We all know those times when we’ve hit empty. Nothing left to give.
During one such season of my life, my morning alarm was set to Jewel’s “Deep Water”: “When you’re standing in deep water, and you’re bailing yourself out with a straw…”
You know: e.m.p.t.y.
That is when we find ourselves in Depletion Mode.
Depletion Mode
Disruption after disruption slams us—things feel stuck, unraveling, chaotic, overwhelming. It’s as though life is insisting:
Not this way. Not in this direction. Not with this kind of action. Not from this motivation.
We may not know what is right—but something has to change.
And yet, when we’re empty, finding a new way forward can feel impossible. So we keep pushing forward, doing the best we can.
How do we shift the cycle—without requiring the break, the loss, the illness, the transition that forces everything into question?
We listen.
Yet when life keeps throwing disruptions, it’s hard to hear ourselves—our own wisdom, the quiet nudges of inspiration or insight. And even when we do manage to hear something, we often don’t have the capacity to respond. It’s all just… too much.
In times like this, even the smallest changes in action can begin to shift the cycle toward something new.
Restoring Mode
One night of good sleep… Followed by a day of truly nourishing food… A mind-clearing walk outside… Five minutes of restorative meditation, reflective writing, or journaling…
And a little energy sneaks in.
A small crack opens, and we can begin to hear what we couldn’t before. Then arrives a flicker of inspiration. A quiet ah-ha. A shift in perspective.
With that, we have just a bit more hunger to respond. And when we do respond, inspiration invites its friends—more insight, another ah-ha.
We tend to forget, as adults, how essential the life basics still are. As parents, we know how deeply sleep, food, movement, and rest affect our children. The same remains true for us.
Returning to these basics—with self-regard, care, and curiosity about who we are now and what our bodies actually need today—can be the foundation for changing everything. They not only help us feel more resourced; over time, they quietly support our resilience against the chronic pressures that wear us down from the inside.
In our complex world, keeping ourselves whole—moment by moment, amid personal and professional storms—might be all we can do.
And that may be enough.
So begins a positive feedback loop: daily, intentional choices—starting with sleep, food, movement, restoration—offer us more energy, more capacity to hear inspiration when it moves through us, and more courage to respond.
Changes growing quietly. One followed by another. A glass of water before your morning coffee. A mindful, deep breath in the middle of the chaos. Saying “no” to something you genuinely do not want to do.
These small acts, done consistently, aren’t flashy—but they are powerful, and cumulative. They begin to shift our baseline.
Resourcing Mode
Then come the moments that move us—not because we have to change, but because something in us wants to.
A nudge. A gut-level truth that wakes us up to what we already knew.
Listening to and honoring these nudges—with ongoing intentional action—begins to reduce the frequency, intensity, and relentlessness of disruption. Life no longer has to smack us over the head to be heard. It can conspire with us.
This is where something shifts at a deeper level. We’re no longer just surviving the disruptions—we’re in relationship with them. We begin to recognize patterns in what depletes us and what restores us. We make choices not from obligation or exhaustion, but from a growing sense of what we’re actually here to do.
So much in life is beyond our sphere of influence or control—there will always be disruptions. But through caring for our foundational practices, we become co-creative designers of our own lives, one small action at a time: more resourced, and more able to generatively respond.
A small crack opens, and we can begin to hear what we couldn’t before.
