There is only so much time in a day, yet life can be highly demanding of us sometimes. This can leave us with little energy, feeling sluggish and tired.
Instead of succumbing to a, “Woe is me.” attitude, there are practical steps we can take to feel more energised on a regular basis, reclaiming the energy which has been sucked away from us.
Here are eight great ways to keep yourself energised.
1. Set goals
Setting goals is a great way to keep yourself energised.
Goals help with motivation as they give us something to succeed at. The most successful people set goals to keep themselves focused on accomplishing tasks. Setting goals sets us up to live a life that we are consciously creating, leading to increased energy and productivity.
Just one thing to watch out for when setting goals is making sure that your creativity is not being made subservient to external goals. It you don’t pay attention to this, you can accidentally block the free play of thought and the free movement of awareness and attention which are necessary for creativity to flourish.
2. Keep your body moving
An immobile body leads to immobile energy, which makes you feel like you don’t have much of it. You have to move your body to move your energy and power up. Become a Super Saiyan by practicing martial arts, going to the gym, doing yoga, dancing, riding a bike, or anything else that gets you moving.
When you move your body you are allowing your body tissue to generate a type of energy that is similar to an AC current powering up the cells in your body. So, if your work has you sitting for long stretches of time, take a break and do some push-ups, jumping jacks, squats, or anything else to get your body moving for even just a few minutes.
3. Get enough sleep
Our bodies and minds go through a restoration process during sleep. In fact, during sleep is when 75% of all the human growth hormone (HGH) your body produces is created. The best sleep is the kind you get from 10 PM to 4 AM, which is interestingly very similar to the time frame of sleeping many of the most successful people in the world swear by.
Uninterrupted sleep will give you the greatest energy uplift the next day, so make sure you do whatever you can to make this happen. This could involve using a sleep mask, putting in ear plugs, and turning off anything emitting an electromagnetic field (smartphone, WiFi router, etc).
4. Have inspiring conversations with successful people
We may intentionally avoid surrounding ourselves with people more successful than us because our egos want us to feel like we are better than others. However, taking this path is actually doing us a disservice.
Inspiring conversations with successful people can motivate us to greater success ourselves. Energy is generated within us through the excitement we get when we tether the possibility of success to the success someone is telling us about that they themselves have actualised.
5. Create an energy-generating routine
Check in with yourself often. It’s easy to get sidetracked into Netflix binge-watching or overtaken by our demanding workload. Creating a deliberate routine based around your priorities and energy-generating activities will help you get done the things you want and maintain high energy levels.
A good routine starts as soon as we wake up. These days, you can even get productivity apps on your phone that will help you manage your day better. Set alerts to notify you if you exceed a certain amount of time you allotted for something, so you don’t succumb to getting drained by any one task.
6. Avoid using negative emotions to connect
Using negative emotions as a way to connect with others will suck energy right out of you. Think about how you feel after you complain to someone about something… not that good, right? Negative emotions are called negative because they make us feel worse than we did before we experienced them.
It can be easier to default to a negative emotional pattern, but if we want to feel optimal energy, we need to be strong and rise above getting down into the swamp with someone else. If somebody tries to bring you down into the land of negative emotions, don’t give in to the bait. Turn the conversation around to focus on something more constructive and positive.
7. Avoid giving anyone power over you
We humans have a bad habit of allowing our energy to be influenced by people we believe have power over us. This could be a parent, boss, or some other authority figure. But no one every truly has power over us. The only power they have is the kind that we give them through our thoughts, actions, and beliefs.
The more you understand what negative energy feels like, the better you will get at discerning when someone else is dumping theirs on you, causing you to feel more drained, down, and depleted.
8. Stop people-pleasing
The term ‘people-pleasing’ is just another way to say that you give your energy away freely and are allowing yourself to be affected by other people in a harmful way. People-pleasers put others before themselves, but not in a healthy, selfless way. They act like sponges for everyone and anyone they are trying to please.
Remember that you are not responsible for pleasing everybody
according to their desires. When you put your own needs before others you give
yourself the gift of staying energised. If you have some time and energy after
this, by all means help someone out, on your terms. However, be responsible
with your energy and reject demands when it feels like someone is trying to use
you, when you feel uncomfortable pleasing them, or you’re feeling exhausted
already.
Keep yourself energised
These are just a few ways in which you can reclaim your energy and keep yourself energised.
As we have seen, we may sometimes inadvertently be letting our energy seep away from us or allowing others to take it. Whatever the case, you have the power to maintain a high level of energy by tweaking some habits and how you engage with others.
Now you have no excuse to ever feel low on energy again.
