A Daily Practice for Sustaining Your Energy
This guidance is for mothers who want to realize their potential at work, at home, and in their community — they want more, and they need a new model for being genuinely energized that feels as real and sustainable as a healthy garden or beautiful forest. Not perfect or idealized. True to who they really are and aligned with what they want to create for their family and life.
Contributed By: MaryCay Durrant· Founder & CEO of Leading Naturally
The Core Challenge
Many working mothers are leading in multiple arenas — at work, at home, and in their community — but the model they've inherited for "success" was built for machines not living human beings. This creates a constant sense of misalignment and depletion. Without a new way to care for, measure and sustain their energy, many mothers end up achieving their goals on paper while feeling increasingly depleted, disconnected and disillusioned.
Key Insight
The mothers who thrive long-term aren't the ones doing more; they're the ones who've learned to understand, tend-to and honor their true nature and energy as closely as they measure the results we’re told matter. It's not failure when the old model stops working — it's feedback that you're ready for a nature-inspired approach.
Practical Strategies
1. Start your day by orienting, a 60-second practice for attuning to the natural rhythms of who you’re “being” — not just what's on your calendar.
Before checking email or making breakfast, take 60 seconds to pause and check-in: what matters most to me today? What do I need, energy-wise, to tend to that one thing. Many of us move straight into task mode without checking in on our own state first, which means we're reacting instead of intentionally leading. This small pause is often the difference between a day that drains you and one that doesn't.
2. Audit your week by energy, not just by output.
At the end of each week, mark what left you energized versus depleted — regardless of whether they were "successful." With a small ritual of reflection, patterns become clear: certain types of work or relationships consistently cost more than they give. You can't redesign your week around your energy until you know where and how it's leaking. Nature-inspired templates for change make the adjustments organic and sustainable.
3. Treat relationships as something you practice, not something you manage.
Real partnering happens in small daily moments of relating — not big scheduled conversations. Ask one more (real) question than usual, or sit with someone's answer a beat longer than is comfortable. Experiment: see if you can play with listening to learn inside what they share. Notice what emerges and how it impacts your energy. These small moments compound into the kind of trust that makes bigger collaboration possible later.
4. When something isn't working, ask "what gift is here for my own self care and best?
Reframing a stalled project, missed goal or miscommunication as a “gift of insight” rather than failure changes what you do next. Failure shuts us down; insight invites possibility and adjustment. Think of the smallest possible step based on the insight inside the feedback. This one shift in language is the beginning of our own genuine self-care as mothers, and it’s a great model of resilience for our families.
A Small First STep
This week, take the first two minutes of your day to find your north. We are the only sentient beings who don't orient ourselves each day. You can consider first physically turning to face north as you ask yourself how you're feeling, what you need today, and what matters most. Let your body feel the shift, not just your mind. Start out by being. Then move into the “doing” your day asks of you.
MaryCay Durrant is a transformational guide who has spent 30+ years helping executive teams at startups, Fortune 500 companies and everything in between fulfill their potential, drawing on the lessons of nature to guide the way. As Founder & CEO of Leading Naturally, she applies those same principles to help women ready for more — showing up with the same powerful, clear and generous energy (aka congruence) in the boardroom, at the kitchen table, and everywhere they're partnering and leading in between.
