A Trade-Off for Yoyu: How Borrowing Can Help Maintain Energy Reserves

Are you tired of feeling exhausted and burnt out after a long trip or a busy workday? Are you looking for a way to create more ease in your life? Look no further than the concept of yoyu.

Yoyu is a Japanese term that refers to having leeway, wherewithal, or extra space in your life. It can take many forms, such as time, money, energy, or emotional resilience. Whatever form it takes, yoyu is a valuable resource that can help you feel more relaxed, focused, and in control. In this post, we’ll explore the concept of yoyu and specifically, how you can trade one type of yoyu for another to cultivate more yoyu overall.

The Value of Maintaining Yoyu over Regaining Yoyu

Maintaining yoyu can feel like an impossible task. We’re constantly on the go, pushing ourselves to get more done, and we don’t take the time to slow down and recharge. But there is a trade-off to be made. By consciously trading one type of yoyu for another, we can create more ease in our lives, even while on vacation.

We used to make the drive to Akira’s hometown in the mountains of Hiroshima in one go. The roughly 500-mile drive from Tokyo would take anywhere from 13 to 20 hours, depending on traffic. We always arrived exhausted, and it took a couple of days to feel normal again. And about the time we started to feel normal, we had to do it in reverse.

Our trips to the property never felt like a vacation because they were bookended with that drive.

Even after we moved my husband’s parents to Tokyo so that we could play an active role in their care, we still had to check on their house at least once a year. However, recently we started splitting the drive over two days.

We changed what we do because maintaining yoyu is important to us, even though it requires a trade-off. Spreading the drive over two days costs time and money, but we arrive at the house earlier in the day and aren’t so tired.

We also have yoyu to stop at the grocery store and pick up supplies.

We have yoyu to say hello to relatives before heading up the hill to the house.

We have yoyu to air out the house and make a nice meal.

We have yoyu to enjoy the rest of our stay and don’t need to take the second day just to recuperate from the drive.

By taking an extra day to drive there and back, we don’t get to spend as much time at the house, but it’s worth it because it feels like we’re creating yoyu for ourselves. We’re not really creating more yoyu, we’re borrowing it.

We assessed our options and realized we had the extra time and financial yoyu to stop at a hotel. We’re borrowing from other areas of yoyu so that we can maintain a steady level of energy.

Applying the Concept of Borrowing Yoyu from Yourself in Daily Life

I’ve shared about the idea of leaning on other areas of yoyu before—for example, when I borrowed from my financial yoyu to hire a coach to overcome a lack of ability. But here, I’m suggesting that we borrow from other areas to maintain our reserves proactively, not because we feel a lack.

We can also do this in our daily lives, not just on vacation. For example, Akira has leeway in his schedule on Tuesdays. So, rather than taking the bus to the station, he uses the time the bus would’ve saved him and walks to the station instead. He’s borrowing some time to get an extra workout so that he can keep up his physical yoyu.

Perhaps you have emotional wherewithal in the afternoon but not so much in the evening. You could reach out to your friend who needs a pep talk during your lunch break instead of waiting until evening when you might not have the yoyu to be as supportive.

The Benefits of Borrowing Yoyu

When we start looking for ways to trade or borrow yoyu, we stop pushing ourselves to get more done, as quickly and cheaply as possible. Instead, we find ways to be kinder to ourselves and cultivate more yoyu overall.

One way I apply this in my daily life is by consciously budgeting more time than I need so that I can take more breaks. As a result, my projects sometimes take longer than I want, but the breaks refresh me, and I finish the project on a high instead of feeling exhausted.

In what way could you buffer your schedule with extra time in order to cultivate more yoyu?

Trading one type of yoyu for another like this—borrowing abundance from myself—is one of my favorite ways to make things easier. Yoyu takes so many forms (time, energy, money, space, emotional resilience…). As long as we remember this, we can find ways to supplement lack, lean into abundance, and find yoyu.