Good morning Reader—

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And welcome to the 17th issue of The FAM.

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Every week, I receive email responses from The FAM community. And after decades of traveling the country to meet the people this community was built for, I’ve noticed a few resounding patterns.
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One of them? Exhaustion. It’s widespread and sometimes downright debilitating. Over and over I’ve heard:
“I’m tired of being tired.”
“I feel like there’s no gas left in the tank.”

“I’m running on empty and don’t know how to gain that energy back.”
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If you’ve ever felt yourself caught mid deep sigh, struggling with exhaustion, just trying to push through the next thing… you’re not alone. There are thousands of us struggling with this bone-deep tiredness that no amount of coffee or sleep can heal.

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It’s a slippery slope and an epidemic. And today’s data backs it up: Nearly half of people say workload is their biggest stress. 57% of parents struggle with burnout and 33% of non-parents say they feel lonely or pressured.

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It doesn’t end there. 68% of people say they don’t get enough time in the day to focus—their effort feels frenzied and fractured. Over a third of people struggle with the pressure to take on more and more.
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Regardless of demographics, humans are struggling. With pressure. With a feeling like they have to be “always on”. With overwhelm, burnout, sadness, and lack of motivation draining their day-to-day.
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Exhaustion doesn’t discriminate. And after enough time, it becomes your baseline. It’s not just physical fatigue. It’s the weight of constant pressure, the invisible drain of responsibilities, the ache of disconnection. It’s a slow erosion of energy that leaves people looking around and saying, “Something’s not right here. This can’t be all there is.”
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Why the Default View of Energy Isn’t Enough

What do you do when you feel the exhaustion creeping in? Most of us turn to the typical treatments: more sleep, eat better, exercise—maybe a few days off from work. We’ve all seen the checklists, the podcasts, the books. Solutions are out there, right?
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And don’t get me wrong—these things are all very important for a healthy, balanced life. But truth is: they treat the symptoms of the tiredness, not the root cause. The source of energy is not outside of us. The real source is inside.

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Energy isn’t just a physical game. It’s not just about inputs. It’s not just about optimizing your schedule or chasing another wellness hack.

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There’s a deeper source. One that often gets overlooked.
​Your mind.

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And when we understand that—when we see the mind not just as the place where stress and fatigue live, but as the source where energy can begin—something shifts.

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This week, that’s where we’re going.

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When you feel yourself running on empty… where does your mind go?

Our minds are one of the most overlooked, untapped sources of energy we have.

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But we don’t often look at the mind that way, do we? Too often, our minds take the blame for stress: Racing thoughts that keep us up at night, anxious, unstoppable thoughts about all the things that could go wrong, that to-do list that lives on an endless scroll behind your eyelids. We see our minds as the place where burnout brews, where we overanalyze, overcommit, and under-rest.

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But here’s the deeper truth—one that both ancient wisdom and modern science agree on: The mind is not just where exhaustion lives. It’s also where energy begins. Your body doesn’t usually quit because it’s truly out of fuel. It quits because the mind tells it to.

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Let that sink in.

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Studies show that athletes can keep going long after their bodies start sending signals of fatigue. What makes the difference isn’t just muscle training—it’s mental strength. The brain decides whether to stop or to push forward. In other words, energy isn’t just physical. It’s perceptual. It’s regulated from within.

Words from the Wise: The Root of Energy

The Greek word for energy says it all: En-ergon.

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“En” meaning within, and “ergon” meaning work.

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Energy literally means “the act of working from within.”

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Which means energy isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you generate. Something you cultivate and draw up—like water from a wellspring.

And here’s where it gets powerful: When your mind is scattered, you leak energy. When your mind is anchored, you multiply it.

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I’ll give you a personal example.

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Last week I was in Michigan. I was on my morning walk, about 30 minutes in, and I realized something: I was repeating one of my daily mantras without even thinking about it:

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“My mind, my body, and my spirit are fit and strong. My mind, my body, and my spirit are fit and strong. My mind, my body, my spirit are fit and strong.”

Over and over. Rolling off my tongue naturally, like my mind and body had decided together to breathe life into those words. It wasn’t forced. It wasn’t unnatural. It was automatic. This mantra has become such a natural part of who I am.

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But it hasn’t always been this way. Just like the vast majority of the population, maybe even just like you, I have struggled deeply with exhaustion.

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I can remember clearly the first time I ever said those words to myself. I was in Utah, staying at a KOA campground. I was out on a forced walk on a two-lane highway, a slight incline in front of me, and a valley and mountains stretching out to my left. But I didn’t want to be there. My body felt heavy and I had to force myself to get moving.

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I had to conjure up some words—any words—just to get myself through it. “My mind, my body, and my spirit are fit and strong.” At that moment, it wasn’t a mantra. It was a lifeline. It was something I grabbed onto to keep going.

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These words were my first step towards reclaiming the energy at the source. That’s the thing about mental energy. It doesn’t arrive all at once. It gets built. Word by word. Choice by choice. Practice by practice.

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What started as a forced phrase in Utah became a grounded rhythm.

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And that’s my learned lesson that I want to share today:

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You can train your mind to become a source of energy, not just a drain of it.
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Not all at once. But little by little. And when that shift happens—when the words you speak to yourself become the well you draw from—everything changes.

How to Reclaim Your Energy at the True Source

I’ll be honest with you. I used to be skeptical of mantras. Repeating words to yourself? Could that really have the power to change anything? It almost felt silly at first. But over the years, and through my own practice, I’ve become a believer. Not because of theory, but because I’ve experienced firsthand what happens when the mind is trained to return to a set of words that carry meaning and power.

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When life breaks open, when the pressure is mounting and the weight of exhaustion threatens to take us under—we often don’t rise to the occasion.

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We fall to the level of your inner practice.

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And most of us? We haven’t been taught to practice anything on the inside.

We train our bodies. We track our sleep. We fuel up on coffee and checklists and motivation podcasts. But the mind? We leave it scattered. Distracted. Untrained.

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Eknath Easwaran, a spiritual teacher and author once wrote:

“If you want the mantram to come to your rescue when you need it… you need to practice in calm weather.”

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He went further: “Constant repetition drives the mantram deep into consciousness, where it can anchor your mind so surely that no amount of agitation can sweep you away.”

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I love that picture. The very mind that usually gets swept away by stress and your mantra can become an anchor that steadies it.

Practice in Calm Weather

Start your practice in calm weather. Not when you’re already unraveling and the pressure is mounting to new heights. Practice now. While you’re walking the dog. Washing dishes. Sitting in traffic.

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When the weather is calm is when the repetition goes deep. That’s when the words start to take root. Because when the storm does come—and one thing about life is the storm will always come—the words you’ve planted in quiet will rise to meet you.
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That’s been true for me. I have a number of mantras, the one that sparked this note:

“My mind, my body, and my spirit are fit and strong.”

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It doesn’t fix my circumstances. But it changes the way I meet them. It calls my focus home when it starts to scatter. It slows the drip of stress before it becomes a flood. And it reminds me that I have a choice—always.

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And for the skeptics, let me offer this: Science echoes what the spiritual leaders knew:

• Athletes who practice motivational self-talk push themselves further—not just mentally, but physically.
• Mantra repetition lowers stress hormones.
• Affirmations light up the brain’s reward centers—activating dopamine, restoring energy, building resilience.
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This isn’t wishful thinking or a silly belief. It’s neuroscience. It’s lived experience. It’s one of the few things you can control when the world feels out of control.

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The best part? The practice of mantras is flexible. For some, speaking the phrase often works wonders. For others, journaling the mantra builds that inner strength. Others write their mantra on a sticky note they place on their desk. I’ve known people to write their mantra right on their bathroom mirror and another who tattooed it on their arm as a constant reminder.

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With mantras, the what isn’t negotiable. But the how is meant to fit you, your life, and what works best for your mind. The tool is flexible. The truth is not.

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The truth is this: You can train your mind to either drain you… or anchor you. You get to decide what rises up when life presses down.

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And that decision? It starts in the quiet. With practice. With presence. With choosing your words before the world chooses them for you.

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This week’s resource walks you through a 4-step process to build a mantra that actually means something to you—one that steadies your mind and activates your inner power. ​ ​ Use it during walks, while doing dishes, or before bed. Practice in calm weather… so when the storm hits, the words are already there. ​ ​

DOWNLOAD FREE TOOL

As I’ve been reflecting on mantras and their role in living a self-empowered life, I was drawn back to a note I once scribbled in my journal. I’m not even sure when I wrote it, or what moment sparked it—but it captured a teaching of Jesus that struck me deeply.

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And if you simply replace the word prayer with what we’ve been exploring today—mantra—the lesson becomes clear.

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Here’s what I wrote:

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“The secret of manifestation. Jesus said when you pray, pray as if you have already received it. When you pray for something, believe that it has already been given—that you already have it—and then you will receive it.”

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I see now that this is what mantras do. They train the mind to believe and embody what the heart is reaching for. At first, the words feel like effort. But over time, they sink deeper—until they become part of who you are.

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This is the quiet miracle of practice: Words that once felt like effort… slowly become truth. They rise from within as a steady current of energy.

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That’s when energy stops being something you chase from the outside and becomes something you generate from within.

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And that, to me, is the work of living fully alive.

P.S. What mantra are you working with right now? If you feel led, hit reply and share it with me. I read every single one. And if you know someone who needs a lifeline this week—forward them this message

We’re on a mission to empower one million people to live Fully Alive, and you’re one of them!