Where is your Energy Leaking?
The not so obvious things draining your vitality (and ways to reclaim your energy)
If you feel like you’re trying to pour from an empty cup, you’re not alone.
You don’t have to be a busy mum taking care of children, or a business owner looking after clients to feel like there’s more energy going out than what you seem to be able to replenish. If you’re like the many people we have coming into the clinic, you might find yourself often thinking “I’m doing everything I can… but I still feel tired, lacking energy and why is it so hard to stay focussed?”
Often this isn’t a motivation problem, there’s only so much capacity we have, and so often we see it’s actually an energy leakage problem.
Energy leaks are places where your vitality drains away - with or without your awareness. They might be physical stressors, emotional patterns, mentally draining habits, or energetic leaks and each one affects the way you think, feel, move, and function day to day.
If you think of it like a bucket you’re pouring from, when you have cracks in the bucket, water slowly leaks out and you notice there’s less and less to pour. Once you can see these cracks, you can work towards sealing them and then more intentionally water your garden from a full bucket.
We’re going to break down these four main categories so you can identify the causes of your energy draining and get the guidance you might need to seal those cracks!
Physical Energy Leaks
These are some of the most common and overlooked causes of fatigue.
Hormonal Imbalances
When thyroid, adrenal, or reproductive hormones shift out of a healthy range, your body has to use far more energy to maintain balance. Symptoms of hormonal issues may include low mood, temperature dysregulation, sluggish metabolism, irritability, changes to your menstrual cycle, and sleep disruption.
Lesley Oakes is a naturopath with expertise in supporting healthy hormones, restoring thyroid and adrenal glands health, and improving metabolism for more stable, consistent energy.
Gut Health & Leaky Gut
Your digestive system is where food is converted into energy so naturally, it makes sense to look at your gut health if your energy levels are not right. Inflammation, dysbiosis, leaky gut, and nutrient malabsorption can force the body to divert energy into “managing” internal stress instead of making it available for you to actually do all the things you’d like to do. .
You’ll know your gut needs some attention because you’ll be experiencing symptoms like bloating, constipation or diarrhea or both, gut pain or less obvious symptoms like brain fog, trouble concentrating, afternoon energy crashes or immune system weakness - getting sick often or struggling to recover from illness.
Naturopath Sam Botica is a gut health and allergies expert, focusing on microbiome health, cleansing parasites if needed, addressing nutrient deficiencies, fatigue associated with autoimmune conditions, and improving health through digestive repair.
Metabolic Health
Blood sugar swings, cravings, increased hunger, slow metabolism, and weight fluctuations can all signal deeper metabolic fatigue. Addressing these early prevents long-term exhaustion.
If you’ve got the basics covered and you are
Drinking 2-3L of water daily
Exercising regularly
Getting to 8 hours of sleep
Eating a health diet with minimal sugar and processed foods
Cutting back on excessive alcohol consumption
… But you’re still feeling the effects of a slow metabolism, then book in to see one of our experienced naturopaths who will get to the root cause and provide effective, natural treatment to get you back on track.
Musculoskeletal & Structural Load
When your posture or musculoskeletal system is out of alignment, your body spends extra energy stabilising itself. This can show up as tight shoulders, nerve twinges, persistent tension in certain areas of your body, and of course back or neck pain, headaches, and reduced mobility.
Dr Kevin Roberts is an Osteopath who works with sporting injuries and Dharma MacDonald is a Remedial Therapist using a range of techniques including myofascial and triggerpoint releases. Both have decades of experience - and when you have worked with so many patients it becomes second nature to know just what is needed to restore body alignment, reduce tension, and support structural efficiency. Book in for osteopathy or remedial therapy to not only reduce pain and discomfort but also improve how your body moves and uses energy.
Emotional Energy Leaks
Emotional labour is one of the most underestimated drains on your wellbeing. It’s not only suppressing emotions that requires energy, but also how you might be in a habit of
Hypervigilance
Carrying the burden of other people’s needs
managing conflict or compromising your needs to maintain the peace
anxious thought patterns and overthinking
emotional exhaustion when dealing with ongoing stress
These patterns keep the nervous system in an “always on” state, which depletes both mental and physical reserves.
Psychotherapy with Eddie Enever helps clients navigate emotional tension, stress patterns, boundaries, and the draining cycle of emotionally overextending yourself. Working with clinic hypnotherapist and certified life coach Amanda Davies can help you to better manage unresolved stress, past trauma or experiences yet to be understood and integrated.
Mental Energy Leaks
Modern life stresses the mind in ways we’re not built for. We may think we have adapted to the rapid pace of modern life, and the technological advances that are so intrinsically part of our lives now, but the energy it takes to keep up is immense.
The Mental Load
Parents, carers, and busy professionals often hold enormous amounts of unseen cognitive labour - things like:
school admin
planning meals and navigating choices in the supermarket
remembering birthdays and thinking of gifts or messages
juggling busy schedules with competing priorities
managing finances and money-related decisions
Coordinating how to meet everyone else’s needs
Research on executive load shows that chronic mental multitasking involved in many work roles reduces cognitive performance, lowers concentration, and increases stress hormones. Having calendars, reminders and systems in place is important - and having simple strategies for decision making is important too.
Screens & Social Media
It’s no surprise that looking at screens and the bombardment of information that social media represents is a mental drain. Studies show:
multitasking can reduce productivity by up to 40%
constant notifications increase cortisol levels
social media overstimulation reduces attention span
frequent switching between apps scatters mental energy
If your mind feels foggy or unfocused, this may be your energy leak. What can you do?
Try task blocking, using timers to focus on one task at a time.
Turn off notifications for periods of time during the day or set up your notifications to only allow important notifications so you can be less distracted.
Put a daily limit on your use of certain social media apps. Some apps like instagram have in-built options to limit your daily use and other apps, like opal, help to manage use across all apps on your phone.
Choose a day per week where you don’t use your phone at all - for a mental detox or reset.
Mental Fatigue & Burn out
If you’re consistently overwhelmed with work and other responsibilities that are affecting your focus and concentration, our naturopaths can help you with herbal support for better brain function, and supplement any depleted nutrients so you can operate at your best.
Energetic Leaks
These are subtle so can be harder to truly identify but once you do identify these leaks, it can be a powerful way to regain energy.
Energetic leaks can show up as:
feeling disconnected from yourself
overcommitting your time and energy
poor boundaries with yourself and others
being in environments or around people and feeling exhausted afterwards
doing things out of obligation or people pleasing rather than alignment
Randa Majrouh is a naturopath and acupuncturist combining Western and Eastern approaches to work directly with your Qi (chi) - the body’s vital energy - helping restore healthy energy, flow, calm, and reignite your zest for life.
If you want more energy, start by finding where your energy is leaking
The fastest way to rebuild your health and vitality is to understand why you’re depleted. There’s a place for resilience and getting on with it, and there’s a time when you can no longer just push through it without making your symptoms worse and compounding your issues.
Work with our practitioners to help identify your biggest energy drains and develop effective strategies and a treatment plan to help you resolve it.
Our team of holistic health practitioners are all experts in their areas and have decades of experience behind them to give you the best, most effective care.
Sam Botica - nutrient deficiencies, autoimmune fatigue, gut health, leaky gut
Lesley Oakes - hormonal depletion, adrenal fatigue, thyroid and metabolic support
Eddie Enever - understanding core emotional wounds, men’s testosterone management, working with anxiety and hyper-vigilance, resolving trauma and stress patterns
Randa Majrouh - naturopathic support during transitional life stages, energetic stagnation, stress management, nervous system regulation
Amanda Davies - hypnotherapy to shift unconscious patterns and life coaching to support implementing changes
Kevin Roberts - structural imbalances draining physical energy
Dharma MacDonald - muscular tension, pain, inflammation and physical fatigue
Book online here or call our team on 08 9328 9233 to make an appointment..