Today we're talking about how to get more energy naturally.
So there's a lot
of unnatural or unhealthy or not so good idea ways to get more energy. To do it
naturally, I think it's important first to understand how to properly operate
the equipment of your own brain and I've done a video recently with James Garrett,
you can link to it right up here where we talked about some brain hacks, some
ways to develop brain friendly practices that will actually affect your
energy level so as you review that video, you're going to get some good ideas and
I've got five tips for you here today as well. First tip, this is not going to
surprise anybody, get enough sleep. You know how when you feel lethargic during
the day and it's like I'd had a bad night, I didn't get enough sleep but yeah,
it's going to affect your energy level, you need to get enough sleep. This can be
challenging with today's lifestyles. You know what, I attended a seminar a couple
of years ago with Dr. John Preston who was sharing some of the research about
sleep and how to improve our sleep, there's some other videos here on the
channel that you can find about sleep as well.. Here's what he found, there are a
few culprits to getting good sleep so if you're aware of these, you might be able
to adjust some of your own behavior. Number one, alcohol. Alcohol interferes
with getting enough sleep. This bugs some people because you know,
they need a drink before they can actually fall asleep. What we're finding
with alcohol is that it disrupts different cycles of sleep that you
really need to get the restoration effect of the sleep so it's going to
affect the sleep either way so limiting your
alcohol, good idea in terms of sleep. Number 2, caffeine. That's not going to
surprise people either because caffeine is a stimulant and it tends to wake up,
people use it to stay awake. Caffeine has a half-life of 5 to 6 hours. What that
means is if you ingest a hundred milligrams of caffeine at noon, you still
have up to 50 running around in your system at five six o'clock in the
evening so especially in the afternoon to evening hours before you're intending
to sleep, you don't want to have a lot of caffeine intake. In fact, Dr. Preston
recommended that you limit your caffeine intake to less than 200 milligrams
before noon.Take a look at that, that can affect your quality of sleep and the
other one interestingly enough is blue light. Blue light, like the kind that is
very prominent in handheld electronic devices, maybe the one that you're
watching this video on. Blue light has an effect through the retina and the
thalamus of secreting chemicals into our bloodstream that either have us be more
awake or calm down and get ready for sleep. Blue light has the get ready to be
awake kind of an effect on us and so we want to limit our screen time, especially
around bedtime or times when we want to sleep. Anyway, that's an important thing
that we want to be aware of if we want to increase our natural energy, so
getting enough sleep. Moving on to tip number two, get regular
exercise. I've talked about this before and you probably already know that the
clinical literature is very very supportive of a regular exercise routine
as supporting brain health. This will increase your energy levels as well.
You've probably already told yourself, I need to get more regular with my
exercise routine. Well yeah, you probably do and
this will help to bring up your energy too. What happens and it's not just
exercise, it's overall activity levels if for example you go to the grocery
store, not if, when you're going to be going, right? You can park right up front where
you don't have to go very far to get into the store or you can park clear out
in the north 40 where you have to hike across the parking lot to get to the
store. Which one is going to help you have more energy? When it comes to energy,
it's not about conservation. You look at little kids, they don't conserve their
energy, they're bouncing off the walls, they're all over the place. Having more
physical activity as part of your normal routine trigger signals in your brain
and in the glands in your body to change your metabolism This is an important
thing to know if you want to increase your energy so instead of parking up
front or closer, you're going to park out in the north 40 so that you get some
physical activity on the way into the store. This is just an example. What if
you get to choose between taking the elevator or taking the stairs? You know,
if we're talking 50 flights then you might want to take the elevator but what
if we're talking one or two flights of stairs which are much more commonly
encountered in a daily routine of most people? Take the stairs,
it's going to help you feel better physically but it's also going to
trigger things that bring up your natural energy levels because of the way
your body responds to those signals from the increased activity. Okay, moving on to
tip number three, eat well. I'm not a nutritionist, I'm not here to advise you
about your diet. The fuel you put through your body matters and it affects your
energy level. Enough said? Okay, pay attention to that. Number four, smell the
roses. This is figurative, right? Because you've
heard people say, oh, you need stop and smell the roses. Yeah, I mean it
figuratively the way we usually use it as a cliche, you need to smell the roses.
You know, notice what's good about life as you're going through the hustle and
bustle or the daily tasks and routines that you have but you know what's really
cool? A friend of mine shared with me that it's a literal suggestion to find a
rose and smell it. The smell of a rose, it's interesting how
the olfactory sense connects with different parts of our brain that will
have an effect on our energy level, our stress, our sense of well-being and rose
oil or the fragrance that comes from a rose actually has some properties that
help us to increase our natural energy so when I say smell the roses, I mean
both figuratively and literally, smell the roses. Now tip number 5. When I
referred to that video, I'll put up a link to that in the description as well,
when I talked with James Garrett about the brain hacks and he compared our
brain to a battery like on your cell phone, you know how the little battery
icon indicator it starts to diminish over time and pretty soon it shows that
you only have this much when you've got this much space in your battery but
you've only got this much charge? You know what I'm talking about. Our brain
has a tendency to lose its charge so to speak when we engage for long periods of
time in executive functioning so when you're really on, when you're working on
stuff, you know and you're getting things done and you're checking it off your
list, picture your battery diminishing, depleting so tip number 5 is to recharge
your brain battery, get it full again. Okay, fill that puppy up so that you have
the power and the resources and the energy to keep going. How do we recharge
our brain battery? There's a lot of ways and some
of the tips were shared in that other video but really quickly, there are some
brain friendly things that you can do to bring that energy level back up. Taking a
break from your work for example, taking a nap, taking a walk, listening to some
inspiring music, smelling some roses, doing things that help to recharge your
brain is probably one of the best ways that we have to increase our natural
energy. Well I don't know what you're going to be doing with all of that extra
energy that you're getting but I'll bet it'll be something great.
Thanks for being here at Live On Purpose TV.