Today's Focus: Balance the Four Domains—Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Energy

Mantra: Visit the four rooms

Welcome to Week 4 of our mindfulness journey! This week we'll be exploring mindful energy, beginning with a holistic approach to understanding the different domains that need our attention.

Why this practice matters

We are like a house with four rooms—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. If we don't make time to care for them, they can become dusty with neglect. When we attend to all four domains, we create a foundation for sustainable energy and well-being.

In today's exploration, you will examine what nurtures you and what depletes you in these four domains of energy. It's important to know that in mindfulness, the spiritual domain is not concerned with religion or higher powers, but rather with the things that give your life meaning and purpose.

By becoming aware of which rooms you tend to neglect and which you overemphasize, you can create greater balance. This awareness allows you to make intentional choices about how you distribute your attention and energy throughout the day.

How to practice today

Your Daily Practice Guide: Complete the Return to Practice once today (morning recommended), Return for Clarity whenever you feel out of balance, and practice with the mantra at least three times throughout your day.

1. Return to Practice: (10-30 minutes, morning recommended) Complete this practice once today to understand your energy patterns:

• • Complete the Energy Meditation below
  • Reflect and journal about your experience
  • Set an intention for balancing your energy today

1. Return for Clarity: (3-5 minutes, whenever you feel unbalanced) When you notice energy depletion, use the guided audio practice to:

• • Pause when you notice energy imbalance
  • Return to awareness of all four energy domains
  • Respond with attention to neglected domains

1. Quick Returns: (1-2 minutes, at least three times throughout your day) Use today's mantra "visit the four rooms" during:

• • Feeling out of balance
  • Overwhelmed
  • Depressed
  • Anxious
  • Seeking clarity about purpose
  • Spiritually disconnected
  • During transitions between activities in your day

I. Return to Practice

Return

Energy Meditation

Before meditation, check in with your energy levels - how energized are you feeling right now?

During this meditation, you will be asked to notice your body sensations, thoughts, feelings, and sense of spirituality (meaning and purpose), and how the level of energy you feel in each of these domains affect your overall energy levels. This can be an elusive and subtle concept for a lot of people, so just do your best to notice your experience and energy levels during the practice. This will become more clear to you the more you do it, and the Disrupt Your Defaults and Take Action prompts will help you see how these ideas can become more concrete when applied to everyday life.

Listen

What did you discover about your energy patterns in today’s meditation?

Did you see how your overall energy is affected by your mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual energy? Again, spirituality here means the things that make you feel most alive and give your life a greater sense of meaning and purpose.

Begin

Open Your Energy Matrix file below (the Word document is attached) and make a note of the following:

Which room do you spend most of your time in?

What is nurturing and what is depleting?

Look for nurturing activities that are overlapping across rooms. How can you make the overlapping activities a priority in your life?

What are the common challenges that keep you from engaging in the nurturing activities?

What commitment(s) can you make based on your observations of what is most important for you to enjoy a fulfilling life?

II. Return for Clarity (3-5 minutes)

When you notice energy depletion or imbalance, pause to:

• Choose the micro-practice below
• Let awareness of all four domains help you see what needs attention
• Respond by giving attention to neglected rooms

For your first moment of imbalance today, listen to the guided audio (3-5 minutes). This practice helps you:

• Pause when you notice energy depletion
• Return to awareness of all four energy domains
• Gain perspective by seeing which domains need attention
• Choose your response based on a holistic view of your wellbeing

Over time, this practice helps you maintain better energy balance, ensuring that all aspects of your being receive the care they need.

III. Quick Returns (1-2 minutes)

Practice and Play with the Mantra: Visit the Four Rooms

Use these everyday moments as cues to practice with your mantra:

Check In When:

• Feeling out of balance
• Overwhelmed
• Depressed
• Anxious
• Seeking clarity about purpose
• Spiritually disconnected
• During transitions between activities in your day

How to Practice - You can choose to:

• Practice on your own using the mantra, "visit the four rooms" (1-2 minutes)
• Listen to the guided recording for the micro practice (3-5 minutes)

Pay Special Attention To:

• Which room(s) you've been neglecting
• The balance between your four domains
• Transitions as opportunities to check all rooms
• How attending to neglected domains affects your overall energy

Share Your Experience: Which of the four rooms did you find needed the most attention today? How did balancing your energy across all domains affect your well-being? Let us know in the comments below.