Best 10 Tips To Raise Your Energy Level And Crush Your Day
Even after a long night's sleep, we can feel tired, because exhaustion comes from many places - an emotional burden, poor diet, or more profound motives. It's important to take the time to introspect and find the reasons to then take action.
Here are the tips to raise your energy levels and make the most of your day:
1. Wake up Early
I can already hear you sigh "I'm not a morning person". Actually, there's no such thing as a morning person or night owl, it's all about habits. You can train yourself to become a morning person if you want to. All you have to do is start putting your alarm half an hour earlier than usual.
Another misconception is that we need at least 8 hours of sleep to feel rest. However, what is important than the quantity of sleep you're getting is the quality of your sleep. As to wake up early, you can train yourself to sleep less and increase your window of action.
For instance, what I like to do when my alarm kicks off, is to stay still in bed and mentally make a list of all the things I'm grateful for. Then, I practice visualization. I imagine myself where I would like to be in life, in the work position I want to get or how to fit I'm training to be.
However, if you have a hard time waking up early, I won't recommend you to do so in bed. Instead get up quickly, maybe by placing your alarm far from the bed so you can't hit the snooze button. Preparing your outfit and placing it right by your bed is a good way to not fall back to sleep.
Every morning, dress up and do the same thing right after waking up. It can be making coffee, feeding your cat, or going for a jog, as soon as it's around same the time, so it will become a habit and you will find yourself doing it without needing to think about it.
2. Plan your Day
There are many ways to do this. Some like to take one day in the week to lay on paper all their meetings and important things to do, but personally, I prefer to take 10 minutes in the evening to note in detail all that I need to get done the next day.
This way, there's no stress about forgetting an appointment or picking up the cake for your child's birthday party and it helps lift the decision fatigue. You will find yourself achieving more than you thought you could ever do in one day because you are no more running around. The organization is the key!
I also love the feeling of accomplishment when I look at my daily planner and see all my bullet points checked! It motivates me to do it again the next day.
3. Eat Live Food
This is not about animal rights or weight loss, even if it can be good for both. It's only about your energy level. Your digestive system takes a lot of energy to run, and a salad is definitely easier than a steak to digest.
If you have a big afternoon, try to eat something light but nourishing. You shouldn't feel full after your meal but only eat about half of what you could, leaving a quarter for liquid and another quarter empty for your system to run properly.
If it feels impossible, start by eating a fruit as dessert instead of that good-looking brownie, or replacing the side of greasy fries with a green salad. If you are worried about your protein intake, let me tell you that there's a lot of delicious options out there for you.
4. Exercise Regularly
We all have busy schedules and I know that yoga studios are kind of expensive... What I mean by the move, is something everyone can do, with almost no change in their daily lives.
As an illustration, walk around your living room while talking on the phone, stretch in front of your favorite show, dance to your favorite song while cooking, do lunge while brushing your teeth... Starting small will eventually lead you to want to do more and more.
Moreover, exercise raises your serotonin level and gives you the kick you need to go out and crush your day. In the long run, also, it will pay off, as you will experiment less pain from growing older.
5. Practice Affirmations
Mantras have been part of meditation practice for thousands of years and the reason is that it works! Hearing yourself speaking out loud is different from thoughts. The more you repeat something to yourself, the more you believe it. This is why you need to be careful about what you feed your mind.
Imagine you have an important pitch to do and you feel anxious. Stand in front of a mirror and repeat it over and over again, it will help you memorize it, find the right intonation, but most importantly, build up your self-confidence.
You can even make dialogues with an imaginary persona in times of doubt. It helps see both the good and bad sides of a situation and let your sub-conscience express itself to your conscientiousness about what is the right thing to do.
6. Take Breaks
Staying concentrate for a long time can be hard. Some days I can stay hours on a single task, my thoughts sliding on and off. Other days, it takes me forever to find concentration and when I finally get it, it's too late.
If it's your case too, try to take more breaks. Go walk in the park. Remain in silence with your thoughts. Empty your mind and breath deeply. Nature is a powerful place to feel grounded and relax.
When focusing too much on a subject, we often lose ourselves and it's when we allow our minds to disconnect, that the solution to our problem appears. It's like when you are looking for a word and when you finally give up, it suddenly pops into your mind.
7. Listen to Music
ALWAYS! It's the best motivator and you have songs for each activity you can imagine. I have playlists for workouts, meditation, driving, cooking... It can even change your mood from sad to happy in a matter of seconds.
Furthermore, music has the power to raise your heartbeat during a workout or slow it down before bedtime. It just makes the day brighter when singing along to your favorite song. Furthermore, it helps concentrate on a task.
If you are a musician, you can tell how playing music makes you feel better. There aren't much better things than feeling the vibrations of your instrument and creating a beautiful melody.
8. Keep Learning
Whatever you are going through or try to realize, someone else has already walked this path. Why not save you some time and learn from their journey? But you have to be careful what you feed your mind with.
As Bacon said: "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested."
If you have a hard time sitting still and read without falling asleep, you can always listen to podcasts or audiobooks. It's convenient when you can't keep your eyes on paper or simply while doing groceries, waiting for a medical appointment, or eating lunch.
9. Live Simply
We all have 24 hours in a day, what counts is how you fill those hours. One of the best pieces of advice I was given was to stop adding to my to-do list, but instead to replace, by placing priorities first. Highly successful people are the ones who do the things no one likes to do. You need to be able to sacrifice temporary indulgence for long term wellness.
"If you do what you've always done, you'll get what you always gotten." - Tony Robbins
Most importantly, happy life doesn't need to be filled with material items. The happiest people are the ones who never stopped smelling the fragrance of flowers, petting neighbor's dog, or enjoying the first ray of sun on their face after a long winter.
By practicing gratefulness for what you have, you will grow happier and be content with less. Learn to recognize how the actions you make serve you and your goals. If it doesn't make you feel better, replace it with something you wish you had more time for.
10. Live by your Maximes
Have you ever experienced the feeling of knowing when something is not right, without any obvious reason? It's actually your conscience guiding you towards the right path. Listen to that gut feeling, be more kind, smile at strangers, speak the truth...
I already wrote an article on the power of giving to others, but I can say it enough. The purpose of life is a life of purpose. Do something today in total selflessness, to help someone in need, something that goes beyond your own life.
To sum up, ask yourself what kind of person you want to be and start building your character around it. The more you know your true self, the more efficient your decision-making will be. Learn to say no when it doesn't serve you and people will start respecting you and your time more.