Increase Your Energy Levels – The 2nd Law Of Personal Energy
Life, like energy has a cycle. The trick is to identify these rhythms and maximize them if you want to have sustainable energy. Let me explain.
What this means is we need to work and expend energy, and then we need to rest and recover energy. This is part of being human. When we try to go against this by not getting enough sleep, by not taking enough breaks, by overworking ourselves, we are gearing up to enter an energy desert. We are headed towards tiredness and away from energy.
Listen to your body. It comes pre-programmed to tell you when you need rest and when you don’t.
Let me give you a specific example. Everyone is familiar with the Circadian rhythm, the biological rhythm that controls sleep and wake. If you are like the average person, this rhythm is about 16 hours of wake to 8 hours of sleep.
But what most people are not familiar with is the Ultradian rhythm. This is another biological clock within us but this one controls a different cycle. The Ultradian rhythm is about every 90-120 minutes, it varies depending on several factors. What it controls though is the level of energy you feel. Have you ever noticed that every 90-120 minutes or so you start to feel a little tired, hungry, bored, unable to concentrate, and maybe even a little anxious. Your Ultradian rhythm is responsible for that and its telling you that you need a break.
What our body wants is for us to get up, walk around and completely disconnect from the task at hand. It is craving recovery. You should walk away from your desk and do something completely unrelated to what you were doing for about 10 to 15 minutes. You should also at this point, refuel physically a bit by drinking some water and eating either a fruit or a vegetable, something real light that will give you a quick charge.
That is what you should do, but what we normally do is quite the opposite. We try to force ourselves to break through the tiredness. We go get a cup of coffee or a caffeinated soda. We grab a donut or some sugar loaded cookie or cake. What we are doing is trying to get our energy level up by putting some pretty terrible chemicals into our bodies. And don’t even mention the energy drinks that have become so wildly popular.
All you need to do is Google “side effects of caffeine and sugar” to get more details on what these chemicals do to your overall health and specifically your energy. I won’t go into it here because there is a lot of information out there about it already. But just know that it is going against Mother Nature by trying to prop up your energy by ingesting unnatural stimulants, and there are always consequences to that.
The good news is with a little effort, you can get your energy back and perform at your maximum energy potential. Here are a couple quick tips to get you on the road. First, buy a refillable water bottle and drink from that instead of coffee or soda. Second start bringing healthy snacks with you so you are not tempted by vending machines and sugary snacks. And finally, set a timer on your watch, cell phone, and/or computer to remind you to take a break. You’ll need to experiment a bit to find your exact rhythm but with a little effort, you will quickly see a surge in the amount of energy you have to do everyday things. Good luck!
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