When you're feeling drained

*Where do you go to recover? // ¿Adónde vas para recuperarte?*

What does it mean to feel "drained"?

To drain something is to empty it, like water out of a bathtub. When we say we feel drained, we mean we're running low (or empty), usually on energy, but also at times on hope, on motivation, on ganas.

(Something really interesting to note about the action of draining: it's an emptying that happens by way of pouring out - meaning, you most often find yourself feeling drained when you've just been pouring out: your heart, your effort, your energy, onto other people and things.)

If you, like me, have been in need of a restoration lately, or you've felt the need for a little R&R (rest and relaxation), this is for you.

A restoration is to put something back in its original working order: if you're feeling drained, restoration looks like being filled back up to the full line with energy, hope, ganas!

My first question for you is, where do you need to go when you're in need of restoration?

Oftentimes without consciously thinking about it, we go to places that don't offer the kind of restoration that we need: social media, Netflix, sugar, a distraction. Don't get me wrong: there's nothing inherently wrong with any of these things. But will you find real restoration there?

For me, where I truly find restoration is when I go to my source of hope, energy, peace: prayer, my Bible, my faith in God; followed by sources of pure joy, like playing with puppies, doing cartwheels in the grass on a sunny day, or falling asleep with a good book on my chest.

As I read Psalm 23, the third verse stood out to me: He restores my soul. It started me down this path of thinking, what does it really mean to have your soul restored?

What is your source? Where can you go to get filled back up again?

He restores my soul.
Confortará mi alma.

- Psalms 23:3

Step one is turning to the right source.

My second question to help you find restoration is, what do you need to do to be restored?

Maybe your mind goes right to physical things, like: take a nap, get a massage, kick your feet up, or tell everyone to leave you alone. All of which may be valid.

I encourage you to make a deeper, mental shift before anything else. Give yourself permission to receive. Allow yourself to be poured into. Restoration isn't so much about plugging the drain, it's about opening the lid to be filled back up.

One of the best ways to do this? Open the lid and then keep flowing. Love, good energy, joy - these are resources that run counter to logic. As we give, the more we are able to receive; often, when we stop giving them, we find it harder to receive.

When I interact with my clients, I am doing what I truly love. Their results, their growth, their celebrations, are what restore my enthusiasm and motivation for the work, including the parts that aren't so fulfilling, but necessary to support my clients: answering emails, creating forms, coding my website, etc., etc.

What is it you truly love to do? Maybe you've become distracted from it by all the tangential work: the admin stuff, the preparation, the annoying meetings, the things that drain.

Keep doing what you love, mi amigo. Allow it to give back to you this week.

Your life & language coach,

Are you in need of restoration? Join me for a bilingual conversation in this week's episode of #SpanishSaturday, my weekly, bilingual life & language coaching series, below.