RECLAIM YOUR ENERGY: WHY MORE TIME ISN’T THE ANSWER
Today, something hit me hard: I had more time than usual… but less energy. And that contrast shook me. After three intense days of working on my latest YouTube video, I set aside today with no deadlines, no rush, no pressure. I cleared space, slowed down, unplugged. I did all the “right” things. But still, I felt flat. Tired. Disconnected.
Lying there in bed, window open, breeze drifting in, scrolling through endless content, I started asking myself: is this just physical exhaustion, or is something deeper going on? We spend so much time wishing for more hours in the day, but what if time isn’t the problem? What if it’s our energy—the quality of our attention, the weight of everything we take in, the quiet heaviness of what we carry that no one else sees?
The more I think about it, the more I believe this: we weren’t built for this much input, this much comparison, this much noise. Even on our so-called quiet days, we still feel overstimulated. Our nervous systems have been conditioned by constant pings and fake urgency, and now we barely recognize peace even when we’re sitting right in the middle of it. I know for me, I not only fall victim to this consumption, but I’m also an active participant because, in my mind, if I'm not moving, consuming, or creating, then I'm being unproductive. But that’s a lie, because sometimes the most productive thing we can do is absolutely nothing.
We’ve trained ourselves to chase but not to rest. To consume but not to digest. To polish the outside while neglecting the quiet interior that needs care. We say we crave more time, but maybe what we really need is less noise. Less input. Less pretending we’re fine while secretly running on fumes. Overwhelm is a tricky little monster. It starts out as a seemingly harmless creature, but the more we let it in, the more we feed it by neglecting our own nourishment... the more it begins to devour us. Then we’re left standing there, defeated, asking how we got here. The answer is simple: we stopped checking in. We stopped running our inner diagnostics and asking ourselves, How am I doing? What do I need? How can I honor my energy in this moment?
One of the simplest ways to create more interior spaciousness is to practice intentional input fasting. Choose one hour each day to go completely silent: no phone, no TV, no music, no podcasts. Let your nervous system breathe. During this hour, do something slow and physical — sip your coffee without rushing, tidy one small corner of your space, or simply sit and let your thoughts catch up to you. Psychologists call this kind of stillness “cognitive offloading,” and it gives your brain a chance to process and file away everything you’ve taken in. When we’re constantly consuming, our minds stay in a state of low-level alert, which keeps our stress hormones active and scatters our focus. This daily pocket of quiet is like pressing a reset button for your mental mechanics: it lowers cognitive load, regulates your nervous system, and sharpens your ability to think clearly. Over time, this practice doesn’t just create peace — it improves memory, creativity, and the overall quality of life because you’re living from a more grounded, less reactive place.
So today, I’m choosing to unplug. Not to escape, but to tune back in. Into stillness. Into the version of me that lives beneath the scroll and beyond the digital horizon. Into the parts of me that deserve to be honored in the divine Now, not just in the baggage of the past or the simulation of the future. Because I don’t just want more time; I want to feel alive inside the time I already have.
Your friend,
Danny