How To Get More Energy And Stay Refreshed
Here’s my life: I’m an Editor-in-Chief; a father of a 2-year-old; an entrepreneur; a guy who tries to fit in exercise; a wife who really deserves more time with me; a novelist with a book patiently waiting for me; and finally a guy in the middle of the biggest product launch of his life.
Time, I don’t have. And my energy… well, honestly… that’s flagging, too. It occurs to me, that maybe some of you are also in the same spot. Here’s one small gift I can give you to help you on your way.
How to get more energy – a quick list of 10
Given the crazy lifestyle most of us lead, we are always looking for ways to boost our energy. Learn how to get more energy with these simple tricks.
1. Sleep
First up, and probably the most obvious: sleep! If you want to know how to get more energy on a daily basis, start with the granddaddy of them all. Your mind will be sharper; Your workday more productive; You will literally live longer; and you will also be happier. But here’s a side benefit that you didn’t know about. Not only will you have more energy if you sleep better and more often, you’ll actually have
more time to do things as well!
How? Because you’ll work faster, smarter, and more productively now that your mind is sharp, your body more willing, your synapses literally firing faster. It sounds like a contradiction: sleep more for more time. But it’s the truth. Burning the candle at both ends only wastes the candle. And as they say, “ The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long.”
2. Nap
Following on the heels of sleep, comes the nap. This Junior cousin can do a lot more for you than just make it look lazy on the couch! In fact, you need to get over that perception if you’d like to race to the top.
The nap answers the question of how to get more energy in a sneaky way. Early risers out there—for example 5 AM—may find themselves lagging especially when they just begin this new habit. The way to get around that is a nap.
Additionally, a power nap has been shown to increase brain function and productivity. With all of these on your side, this one is a natural. And it takes the least amount of effort of anything else on the list.
3. Exercise
Exercise has already shown a significant amount of benefits, in almost every area of life. For one, reducing the chance of dementia, and Alzheimer’s; increasing the amount of synapses in the brain; increased blood circulation for better health (in many ways) in addition to the physical benefits that we already know about.
Add to this list an increase in energy. The way exercise answers the question of how to get more energy is by something we’ve just named: increased blood flow.
The body runs on oxygen. You need it so bad you can’t go more than a few minutes without it. This you know.
But what you may not know is that the more oxygen you have, the more energetic you are. This is why football players on the sidelines use tanks of oxygen. And also why some world-class athletes—believe it or not—get blood transfusions before an event. It introduces a large amount of new oxygen into the blood stream. And not without purpose either.
This is related to the idea behind exercise in itself because the harder your heart is able to work (a thing exercise provides) and the more clear your blood vessels are, then the more oxygen is able to get throughout the body. It’s a powerful combination. And because your system as a whole is working better, you have more energy.
4. Change friends
This one is more emotional. It still answers the question of how to get more energy, but it looks at it from a perspective you may not have considered.
Some people are literally draining you.
Either they are not performing in their own life, and so they inadvertently (in most cases) bring you down as well, or they live in fear and some of that spills over on you. But the net effect is that of a downer.
Some people also often have drama! That drama is draining because you’re running around all the time trying to put out fires. Those fires sap your energy.
To have more energy, have less fires. And sometimes that means getting those
people out of your life.
5. Change jobs
I like this one more for the next one than for itself, but they are closely related.
Change your job, if your job brings you down. It’s that simple. And in that respect it’s related to the one prior about people who drain you. Sometimes your work is mind-numbingly draining. That sort of thing crushes your spirit. Along with that, goes your energy.
But the reason I say it goes with the next one—Dream—is because if your job isn’t your passion then you may end up conflicted. You may not want to go to work because you know you have somewhere else you could be that’s better for your life. And psychologically then you become lethargic and less interested in doing a good job. That serves no one.
It’s even unfair to your current employer. Most of all it’s unfair to you. If you have something you want to do more, go do it! Your energy will thank you and so will your life.
6. Dream
This one is more like the flipside of the one before it. If you are working on something that inspires you, your energy is a natural addition. If you are working on your passion, you will be very excited! You wake up each day eager to begin. “how to get more energy” googled no passionately-engaged person ever.
7. Meditate
This one is interesting. There are people that say just the act of meditation itself gives you energy. I can’t really answer that one concisely, because I don’t know. I do know that it gives me energy in particular, it possibly only because of the way I meditate. You may meditate differently, so let me share with you how I do it, and we’ll see if we match up.
The way I meditate is to spend my time visualizing the things I want to have in my life. It’s like focusing on my vision statement, which I very clearly understand.
You could look at it as an exercise in the Law of Attraction as well. It’s the idea that I spend my meditation time focused on all the good things coming to me.
Because of this, it’s very similar to the Job idea or the Dream idea, I mentioned above. My entire meditation session is all about happy and exciting vibrant things. These vibrant things bring me energy. So, for me, this one works very well. It’s my favorite. Although, on second thought, I do love my sleep!
8. No coffee
On the flipside, this is the one I dislike the most. I love coffee! I love Turkish coffee! I even like Cowboy coffee! I drink espresso more than once a day. I even like investing in coffee-making systems and machines. In fact, I have an idea for one invention of my own to make coffee. Did I mention I like coffee?
And don’t we all believe that coffee is the way to have more energy? But the truth is, it isn’t. It’s destructive in that sense. I’m not suggesting there’s long-term health dangers from coffee. In fact some studies say the opposite: that there are health benefits from drinking coffee. But if your only goal is to answer the question of how to get more energy, you definitely need to stop drinking coffee.
Why? The crash.
Also, things like energy drinks and caffeine play havoc with your adrenals. These glands help regulate your system and give you energy and a boost when you need it. Artificial stimulation of those glands are a problem for the nervous system. It’s better, in fact, to train the body to not need caffeine to get its energy.
And the way we do that is with the next item on the list.
9. Hydrate
A little-known fact of the military is that they prefer water to caffeine for their energy, but only sometimes. Confused? Don’t worry. I’ll explain it.
When I was in the service, we lived off of coffee. Especially during the war. But that’s neither good nor advised, though it does happen in practice every day. In fact, and how cool is this, they even have a special caffeine gum so that you can get your jolts delivered directly to your brain (practically. Not really though. It’s still just gum. But it does boost you like crazy.).
So where does water fit in? Well for one, it helps beat dehydration. Dehydration leaves you fatigued. and in the military in general, we have a bigger problem with people being dehydrated than being tired. Caffeine, on the other hand, encourages dehydration.
Also, water helps clear your body of toxins. Toxins slow you down and leave you feeling drained. Advantage: water.
10. No sugar
This final answer to the question of how to get more energy is actually more related to the coffee. In a nutshell, what goes up must come down. Where there is a sugar high, therefore, there must be a sugar crash.
In this case however you also have the insulin problem. In addition to other health concerns, sugar leads to over eating. Excess weight makes the body work harder, which in-turn makes the body more tired (AKA less energy).
11. Bonus: Hold your breath
This one is the fastest-working of all of these. Literally stop breathing! Talk about something that gets your energy amped up! Death! Ha-ha, but not really. The thing is, your body kicks in and your heart accelerates. Take a giant breath in–and I mean giant. Then hold it for a few seconds. That’s it. That’s the whole trick. Then start breathing again. You’ll be awake, that’s for sure.
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