In this diary‑style monologue, hypnotherapist Caroline Cavanagh reflects on a recent week‑long ski holiday in Austria and uses the experience to illustrate why regular, active breaks are essential for maintaining personal energy. She frames energy as a currency that, like money, must be invested in and protected, sharing that past mismanagement led to two hospital collapses. To prevent future depletion, she schedules short breaks and longer vacations throughout the year, emphasizing that active recreation (e.g., skiing 25‑30 miles a day) can recharge energy just as effectively as passive rest. Caroline introduces a "three‑currencies" model—money, energy, and time—explaining how balancing and investing in each leads to a better life. She offers a free downloadable worksheet on her website to help listeners assess and trade between these currencies. The piece ends with an optimistic note about entering the week refreshed and ready to share more.
Chapters
Hi, and welcome to Diary of a Hypnotherapist, my way of practicing what I preach and reflecting on the past to see what went well, what didn't go so well, so decisions can be made that make the future different from the past. And actually, this week I haven't been doing any hypnosis at all because I've just come back from a week in Austria where I've been skiing. So my reflection is less about what went wrong, what went well, but more about why having these weeks away are so important for me. I see energy a lot like a currency. And when we use that word currency, most people think automatically of money. But energy, I see a lot like being money You need to invest in it because if it actually goes into the red, you're in trouble. And the mountains are somewhere that I find my energy gets boosted. I love just the rawness of standing there at the top of the world and just seeing miles of snowy peaks in front of me. But it's also a holiday that even though it's very physical, skiing 25 to 30 miles a day, That also tops up my energy because a lot of people think to relax you need to be passive, but that's not the case. Anything that enriches you and makes you feel better, leaves you feeling more energized, is an investment in your energy. And in my past, I have been really, really bad at managing my energy to the point that I've ended up in hospital twice. After collapsing. So now, I invest in my energy really, really acutely. And during most weeks, I don't probably have enough sleep, if I'm genuinely honest, and my battery slowly just comes down. So I've learnt over time that the best way to manage my energy is to have regular short breaks. So So, we're only 6, 7 weeks into the year, and I've had a week's holiday. I've got another long weekend booked in March, another one in June, because that, for me, is what works. Doing things that are a change of pace, a change of scenery, doing things that I love that are often still quite active, but bring that battery back up to 100%. So I can cope with a few more weeks where it erodes down without getting back into that danger level. And a while back, I created a document that helps people start to look at what I think are 3 currencies: the money bit, the energy bit, and also time, the only currency that we all share as a fixed resource. So, I manage my time now to optimize my energy whilst also using money to either invest in those things or to bring money in. And when all of those 3 things are constantly raising up, then life is also getting better. So, if that's something that you can relate to, perhaps you never have enough time. We only ever have 24 hours in a day, but perhaps the choices you're making Is meaning that time always seems to be in limited resource. Perhaps money is at a low level, a time at the moment where a lot of people are struggling, or perhaps it's your energy that tends to run down very quickly. So that document is freely downloadable from my website carolinecavanagh.co.uk. Take a look, run through a couple of the exercises, and see how you can trade between those 3 to make sure that all of your currencies are actually growing because you're investing in them. So, I've made a big investment in my energy. I'm ready for a great week ahead, and I look forward to sharing my week with you at the end of this week. Take care. Bye-bye for now.
