Do you suffer from the afternoon sleepies? Does food put you in a coma? Do you require coffee to jump-start your day? Is going to the gym too much effort, even though you know you always feel better once you start exercising? Do you find it hard to stay alert when you’re at work?
You’re suffering from an energy deficit.
You may be using caffeine or other stimulants just to keep going. But all the stimulants in the world won’t make a difference in taking care of your energy deficit. That’s because their effects are temporary, and ultimately do more harm than good if you come to rely on them. So how can you get more energy when you’re dragging, and stay vibrantly energized all day long?
Stress Depletes Energy
First, a lot of your energy deficit is probably due to stress. When we’re threatened, our heart rate and breathing increases, muscles tense, our system is flooded with adrenaline for the energy to run or fight, and the digestive process shuts down so all systems are “go” for immediate action. This powerful increase in energy must be dissipated somehow and back when we were fighting for survival, it was – we ran, or we fought. Back in the day of the saber-toothed tiger, our fight-or-flight mechanism was a necessary survival response.
But today, most of us react with an automatic fight-or-flight response for things that don’t threaten our lives. Things like: you can’t pay the bills on time this month, the car won’t start, the line at the store is too long, they’re doing construction on the road (again???), the in-laws are coming, the boss has been on your case all week, interest rates are going up and you need a loan, the kid failed a class, the dog chewed up your wallet, the quarterly report was due yesterday… you get the picture. The trouble is, we are so used to living with constant stress that we don’t even notice it anymore! Most of us do not release stress completely and so our bodies, and our emotions, are constantly on alert.
Ultimately, this unreleased stress depletes your energy! When the digestive system is shut down because the brain thinks you’re in a threatening situation, essential nutrients do not nourish the organs. When stress is chronic, the digestive system is compromised since it’s not allowed to function when it needs to. And there’s more – adrenaline and cortisol build up in the body and it goes into survival mode where just enough fuel is used to keep you alive, but a lot of the energy you get from food becomes stored as fat… because obviously (to the brain) you’re in constant danger and you might not get to eat for a long time since you’re always on the run from something.
Stress also takes an emotional toll. It’s easy to sink into mild or even severe depression when you’re stressed, and depression makes everything seem like too much effort. Your emotional energy and physical energy are closely tied, so when you think gray, gloomy thoughts, you actually make yourself physically feel gray and gloomy too. Gray and gloomy translates to… tired. This can be a dangerous downward spiral.
How to start a winning day – a video from Laura Silva
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How to Lower Your Stress Level
The first way to get more energy is to lower your stress level. You can do this using various Silva Method techniques that will help you relieve stress.
- Use the Glass of Water technique to help you solve problems that are worrying you
- Enter the alpha brainwave state of meditation and whole-brain thinking where you can solve or let go of many of the problems that are causing you stress by seeing them from a different perspective
- Use the Awake Control technique to keep yourself awake, alert and energized any time; You may not know that you can actually program yourself to feel more energetic when what you’re doing is so boring that it’s putting you to sleep in the middle of the day. That’s a very useful tool!
- Learn to control your thoughts and manage your emotions.
Controlling your thoughts and emotions will go a long way to actually eliminating stress from your life. If you recognize that you are thinking a negative thought (that causes an automatic stress response or negative emotion) you can learn to cancel that thought out, and replace it with an alternative, positive thought. This is not an overnight sensation. It requires dedication and practice, but you can actually cause yourself to habitually think the kinds of thoughts you want to think, until the old conditioned thought habits atrophy.
Imagine – instead of allowing the runaway bus of stress to control your life, how about you become the driver?
When you’ve managed your mental and emotional causes of low energy (which are all related to stress), give yourself even more energy through excellent nutrition and plenty of exercise. If you work all day, try to sneak in a couple of brisk – really brisk – 15-minute power walks throughout the day. As for nutrition, “garbage in, garbage out” is the best motto to go by. Avoid sugar, as it puts you on a physical, mental and emotional roller-coaster. You want sustained energy so eat complex carbohydrates and protein to fuel your activities, and plenty of fresh vegetables to provide the right nutrients to your body.
As you do these things, your reliance on caffeine and other stimulants (including sugar) will wane. You’ll think more clearly, and you’ll have more energy for everything you want to do.
