Recently I received a portable, external power source for my cell phone. Now if I run low on juice and there’s no electricity to tap into — or we have another 3-day power outage like last year — then I simply plug into the source and recharge my phone’s battery.
Mentally — many of us recharge by doing crossword puzzles, using a game App like Dots, play chess, or exercise our brains online with programs like Lumosity or Happify.
Spiritually — many of us recharge in the sanctuary of nature, in a brick-and-mortar house of worship, or we meditate/pray in the comfort of our own home, or wherever we happen to be.
Physically — many of us recharge our bodies with a healthy combination of exercise and being mindful of the foods we use to fuel it.
Body, mind, or spirit — what’s your favorite method of “plugging in” and recharging?
“Whatever you are not changing, you are choosing.” — Laurie Buchanan
The Book — Discovering the Seven Selves
The Experience — Life Harmony
© Laurie Buchanan 2014
Find me on Twitter @HolEssence
Find me on Facebook
Tuesdays with Laurie 
I do remember Exxon’s ad “Put a tiger in your tank.” I think the company even distributed furry tiger tails to drive home the point. Yesterday I re-charged my battery by spending time with grand-children. This morning I’ll stretch and roll in my Pilates class. But first of all today, I will re-read Chapter 9 in the Old Testament book of Daniel, to plug into the Source and re-focus my spiritual vision. Then I’ll meditate and pray.
Lumosity and Happify sound appealing, but I’ve never tried them.
Marian – I, too, remember those orange and black striped tails that Exxon distributed. What a great marketing idea! Your personal recharging methods sound splendid! Thank you for stopping by this morning 🙂
I forgot a special one: writing in my gratitude book, a good way to cancel out the negative!
Marian – yes, Yes, YES! That’s a fantastic way to take the wind out of negative sails 🙂
As a fellow writer and blogger, I like how you get to the point in the shortest amount of words. Well done!
Joyce Kocinski
Joyce – I’m glad you resonate with concision, too 🙂
A weekend of cooking for my family always recharges me after a stressful week at work. You just reminded me that I really need to get a power bank because we often have power outages here. 🙂
Have a great week Laurie!
The Vanilla Housewife — I’ve been spending a lot of time in the kitchen, too (http://www.pinterest.com/holessence/food/). It does tend to soothe the soul. Here in the midwest (Illinois) we tend to experience power-outages on a semi-regular basis, too. I’m so glad to have a backup. It was a thoughtful gift from a dear friend 🙂
Take a nap, get the camera, the dogs, and go for a walk… read some spiritually themed blog or write…
Jeff – You’ve got a delicious list of ingredients to recharge your personal battery. Of course my preference is you taking photos, because then you share them on your blog 🙂
So true Laurie!
Jeff – As a subscriber, I always look forward to email notices that you’ve got a fresh post 🙂
THANK YOU LAURIE WAS ABLE TO RECEIVE-I COULD USE A NEW BATTERY ABOUT NOW!!💚
Mona – It’s so good to see you here this Tuesday morning! Thank you for letting me know that it worked 🙂
I’m a big advocate for emergency preparedness; what a cool cell phone recharger!
What I choose also changes with the day/situation.
Frequently it is some form of creative expression: new choice watercolor painting; or baking, especially making bread from scratch. And in good weather I enjoy taking a drive someplace and walking in nature. In 20 degree below wind chill coming today … not my choice at all … do you see my rattling bones?
Audrey – Watercolor painting! I so admire people with that wonderful type of creative bent! Baking bread from scratch — especially if it requires punching — sounds like it would be terrific! A nice drive (weather permitting), or a soothing walk in Nature’s Cathedral — yes! We’re in for it today windchill wise my friend. Bundle up!
Hi Laurie , I write a lot , particularly poetry . So mentally I am always on the look out for rare and unusual words. I adore dictionaries …I have my own personal dictionary , meaning , if I find an unusual word , I write it in my book to use it when the time is right .
Spiritually …I ‘m only ever at home near water, even by a puddle I’m happy ( I really do apologize to all those people, in the world, who have been flooded in their homes )But It’s the sea that’s my God …all that open space and crashing waves …love it .
Physically …I’m a walker ( particularly coastal paths ) and swimming …I swim in local bath two or three times a week ( did i mention I’m a Piscean …two fish …water etc .
Cherry x
Cherry – I love the way you broke your terrific response into mental, spiritual, and physical. Way cooooool! 🙂
Mental recharge: crossword puzzles, listen intently and uninterrupted to my favorite music (preferably wearing headphones).
Spiritual recharge: summer–paddling a canoe on a deserted wilderness lake; winter–cross-country skiing on a perfect winter day, stopping occasionally to listen to and observe
what nature has to tell me that day.
Physical recharge: golf in season, XC skiing if I’m not in much of a spiritual mode that day, a hearty plate of my homemade spaghetti sauce over pasta, sleeping late on a winter weekend (I’m usually up at dawn in season to play golf first thing in the morning.)
Chris
Chris – F-A-N-T-A-S-T-I-C recharging avenues. My hat is off to you!
Excellent way to recharge, Laurie. In the US we could recharge the phone in our truck, if the power went out. Here we don’t have a vehicle, so something like you have could be helpful.
I, generally, recharge by spending time with Sara, being with our dogs, reading, and writing.
Hugs from Ecuador,
Kathy
Kathy – It doesn’t get much better than that! 🙂
Laurie, I have several different ways of recharging, it all depends on which areas I feel deficient in at that particular time. The one thing I depend on, with out fail, is like the old hymn recommends, I “take it to the Lord in prayer”. My day starts with giving thanks for all that He has Blessed me with, and that includes the body He has furnished to be my physical vehicle here on Earth. That vehicle carries out the plans we discussed in the morning, whether it be painting, flower arrangement, cooking or any other creative endeavor that we undertake together. Another is to spend time outdoors. in touch with the Living Earth. As I work and tend to my small patch, I feel negativity draining from my soul, being absorbed and dissipated while a fresh and vibrant energy tops off my tank. There are so many ways to revitalize one’s self, there is no end to list, there is an octane perfectly suited to which ever process is in use.
Sandi – I love the vibrant, textured word picture you painted here. And I can just SEE you doing these heart-based things 🙂
A good walk will often get me back on track. These last few days I have found the energy and inspiration to tackle a job – that has had me paralyzed with fear and feelings of inadequacy – by eschewing the computer, and doing it by hand, with elements of art. I now dream about the possibilities!
Cindy — yes, Yes, YES! I love what you’ve shared here. My hat is off to YOU!
In warm weather, I recharge on my deck, watching the birds, enjoying the fresh air. In not-so-warm weather, sitting where I can see outside with cat – or dog- on my lap. I tend to draw into myself and just breathe when I need to recharge.
Sent from my iPad
>
Carol – Clearly a wise woman, you’re in good company with Yogi’s who have for centuries, practiced your personal medicine: “Draw into myself and just breathe.”
This is a simple one for me – a walk or a bike ride, and I don’t mind if they are bracing or meandering.
WarmGinger – I’m in excellent company then because “bracing or meandering,” me too 🙂
Laurie, when Lucille is stressed out she relaxes on the basement recliner (usually with the kids) to enjoy a video or a continuing television show. Lucille also feels that just being alone will allow her to re-charge. I have yet, myself to find the kind of respite that I need to eventually negotiate on a day to day basis. When I am really beat I lean back on my computer room swivel chair while typing and I close my eyes and meditate for a fair amount of time. That short withdrawal actually works quite effectively. I remember that my paternal grandfather lived to be 96 because he managed a one-hour nap every afternoon and drank plenty of water laced with lemons all day long. In any event I LOVE the way you tied in the phone charging with that of mental, spiritual and physical well-being. Lucille wants to get one of those chargers too!
A massive snowstorm has moved in on us here in northern New Jersey in the NYC area. It is promising to dump around 8 to 12 inches, probably the high end. The white stuff has begun falling and schools are on one-session, dismissing at 12:45 P.M. Temperature will drop to 8 degrees late tonight. But you know all about that this winter, don’t you Laurie? Ha!
Sam – With the storm that’s about to wallop you guys, you may well get plenty of recliner and swivel-chair time, whether you want it, or not! Batten down the hatches and prepare to take on S-N-O-W!
Laurie as you know, I do much of the above as part of my regular daily living except chess. I tried Lumosity and didn’t like it. But I do have a self indulging pluggin in creative energy booster activity: my art boards on Pinterest. I often go there to play when I just have a very few minutes between major tasks and mostly in the evening to relax. Best of the week to you!
Terrill – I know you’re getting ready to head out on a wee bit of travel in preparation for some GINORMOUS travel. I’m just learning the ins-and-outs of Pinterest. I like the little that I know, and EVERYthing I see! 🙂
I’m currently taking a series of introduction to meditation lessons here on Mayne Island. And it’s swiftly becoming my favourite part of Wednesday mornings. I walk at least some of the way there–a 45 minute walk. And the discussions before and after are thought provoking. So it hits a home run all three levels. : )
Leanne – wonderful, Wonderful, WONDERFUL! I’m tickled pink for YOU!
Here’s how I do it: Taking a long walk in nature, reading a good book, working in the garden, meditating, napping, hugging my dogs and cat, and preparing something healthy but delicious to eat.
Joan – I love what you’ve shared (maybe we were separated at birth) 🙂
A walk in the countryside, preferably on a sunny day, tends to do the trick!
FatimaSaySell – The vitamin D you get on those sunny days is revitalizing — perfect for recharging your personal battery 🙂
Getting lost in my miniatures is my favorite way to recharge.
Maribeth – It sounds like that’s a wonderfully therapeutic activity for you 🙂
Hi Laurie
As you know, I took the old Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared” to heart.
I find peace by owning our home, having several months supply of food, having backup energy supply.
I attempt to do all three in most things.
There is an old saying, a change is as good as a rest.
If I feel like I am getting stale on one task, then I switch to another.
I enjoy watching documentaries, and learning about new things and new places.
I enjoy getting out on the golf course, and walking the dogs in the late evening.
I enjoy walking in nature, or boating, or flying, or cycling – anything that gets me out of the realm dominated by things produced by people, and into the realm where forces other than human clearly dominate.
Sometimes it is as simple as gazing skyward at night, and contemplating the vastness of the distances, and the vastness of the suns behind those tiny points of light in the sky.
Sometimes I just think about numbers, like the number of grains of sand on earth, or stars in the visible universe. There are about 7×10^18 grains of sand on earth (Enough so that if every person on earth did nothing but count grains of sand, 8 hours a day, seven days a week, 3 grains per second, it would take a little over 30 years to count them all). There are about 10,000 times that many stars in the visible universe. There are about 10 times as many atoms in a teaspoon full of water as there are stars in the sky.
I enjoy considering and contemplating issues until I can find a powerful way of approaching the problem that solves as many issues as possible as simply as possible (as my dad’s old RSM used to say to him, if you want to find the easiest way to do a job, give it to the laziest man in the unit and see how he does it). So I kind see myself as the laziest bloke around; and I work at countering that by getting involved in lots of things.
I like to contemplate all the people that help me live.
Just cooking my rolled oats this morning. I used a wooden spoon, in a stainless steel pot, on an electric stove.
The oats were grown by someone, using tractors made by someone, fuelled by oil dug up and refined by a large number of people. Other people dried, stored processed and transported the oats. All the vast number of people involved in the mining, manufacturing and maintenance of all of the machines involved in all of those processes; and in making the spoon, the pot, the stove, the hydroelectric dams that supply the power that cooks my food at the flick of a switch.
All the millions of people in history that have thought and done the things they have, that created the words and the stories that have allowed me to become that which I am.
It is all vast indeed.
I owe them all such a debt of gratitude, and all I can do is pay it forward.
Ted –
Yes, I can definitely see this about you — “Anything that gets me out of the realm dominated by things produced by people, and into the realm where forces other than human clearly dominate.”
I love the “people trail” you thought about while cooking your rolled oats this morning. And then you upped the ante with the a-m-a-z-i-n-g sand/star/atom data — it simply boggles my mind!
Today a short walk in the sunshine with Zip, lots of water and healing sleep.
I think our location got a healing charge when the SeaHawks made it to the Super Bowl. You could just feel the energy jolt all around us. I think we needed a win
Patricia – HooooRaaaaaay! More sunshine. More Zip. More water. More healing sleep 🙂
Silence and solitude in any form are almost always a part of my recharging routine, whether it’s walking, meditating, writing or being outdoors. Nothing recharges me faster mentally, spiritually or physically.
Dorothy – I, too, love being alone. I’ll typically light a candle and sit perfectly still and quit, trying to hear the flame.
Playing with plants, aka gardening. There is just something about digging in the dirt that keeps me centered.
Change It Up Editing — Oh how wonderful! Dirty hands and knees always make me feel like I’ve “accomplished” something 🙂
What a positive and helpful post! Thank you.
A bunch of your likes have been erased, including mine several times. Happens a lot with the reader~
Cindy – Dogone it. I sure wish that wouldn’t happen. I’m glad this post resonated with you 🙂
I like to recharge with some alone time. Sometimes it is outside in nature (which I love), sometimes it is quiet time before anyone else awakes in the house or after everyone leaves, and sometimes it is when I am typing at my computer alone with my thoughts. This is my time to breathe, reflect, and pray. It’s my happy place.
Becwillmylife – I’m an extremely early riser (we lovingly refer to it as “the butt crack of dawn), for that very reason — I can do yoga and have hot water with fresh lemon squeezed in it before anyone else wakes up 🙂
Perfect winter reminder: Recharge!
Since I am outnumbered by boys (with whom I am blessed-love their perspective) it’s good to get a dose of girl time to balance. Especially in Cabin Fever time when we are all so close and nesting.
Cinamon – A healthy dose of girl time sounds just like what the doctor ordered — a great way to recharge your personal battery amidst all that testosterone 🙂
Quiet coffee time in spiritual reading and meditating, time with God. And, time with a friend or two over coffee or a meal.
I’ve started a Tender Tuesday ritual! Tuesdays are now my day to do whatever I feel will recharge me– I don’t plan anything in advance. Today (Tuesday!), I went to the library and read a book about magic, then I sat in a tea shop and sipped a non-dairy chai latte. It was the perfect way to recharge today, but next Tuesday, I might be dancing or watching a movie. Who knows?
Dana – You’re a rock star with gifting yourself Tender Tuesdays. I love it! 🙂
A nice hot cappachino!!
Europasicewolf – Amen! 🙂
Day-tripping and doing something totally unplanned and on impulse help me a lot.
Six of us meet on Tuesdays and exchange poems over lunch.
Roamer – I love the sound of your poetry exchange over lunch on Tuesdays. What a terrific idea!
My son gave me a car phone charger for Christmas – it plugs into the cigarette lighter, since I’m often on the road when my phone’s battery chooses to die. If you haven’t tried one of these things yet, you might add that to your arsenal of backups. It’s wonderful.
Deep rest by myself usually restores me; time alone in the quiet of my home with a good book or funny movie. But if I’m feeling off or sad, simply remembering who I am (who we all are) often helps almost instantaneously.
Cynthia – Clearly the apple didn’t fall very far from the tree in that you have an extremely thoughtful son! I love the word picture you painted: “Deep rest by myself usually restores me.” Just reading it is restorative 🙂
Great blog, Laurie. (I work with a “Lori” at the school and always pause, trying to figure out which Laurie/Lori I’m addressing.) I recharge by cutting back on my online time. That seems to work best for hitting the reset button. Oh, and vacations are good, too. 🙂
Kathy – I admire people who do regular Digital Detoxes as part of their whole health regimen — body, mind, and spirit. That means my hat is off to YOU!
I recharge by being aware no matter where I am or what I am doing. I think about my connection to God and to the whole of creation. In just a split second I feel energy.
I felt that energy reading your post, Laurie. You manage relationships with thousands of people online (amazing) but you also pare away the nonessentials. Thank you for being my teacher in this regard and many others.
Shirley – You just made me cry happy tears. Thank you! 🙂
Nice getting introduced to you today. Marian is a sweetheart. Recharging and refueling. A good night’s sleep and coffee in the morning and I am good to go. I do need about an hour every morning with my breakfast on the back porch to meditate and contemplate the goodness in my life to tackle every new day.
SK Nicholls – Yes, indeed. It was nice meeting you through Marian today, too. Your ingredients for recharging — sleep, coffee, “me” time to meditate and contemplate the goodness in your life — sound wonderful! 🙂
Hi Laurie! What a great post! It comes at a perfect time as I’m feeling a bit like the hamster on a wheel.
What do I do? I sit still. I walk away from all technology. I focus, mentally, on those in my life that are kind and supportive and strong.
I run and jog in nature. Some of my best ideas come when I stop thinking! 🙂
I am learning my New Year’s “Intentions” – balance, helping others, getting out of my own way, learn to trust others more, strive to have good intentions in my actions.
Great post. I needed to hear it. Have a great week!
Deborah – I love the ingredients you listed for recharging your personal battery! Especially getting out of our own way — an interesting obstacle we often present ourselves with, myself included. Make it a shiny penny kind of weekend 🙂
It’s been a while since I heard that expression recharging the tiger in your tank. This is a good reminder for me about recharging. I go to church, spend time with my dogs and kids, exercise and try to learn some new skill. For a while, I’ve been trying to learn how to write songs on the piano. I have an amazing piano teacher who has been helping me to develop songs from very basic ideas that I present to him.
Laurie, I always enjoy your thoughtful posts!
Karen
Karen – You just recharged the tiger in my tank with your thought-filled comment. Thank you!
It’s been said that “music soothes the savage beast” — and for good reason. It feeds the soul. Happy weekend to you 🙂
I like the idea of recharging my batteries. I need to do it frequently! I usually find a way to get outdoors and that most often works for me. Just being able to observe what’s going on around me can take my mind off whatever preoccupation I may have that depletes me! And occasionally just going to be really early is an excellent way for me to put that tiger back in my tank! 🙂
Three Well Beings — Outdoors. Observance. Going to bed early. Three ingredients that make for a fully topped of battery so you can hit the ground running! 🙂
The sanctuary of home and nature for me……
WiseJourney – Two of my favorites as well. Make it a shiny penny kind of weekend! 🙂
I have a strange addiction to electronic Yahtzee; it calms and distracts my mind. I also love music and love to dance. And exercising outdoors is both a spiritual and physical outlet within which I recharge. I also love to meditate near a campfire – a fully sensual recharge.
Michele – I had no idea there was an electronic version of Yahtzee. How cool is that?! There’s something mesmerizing, almost hypnotic, about a campfire 🙂