tip to practice: Daily 1 hour: ?10 min of stretching + 20 min Morning walk + 15 min of workout+15 min of Yoga

Soulset: ?Right from birth, we are interacting with the outer world. We juggle insecurity, scarcity, fear, and selfishness. Questions like, "Who am I?" What is my purpose? make us uncomfortable.

Soulset is about spirituality & managing our spiritual energy. It is about going deeper inside and interacting with oneself.

The 3S practice—solitude, silence, and stillness—can keep us more centered and connected with our inner selves. Help us know more about ourselves by erasing negative thoughts and bringing peace. Spending some time in the quietude of the early morning to make the rerun to the courage, conviction, and compassion within us. As it is said, calm performers are the highest achievers. Truth speaks in the solitude of the day’s earliest light, and then carry this breathtaking knowledge with you through the remaining hours of the gift we call a day.

Tip to practice: Meditation (Start with 5-10 min) preferably before sunrise. Go to the sanctuary of silence and stillness each morning and remember all you truly are.

Book ‘5 AM club’ call it as Victory hour to work on 4 interior empires: mindset, heartset, healthset, & soulset.

• Move (20 min) – working on Healthset by exercise, workout & Yoga
• Reflect (20 min) – Working on Heartset & Soulset by Journaling & Meditation
• Grow (20 min) – Working on Mindset by reading books & learning new things

While these are guidelines, what is important is how we can put them into daily practice to touch these four interior empires and bring balance between them so that it helps in balancing our lives.

With better daily awareness of our mindset, heartset, healthset, and soulset, we will make better daily choices that will guarantee better daily results. If you have read this article till the end, then I am encouraging you to embrace it fully, run it daily or at least 5 days a week, and your productivity, prosperity, sense of joy, & serenity will accelerate potently along with the value you are able to deliver to our world.

Thanks for reading.

Let’s lift each other

Bhavesh

Source : Sharing personal experiences from the learnings of Robin Sharma's 5 AM club