Battery Saver

It was Adam who recognized the state we were in.

“We’re living in Low Power Mode.”

It’s true. Some pretty basic tasks have been disabled to save power for the things we can’t survive without. But unlike a phone, we can’t just plug ourselves in until we’ve charged enough to leave Low Power or Battery Saver Mode. Humans are more complicated.

I wanted to do a quick roundup of the things that keep a human battery charged, in my non-expert opinion, and see where I’ve been falling short.

1. Sleep.
2. Hydration.
3. Food.
4. Creative pursuits.
5. Movement.
6. Nature.
7. Some amount of arguably alone time.
8. Some amount of arguably social time.

Those are the basics, in my book. If you don’t have some degree of each of them, you may find that there are functions not available to you. It’s a little like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in that way.

1 to 3 (sleep, water, food) are the things that keep a human battery functioning in the short term. We’re more or less getting them, even if sleep is interrupted (thanks to excessive hydration on my part) and food intake could be more balanced.

4 (creative pursuits) is obviously a big one for us, and we pursue creativity with vigour. But when I say creative pursuits, I don’t mean you have to make art. Unless you have to make art, in which case, yes, make art. But I’m leaving this one deliberately wide-open. I mean anything that makes you engage in creative thinking. Maybe for you that’s writing. Or maybe reading. Maybe it’s crossword puzzles or scientific experiments or building furniture. I just mean exercise for your creative, problem-solving brain. Everybody could use some.

5 (movement) is exercise for the rest of your body. Doesn’t have to be what you might normally think of as exercise, just… not being still all the time. I struggle with this one. A lot. Especially in my current state of physical and mental fitness, movement sometimes feels very difficult indeed. But I have goals surrounding movement, and one of them is just to be comfortable moving. To move to the music, even if you wouldn’t call it dancing. To stop feeling like I have a little box that I have to stay inside if I want to be allowed to exist in space with other people.¹

6 (nature) is a little more abstract. It doesn’t mean you have to go hiking in a forest or meditate on a mountaintop. It doesn’t really even mean getting outside, though if it’s warm enough, it certainly doesn’t hurt. I’m using “nature” as a sort of shorthand for getting back in touch with the larger world that we are inextricably a part of. That we are a part of, but sometimes forget we are a part of. Maybe it does mean hiking in a forest, but maybe it just means staring at the snow falling, or opening a window to let the spring breeze in, or acknowledging the spider in the corner that protects you from less desirable company. It can even be saying hello to a neighbour.² Something that makes you feel in your bones that you’re part of something bigger. You could call it “connection to the world we live in.” That’s nature, to me. And it’s something else I’m often missing in my day. Especially in the winter.

7 and 8 (some amount of time that is arguably social and some amount of time that is arguably alone) are a little tricky for us. You could say that time spent together, which, in the last few years, has been virtually all of it, counts as both and as neither. On one hand we feel like we get plenty of time to ourselves and also get plenty of time around another person, in reality we get very little time to ourselves but we also don’t get much novel social stimulation. We could probably use more time when one of us goes out to do something and the other stays home, and more time when one or both of us hangs around people we don’t get to see so much. But we’ve fallen into a pandemic pattern, bolstered by some general introversion, of just staying home and watching YouTube videos pretty much of the time.

There’s an added wrinkle.

A lot of these battery-recharging things rely, again unlike with a phone, on having some particular level of charge to begin with. If you haven’t slept in weeks, you’re probably not going to have great luck with creative pursuits. Then again, some nights I can’t fall asleep because I haven’t exercised (yes to that spelling) my creative demons. They all feed into each other and that is a way in which I do not think this Low Power Mode idea really reflects Maslow’s view.

You’ve just got to start with what you’ve got. If I’ve had a good night’s sleep, maybe I’ll feel up to moving around and I can get some cleaning done. Then I’ll feel motivated to get started on that next blog post. Which will remind me to hydrate appropriately, and I’ll do that. The afternoon features a video call because I’m now feeling up to it, and when supper time comes I don’t give up on the meal plan and order takeout in despair. I’m not going to go outside because it’s freaking cold, but I’ll listen to the wind howl and wonder at it, while Adam, who was willing to brave the cold, runs an errand, leaving me alone.³ Little by little, I can feel myself charging.

This was a good day for me, and I can feel that it’s helped to lift me out of the Low Power Mode I was in. Of course, just living drains your battery. But if you find the little things that charge yours, you can try to add them to your day and keep yourself, or get yourself, out of Low Power Mode. 

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¹ This is partly about being A Big Girl and partly about being Socially Anxious. They conspire together with the media to make me think I need to shrink into the smallest area possible. Even when I’m singing, which has presented a bit of a challenge to my teachers. You can’t command the stage if you’re afraid to take up any space.

² Humans count as nature too.

³ Except for the dog, asleep against my leg.