When you feel really good you can conquer the world. When you feel draggy, it is hard to do anything. Maintaining a good energy level is an important part of having a good life.
There are many things that contribute to your energy level, including your physical health, how much rest you get each day, and your mental state. If you are depressed, or just feeling a little “down”, you tend to lack energy. Fortunately this can usually be changed for the better by changing your thoughts. Please read this article carefully, as it gives you a number of ways to have positive, life-giving thoughts. Then download the audio recording from the link at the end of this article, and listen to it at least once a day. This “Boundless Energy” recording is designed to significantly improve your energy level.
Your “Boundless Energy” recording contains a number of instructions and suggestions that enable you to change your basic thinking, and help you identify and eliminate any negative thoughts that might sap your energy. You quickly learn to replace negative thoughts that undermine your vitality with positive, life giving thought patterns that bring you strength, well-being and endurance.
There is a lot of scientific evidence that your mood strongly affects your energy level. Remember how you felt when you unexpectedly met someone you really like, how you felt intense pleasure and how you experienced a glow of vitality. You may also remember how you felt after being with a negative person for a while, how your energy and enthusiasm withered away. You may also have noticed how your good spirits returned soon after you were no longer with this person. There is no question, on a personal basis, that your mood strongly affects your energy level. There is also a lot of scientific evidence.
Near the end of this guide you will find an article on Mood and Energy Level that appeared in the December 14, 2007 issue of the International Journal of Psychophysiology. It explains in detail how emotions affect your energy level, your health and even your life span. Here’s an excerpt that deals with how to control your moods to bring yourself energy;
- Stop negative emotions in their tracks — the longer you let them control your thoughts, the longer you’ll suffer, psychologically and physically.
- It’s important to reduce stress. If you’re working yourself up with tight deadlines, knock five items off your to-do list. Abdominal breathing is a vital part of turning around your feelings — breathe deeply for a few minutes and you may relax and let go of worries.
- Visualizing positive emotional states can induce them in the body, with beneficial effects on health. The mind cannot differentiate between an imagined state and a real “external” state. So, if you vividly imagine a positive state, you may experience the benefits as if they are real.
- Visualize yourself laughing, joyful and full of energy, while imagining the feeling itself — the more vivid you make it, the more effective it will be. You can also repeat positive phrases to yourself such as: I feel happier and more carefree day by day. Repeating this kind of phrase can literally lift your spirits, your energy levels and your health.
Your “Boundless Energy” recording includes all of these techniques. As you listen to these instructions and suggestions as often as you want, they are much more effective than just reading about them.
Your eating habits have a major effect on your energy level. Research suggests that certain foods affect mood and energy level—for better or worse. Dietary changes can trigger chemical and physiological changes within the brain that alter our behavior and emotions. “Most people understand the link between what they eat and their physical health,” says registered dietitian Elizabeth Somer, author of the 2010 book Eat Your Way to Happiness. “But the link between what you eat and your mood, your energy, how you sleep, and how well you think is much more immediate. What you eat or don’t eat for breakfast will have at least a subtle effect by mid-afternoon, and what you’re eating all day will have a huge impact today and down the road.”
Here are some recommendations:
Eat regularly. Food is fuel; skip a meal and you’ll feel tired and cranky. Aim for a meal or snack every four hours. Breakfast is particularly important—especially for children. A high-fiber cereal with a handful of fruit, or a cup of oatmeal with some milk and berries are best.
Get enough carbs. Your body needs carbs to produce serotonin—a feel-good brain chemical that elevates mood, suppresses appetite, and has a calming effect. Low-carb dieters are more likely to feel tired, angry, depressed, and tense than those who get the recommended amount. Only complex carbs—high in fiber and packed with whole grains—have a positive effect on mood, whereas simple carbs (think candy, cake, cookies, and other sugary choices) bring you down.
Make sure you get enough omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s—found in fatty fish like salmon, mackerel, and sardines—improve both memory and mood. Low omega-3 levels are associated with depression, pessimism, and impulsivity.
Get the right nutrients. Getting too little iron can spell depression, fatigue, and inattention, research suggests. Iron-rich foods include red meat, egg yolks, dried fruit, beans, liver, and artichokes.
Don’t eat too much fat. That bag of potato chips isn’t good for your waistline or your mood. Greasy choices—particularly those high in saturated fat—are linked to both depression and dementia. What’s more, a large, high-fat meal will almost instantly make you feel sluggish.
Be careful what you drink. What you drink affects your spirits as much as what you eat. In moderate amounts, caffeine can enhance physical and mental performance, but too much can spur anxiety, nervousness, and mood swings. Stick to one or two cups daily to dodge the negative effects. “Coffee, for example, is a stimulant, and when it wears off, you’re going to feel a drop. It’s far better to drink water as your primary beverage. Green tea—an antioxidant powerhouse—also fights depression. It contains theanine, an amino acid that helps combat stress. Drink a lot of water to stay hydrated. Dehydration can cause fatigue, and a lot of other problems as well.
Avoid Dehydration – Drink Plenty of Water
Even mild dehydration will affect your mood, energy level, and ability to think clearly. Most people only think about drinking water when they are thirsty; but by then it may already be too late.
Recent test results affirm the importance of staying properly hydrated at all times and not just during exercise, extreme heat, or exertion. Your thirst sensation doesn’t really appear until you are 1% or 2% dehydrated. By then dehydration is already setting in and starting to impact how your mind and body perform. Dehydration affects all people, and staying properly hydrated is just as important for those who work all day at a computer as it is for marathon runners. Try drinking at least six glasses of water a day and notice the beneficial effect on your mood and your energy level.
Energy Drinks Including Coffee
Coffee and other caffeine drinks can indeed increase your energy level, but only temporarily and only if used in moderation. Two cups of coffee a day maximum. Beyond that and you can get some nasty side effects. The same for Red Bull and its cousins, with any number of reported deaths from over consumption.
You might also want to consider the fact that caffeine is strongly addictive. If you don’t believe this, try to stop drinking coffee all at once, cold turkey. You will have an interesting experience.
The Mormons and many Seventh Day Adventists don’t permit the use of caffeine. Good idea.
Conclusion
Use your “Boundless Energy” recording often, especially in the beginning. It has a cumulative effect. The more you listen, the better you will get an bringing yourself high energy whenever you wish. Here is the link to your free download; https://soundcloud.com/truefortunes/energy.
Here’s the article on Mood and Energy Level that was mentioned earlier:
How Your Mood Affects Your Health
Smiling, laughing and feeling thankful doesn’t just make you a better person to be around — it makes you a healthier one too.
So if you’ve recently experienced a dispute, a seething irritation or a simple frustration, you could be best off forgetting about it.
A half-hour argument with your lover can also slow your body’s ability to heal by at least a day. In couples who regularly argue, that healing time is doubled again. Researchers at Ohio State University discovered this by testing married couples with a suction device that created tiny blisters on their arm. When couples were then asked to talk about an area of disagreement that provoked strong emotions, the wounds took around 40 per cent longer to heal. This response, say researchers, was caused by a surge in cytokines — immune-molecules that trigger inflammation. Chronic high levels of these are linked to arthritis, diabetes, heart-disease and cancer.
Falling in Love
Researchers at the University of Pavia, in Italy, have found that falling in love raises levels of Nerve Growth Factor for about a year. This hormone-like substance helps to restore the nervous system and improves memory by triggering the growth of new brain cells. It is also associated with the feeling of being “loved-up” and contented, inducing a calming effect on the body and mind. Unfortunately, researchers found levels dropped after about a year — the point at which feelings of romantic love fall away and reality kicks in.
Being Under Pressure
The effects of constant pressure — a form of chronic stress — are well-known. Robert Sapolsky, professor of biological sciences at Stanford University and an authority on stress, puts it like this: “In fight-or-flight, your body turns off all the long-term building and repair projects,” he says. “Constant high levels of cortisol take your body’s eye off the ball. Memory and accuracy are both impaired. Patrols for invaders aren’t sent out, you tire more easily, you can become depressed and reproduction gets downgraded.” Exposed to chronic stress for years, high blood levels of glucose and fatty acids increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. A recent study at University College London found that stress raised cholesterol levels, another factor that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.
Uncontrollable Laughter
Scientists at the University of California have discovered that laughter relaxes tense muscles, reduces production of stress-causing hormones, lowers blood pressure, and helps increase oxygen absorption in the blood. Cardiologists at the University of Maryland Medical Center found laughing can actually reduce the risk of heart attack by curbing unwanted stress, which can destroy the protective lining of blood vessels. A good giggle also burns calories since it’s possible to move 400 muscles of the body when laughing. Some researchers estimate that laughing 100 times offers an aerobic workout equivalent to 10 minutes on a rowing machine or 15 minutes on an exercise bike.
Hiding Your Irritation
It’s hard to know what’s best — venting anger or holding it in, as both have negative effects. A long-term study in Michigan looked at reactions to authority figures who yelled at subjects for something they had not done. Women who suppressed their anger in confrontations had twice the risk of dying from conditions such as heart attack, stroke or cancer. Angry outbursts last only a few minutes, but can cause massive surges in adrenaline, blood pressure and heart rate, raising the risk of heart attack or stroke by up to five times in people over 50. Subtle forms of anger, including impatience, irritability and grouchiness, damage health, too — these states are associated with anxiety, low mood and a higher infection risk due to depressed immunity.
Breaking Down in Tears
When you cry, you really do cry out negative emotion. Dr. William Frey, a US biochemist, compared the tears of women who cried for emotional reasons with those who cried on exposure to onions. Emotional tears were found to contain high levels of hormones and neurotransmitters associated with stress. They also led to lower blood pressure, pulse rate and more synchronized brain-wave patterns. Dr. Frey concluded that the purpose of emotional crying is to remove stress chemicals. He says the continued presence of these substances — when you hold tears in — would keep you in a needless state of tension. Your body would then be prone to the negative effects of anxiety, including weakened immunity, impaired memory and poor digestion.
Feeling Jealous
Of the human emotions, jealousy is one of the most powerful and painful — and the most difficult to control. While men typically become jealous when they suspect sexual competition, women’s jealousy is triggered by the suspicion of emotional betrayal. “Jealousy is a complex emotional mix of fear, stress and anger,” says Dr. Jane Flemming, a London-based GP. “These three states trigger the fight-or-flight response, usually in quite an intense way. Someone in the grip of jealousy will suffer raised blood pressure, heart-rate and adrenalin levels, weakened immunity, anxiety and probably insomnia.”
A Cuddle on the Sofa
According to Dr. Hyla Cass, Professor of psychiatry at UCLA, it is oxytocin, the “bonding hormone”, that makes a couple want to touch and cuddle. This, in turn, triggers the release of DHEA, an anti-ageing, anti-stress hormone that triggers cellular restoration in the body. Other forms of touch, including massage, have also been found to help the body heal. Dr. Mehmet Ox, at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, is using massage regularly on patients who’ve had open heart surgery and heart transplants. This is because results have shown that healing time and complications are greatly reduced.
Warm Feelings of Gratitude
Feeling thankful for what you’ve got, whether it be a partner, an achievement or simply being alive, is all it takes to boost immunity, lower blood pressure and speed healing throughout the body. Dr. Rollin McCraty, of the Institute of HeartMath in the U.S., is studying the link between emotions and physical health. He has found that like love, gratitude and contentment all trigger oxytocin. “This is a bonding hormone secreted by the heart whenever you feel open and connected,” says Dr. McCraty. “It switches off stress by causing the nervous system to relax. Oxygenation to tissues increases significantly, as does healing. Looking at ECGs, we’ve found that gratitude also associated more harmonious electric activity around the heart and brain, states in which these organs can operate more effectively.”
Down in the Dumps
Depression, pessimism and apathy are all associated with low levels of serotonin and dopamine, which are feel-good neurotransmitters in the brain. “Serotonin plays a role in regulating pain-perception and could be the reason why 45 per cent of patients with depression suffer aches and pains,” says Dr. Jane Flemming. “Low mood is also linked to poor sleep, fatigue and sexual dysfunction. As serotonin is linked to feelings of desire, this, too, may be linked to low levels of brain-chemicals.”
Mood medicine: how to manage your emotions
- Stop negative emotions in their tracks — the longer you let them control your thoughts, the longer you’ll suffer, psychologically and physically.
- If you catch yourself in an escalating argument or are feeling stressed, remove yourself from the situation and find a quiet spot. Take up to 15 deep breaths into your abdomen. Aim to center yourself with the reassurance that all is well, and you are in control. This can lower your heartbeat rate and blood pressure almost immediately. If you’re having an argument, walk back into the room for a discussion. If that isn’t possible, leave.
- It’s important to reduce stress. If you’re working yourself up with tight deadlines, knock five items off your to-do list. Abdominal breathing is a vital part of turning around your feelings — breathe deeply for a few minutes and you may relax and let go of worries.
- Visualizing positive emotional states can induce them in the body, with beneficial effects on health. The mind cannot differentiate between an imagined state and a real “external” state. So, if you vividly imagine a positive state, you may experience the benefits as if they are real.
- Visualize yourself laughing, joyful and full of energy, while imagining the feeling itself — the more vivid you make it, the more effective it will be. You can also repeat positive phrases to yourself such as: I feel happier and more carefree day by day. Repeating this kind of phrase can literally lift your spirits, your energy levels and your health.
Your Path To Well Being and Better Living 