Cultivating Energetic Coherence

Energetic coherence is not a new concept. It’s in the teachings of the Buddha, and when I studied Ayurveda, everything was viewed from an energetic standpoint. We’ve got our modern applications too, including HeartMath and the meditations of Dr. Joe Dispenza if we want to cultivate more inner coherence.

With my background in physics, coherence always makes me think of waves. Coherence is the property of waves maintaining a fixed predictable phase relationship (waves that are in sync) over time and space. A laser is an example of highly coherent light waves. For us, coherence means taking our energy, which can so easily scatter in all directions, and being highly intentional about where we put it.

Where do you want your energy to go?

I’ve been asking this all week of our clients as we plan the fall quarter. Their answers are informed by what they wanted to accomplish over this year that is still outstanding, what is important to them right now, and also how they want to end the year. We hold this information in two forms: vision and goals. We remind them and bring them back to their vision (how they want to feel and their why) and goals (milestones) over and over again throughout the quarter, which provides guardrails against adding more and more to their plate and losing sight of where they’re going and why.

How will you sustain your energy and focus?

We only have so much energy. This means that we have to be intentional about how we choose to use it. A client, who owns a consulting business, was very good about carving out time for work. He knew when he was going to do certain activities to run and work on the business, and when he brought on a new client, he made time for it in his schedule.

However, when it came to his personal life, he didn’t have the same diligence. He didn’t prioritize it in the same way. That meant a lot of the time he didn’t eat enough or exercise the way he wanted to, and that created a negative feedback loop that meant he couldn’t accomplish the work as effectively as he’d planned.

This creates a cycle of burnout over sustainability. The Personal Foundation™ part of our weekly program emphasizes that sustaining your energy is part of the process. You can be in alignment professionally and out of alignment personally, i.e., servicing clients at a high level, while burning yourself out, but it’s not sustainable. We used to not have this as part of our program because people were coming to us to focus on their professional goals, and when we added it in, we saw a massive shift in not just accomplishment and sustainability but more importantly enjoyment. People feel better when they have a strong personal foundation.

Is your energy in sync?

Here’s how I think of this one. I had a CEO client who wanted to release the next generation of software that her company was selling, develop her team, which included hiring and training, and complete an 8-week course. Those were three very challenging goals. When we went to plan her quarter, she wanted to set 8 goals. Which means there were 5 additional things of much lesser import that she also wanted to complete that quarter.​

I strongly believe that overcommitting is the ego’s way of keeping us stuck. We inflate in our minds what we are capable of or have time for, and then we feel bad about ourselves when we can’t do it all. Being in sync is about being selective about where you want to put your energy. Eight goals will pull your energy in eight directions. And one important goal is still going to share space with all the other things going on in your life that also require your energy.

However, it’s not just quantity I look for now. When I help people prioritize, I also consider alignment. Are these goals heading in the same direction? Are they in sync with each other? What else do you have going on that we aren’t accounting for? With those questions in place, it would have been easy to see that the 8-week course was ill-timed and didn’t meet the bar in terms of alignment with her other goals.

Being in sync doesn’t mean that we can’t accomplish a lot or have a lot on our plate; it means that we understand and are intentional with where we put our energy and how we manage it. Saving it for what is important and taking it back from places that are draining or even wonderful but ill-timed.

Setting Constraints and Maintaining Boundaries

In many ways, part of the work we do is to help people set constraints. You are prioritizing what you work on each quarter. You are committing to the highest impact activities each week. Being held accountable means that you have an endpoint around something that otherwise would not have one other than in your own mind, which tends to be a cluttered place already. Setting constraints is unbelievably helpful, and people immensely benefit from it, especially when we have so many competing (and psychologically devious) demands for our limited attention.

What I’ve learned over many years and coaching more people than I can possibly count is that energetic coherence requires clear boundaries. It has taken me a long time to understand that flow, discipline, and consistency are byproducts of strong boundaries. When we honor our boundaries with ourselves and with others, it can be very uncomfortable, but the payoff is greater agency in how we use our energy. We get to “be” more ourselves and to “do” more of what is resonant. I now think of poor boundaries as big energetic leaks.

Putting it all together

So when you think of what you have on deck for this quarter, including all that you want to accomplish, experience, and be present for, consider your energy. Imagine you are being really intentional.

• What rises to the top in importance and where do you want to focus your energy?
• How will you make sure you have the energy for those things?
• How can you create more alignment with what you want to do now or in the near future, and what could you let go of for another time?
• What do you need to say no to, protect, or put support in place for?

My goal is to end this year feeling like I was intentional and coherent with my energy. Not just hitting my goals or living into my vision – which definitely feel good, but living into the days and weeks in a way each day that feels less frantic, more focused, less distracted, more present. Because the one lesson that is always true is it’s never as important where we end up as who we become in the process.

I wish that for you too.