Our capacity is what we can do. It references our ability, but can concern many areas of our lives and impact us in different ways. Our capacity usually dictates what you experience and what you are capable of. 

I hear a lot of people talking about “being at capacity” at the moment, and the phrase is often used in different ways. After a conversation that came around to this concept, I wanted to unpack what I understand it to mean. 

To me, it simply means we have reached our limit of capability. To have, do or be more, we would need to expand, grow, or change something. Our current reality or way of existing doesn’t allow us to have, be or take on any more. 

Reaching capacity is a call to change, upgrade, grow, and evolve. 

I often think of it as reaching the end of a level in a video game. We either need to try to get to the next level or play this one better (with more refinement, consideration or finesse). 

Another way to visualise it is to think of a plant pot bound or a storage unit full… There is no more room to grow or add anything else to the space. Or in our case, as humans, when considering our whole energy system or lifestyle, there is no available time, energy or room for physical expression. 

When this happens, and it is a cause of stress, because we do need to do or be more, and we are struggling to cope or feel overwhelmed, it is often because we have “levelled up” in one area of our life, without balance. We have stretched ourselves, taken a shortcut perhaps, missed learning a skill, neglected some area, pushed ourselves, or simply forgotten to keep ourselves or consider our balance while growing (adding things into our lives). 

I explain this concept much deeper and much more fully in the Building Your Energetic Power Course; it is what the whole course is really about, exploring how we can energetically evolve. I unpack the whole subject more thoroughly and in great detail and depth to support you in navigating life and continuing to grow consciously. 

This post is designed to be an introduction with some simple understandings and insights that can help you see the steps you can take to increase your capacity. 

We all have an individual capacity as well as a collective capacity we are bound to. Both our internal and external worlds can leave us feeling full or restricted in some way. When we consider the plant, its limited growth or ability to bloom could be due to a problem with the plant, due to the care it is receiving or the pot it is limited to. 

The plant can grow, be or do more; it is capable of it, but, in the current circumstances, it can not. 

We have these natural capacities due to the physical nature of the reality we are experiencing. However, the energetic nature of life is limitless and has incomprehensible potential. Yet we find, even on an energetic or soul level, our capacity is limited at times by forces beyond our control. These states can be confusing, frustrating or challenging to navigate. I have found that when this happens, it is often to bring about the balance we require and reharmonise our energy field in some way so we can expand, grow or even contemplate why we are and order or organise our lives to a more refined benefit and find our true alignment again. 

So, in those circumstances, what can we do?

If we have reached what feels like a capacity, how do we navigate the circumstances to give ourselves more space to exist?

First of all, let's consider what capacities we have to consider as humans. We have to consider:

Physical capacity

• Our body. 

  • Our strength and fitness.

  • Moblity

  • Health and vitality. 

This is dictated by the amount of energy we can consume and use physically before we are exhausted or can no longer function due to fatigue. The size and capacity of our physical body battery if you like. 

• Our environment 

  • Our location

    • Where we are. 

  • Who we know. 

  • What we have access to. 

    • Our ability to travel or communicate. 

  • What we are responsible for. 

This is dictated by the limitations of the world around us. What we can physically do due to the place we are in and our ability to occupy it. 

• Our resources or material capacity. 

  • Our money

  • Access to food and water, and meeting personal needs. 

  • Time

This dictates what we can access beyond ourselves and our environment or within ourselves and our environment. 

Our physical capacity dictates most often our physical ability, but also has an impact on others apctes of our capacity. 

Mental capacity

This relates to our mind, and we must consider:

• How we think.

  • What we know.

  • What we believe. 

  • What we understand or can comprehend. 

• What we can envision or imagine. 

• Our perception and perspective. 

  • World view

  • Experince

  • Ego or wounding and trauma.

• Our cognition and ability to learn or hold information.

• Our intelligence. 

Our mental capacity can dictate a lot! It drives what we perceive, how we respond, and what we can pursue or even what we might consider open for us to pursue. If our mental capacity is limited, our physical reality and capacity will be affected. 

What makes our mental capacity more interesting to consider is that the mind, the mental world, is limitless in many respects (when it has the physical needs of the brain and body met). We can (in theory) imagine or learn anything we want to. But the nature of the mind is complex, and there may be reasons or considerations that affect our mental capacity simply due to the experience of our current physical reality, other aspects of our capacity or our current mental capacity. 

Energetic Capacity

• Emotional Capacity. 

  • What we can tolerate. 

    • What bothers and affects us. 

  • How we process our experiences. 

  • How we understand and respond. 

• Creative Capacity

  • How we express.

    • What we do, how we act or behave. 

  • What we produce. 

These two capacities of energy are often related and connected. Our emotional responses often dictate our creative ones. For example, even with full mental and physical capacity, one person may have a deeply emotive experience that has them create something beautiful, while another may choose to destroy due to the same emotion or experience. Someone else still might have no emotional response and do nothing in response to the same experience. 

Our energetic capacity impacts our ability to alchemise our experiences in the world. 

• Spiritual Capacity.

  • Karmic potential 

    • What God or life allows us to do. 

    • What we allow ourselves to do (morally, ethically etc). 

    • What we have to repay to find alignment and complete cycles.  

      • What our current experience is. 

        • The consequences we currently have to respond to.

        • How people respond to us (due to past or presenting energy). 

  • Collective capacity and potential

    • Level of innovation, knowledge, awareness or acceptance. 

    • Patterns and trends of the collective behaviour or culture. 

    • Level of collective evolution, understanding or development. 

Our spiritual capacity is dictated by ourselves, others and the world at large. Our spiritual or karmic energetic capacity can be both within and beyond our control. It's that unexplainable reason why one unwell person receives help when asked, and another does not. Why does one person who is a victim of crime receive justice while another is denied? The unexplainable result or alchemised connections with others, we only have limited control over. 

When we have reached our capacity on one way or another, many times in several ways, every day, life feels overwhelming. It might present as:

• The simplest tasks can feel pointless or a waste of time, and we are distracted and unable to focus. 

• We can feel strong surges and urges or inspiration to create and feel restricted in some way, and get the sensation that we are ready to burst with energy. 

• We might feel unmotivated to do anything, lacking any energy at all and fatigued as we have no space to fuel or recharge and our capacity is drained. Daily life can become too much, and we are depleted or exhausted.

So, with these capacities considered, how do we expand them?

Expanding our capacity can be both simple in the concept of it, simply do less or be more, while the execution can be an additional burden or consideration to take on, creating a tension that we are challenged to figure out and release. 

The action of changing our capacity can be the additional thing we feel we can not cope with! 

But when this happens, we can simplify our choice through understanding our options. 

We can consider the expansion process in three ways:

• When I am bigger or am more, I have more room for more and other things. 

• When I am, need or do less, I have more space for essentials and myself. 

• When I have, am or do more, I have more resources to draw from, or I require less from others and am more capable myself. 

Considering what we have capacity for or not and what we want to achieve, we can consider expanding, contracting or increasing our capacity in different ways. 

The rest of the blog gives simple examples you can consider and use today if needed. To explore the options more deeply when we consider an ongoing understanding of soul growth, or energy and evolution process, it requires more consideration and depth of understanding… more capacity than what can be delivered in a blog post! 

But in the simplest forms, we can increase our capacity in two basic ways: by expanding or by reducing and refining what we currently have to manage. 

Expanding

To expand our capacity, we can:

• Level up! We need to grow in some way.

  • Get stronger, bigger or more flexible. 

  • Learn something. 

  • Become more competent. 

  • Have more, get more, create more or do more. 

One way to do this is simply through presence and holding our current situation. 

For some reason, this can be what many of us avoid! Simply sitting in the discomfort and being present with our current reality can naturally help us to expand it energetically. As it brings us insight, awareness and since energy always naturally moves, it can invite new perspectives, ideas or some sort of development. 

Think of it like strength training… the longer we can hold something, the stronger we get, the more the muscles compensate, and therefore we expand or increase. This can also be the case energetically. 

We can also expand through our connections with others or by changing the environment in some way.

Think back to the storage unit or plant in the pot metaphors. If we have more space or more rooms to move things into, we can expand and ease the pressure of our load. 

The ways we can expand our energy or capacity, practically, are:

• Connecting with new experiences, people or perspectives. 

• We can delegate and offload our responsibilities to others, expand our network to outsource. 

Contracting 

Another way to manage and increase your capacity is to contract. To reduce, refine or reorganise what we are managing, therefore freeing up more energy for other things. We might also do this initially, so we can then focus on longer-term ways to expand our capacity and level up, and add more as we initially wanted to. We may also learn that we don’t need the additional capacity; we thought we did due to the pressure and tension we were experiencing. 

We can do this in the following ways:

• Do less. 

• Focus on self

• Focus only on essentials. 

• Improve how we do things and streamline our systems, processes or habits. 

• Let things go and release them. 

The final way would be more drastic, but it is a reset of capacity if you like...By completely changing our system and starting again, we can reorganise and allocate our energy more wisely.

Wipe the slate clean and start again! This is often considered an extreme option, but it allows us the freedom to refresh and rebuild; we can even do this mentally or emotionally. We begin with the idea that nothing is useful and less is more, and we allow things to prove what is essential, useful and helpful so we can create a whole new experience. 

One final note I’d like to add to this post is that I think we are currently going through a collective, global energetic, spiritual evolution of consciousness. This means that things will naturally ebb and flowas the expand and contract. This process of change can feel challenging as we collectively navigate our limits and adjust. 

We feel this collectively and individually since we mirror the micro and macro. Because we are in a collective evolution, we also must individually evolve and vice versa. This is why so many people feel at a capacity, why so many of our previously well-established institutions and systems are struggling and failing. They can’t remain the same, they must change with the energy presenting an dthe new collective awareness emerging.

It is all part of a necessary phase of growth that we can not control, but we are part of. So our option becomes to either consciously choose to evolve and be part of the process or allow the process to pull us through with it! 

Additional Support

To explore this idea and similar concepts around evolution, spiritual expansion, and personal growth, I recommend you browse our blog categories:

• Identity & Personal Transformation

• Spiriuality & Energy

You might also find the following videos interesting:

If you feel ready to reconsider and realign your capacity, consider the following options at Love School. 

Our Energetic Alignment Masterclass explains how we use energy to align with what is best for us regarding our health and well-being. 

The Energetic Alignment Initiation brings together spiritual expansion with grounded energetic practices that create a balanced, supportive lifestyle as you evolve and grow energetically. We follow a life design process of self-exploration and deeper introspection to recover from a spiritual awakening and align with wellness as you tune into a new way of living and being, connected with self as part of nature.

The process is specially designed for beginners and is an introduction to understanding the benefits of holistic growth.

For an in-depth dive into energy, personal and spiritual, evolution, and how we navigate the universal forces of the world, join the Building Your Energetic Power Course.