Sleep – Its only one way of getting energy.
The function of sleep is to renew us and its gives us our vitality or give us energy to live our lives. But while it may be ideal to have 7, 8 or 9 hours a sleep it’s not always possible with our 21st century life styles. For many people there is simply too much to do to sleep. So given you can’t create time, what can you do. First remember that sleep is only one way to recharge our energy battery.
Energy
How much energy you have right now isn’t purely based on how well you slept last night or how well you have been sleeping recently. By “energy” I mean your personal ability to live life to its fullest capacity. So where would you put yourself on an energy scale of 1 to 100% where 1 is very low energy and 100 is full of energy? Below 30% we are de-motivated, low in self-esteem and feel out of control. Just like jump-starting a car when the car battery has gone flat, if your energy falls below 30% then you need an energy boost from something like acupuncture, shiatsu or reiki. Once your energy level is about 30% then it’s possible to help yourself boost your energy.
Physical Energy Boosters
This is what we do to care for ourselves physical and the things that give us our vitality and make us feel physically well and energised.
- Rest is not just the essential precursor to brilliant sleep; it is also a substitute for sleep as it allows us to recharge our batteries.
- A healthy diet provides the nutritional support your body needs to provide physical energy.
- Exercise including yoga, swimming, walking and tai chi help re-charge our batteries.
Emotional Energy Capacity
This is related to your emotional health and energy – your ability to manage your guilt, worry, concerns, fears and anger. How you nourish positive energy enhancing emotions such as joy, happiness, love and build supportive relationships with your nearest and dearest.
Mental Energy Capacity
This is about the ways in which we think, problem solve and nourish ourselves intellectually. For most people this boils down to how we manage our need to control what’s going on around you and our tendency to be a perfectionist. It also incorporates how we deal with uncertainty in our lives and how we generate optimism even in times of adversity.
Spiritual Energy Capacity
Spiritual energy is different for every one, I define it as what makes life worth living, its what motivates you. Its unleashed when you tap into your values when we are doing something you believe in, and gives you determination and resilience.
For anyone struggling with their physical energy levels, why not try Reiki, I offer 15 minute Reiki tasters for £12.50.
Related Posts
What is the difference between sports and deep tissue massage?
Deep tissue is a very descriptive name and is self-explanatory. The confusion comes when it is compared to sports massage. The big difference is the focus. Sports massage is dedicated to
- improving sports performance
- prevention of and treating sports injuries
- You work out religiously, but aren't as relgious about stretching
- You cycle or run to work and don't think to stretch
- You play sports but don't cross train so have specific trouble spots
- Your performance (in a particular sport) has dropped
- You have a history of injuries and want to reduce the likely hood of further injuries
- You work at a computer all day and your neck, shoulders & back are chronically sore
- You are so tense your back feels like concrete
- You have tired achy legs
- You are in pain
- You are stiff (or are unable to move your neck/arm/leg freely)
- You are stressed or anxious
- You have a knot or a muscle spasm
More tips on how to reduce severity of a cold
Following on from last weeks blog article on the benefits of garlic in fighting colds and flu, I wanted to share more tips on how to reduce the severity of a cold.
- Take a zinc supplement: Take zinc lozenges or syrup within 24 hours of the start of a cold, as this may reduce the duration of the cold. The important thing is to take the zinc within 24 hours.
- Rest. You body needs rest to heal.
- Soothe a sore throat. I personally like to gargle with sea salt water - 1/2 tea spoon of sea salt dissolved in a large glass of room temperature water. Note: This is in appropriate for children as they may not be able to gargle properly.
- Sip warm liquids. This could be chicken soup, team or warm apple juice. Personally I like a wedge of lemon in hot water with a little chunk of ginger sweetened with manuka honey.
- Vitamin C. The scientific jutry is still out on Vitamin C. Personally I dose up with 1000mg of vitamin C throughout my cold. Taking vitamin C before the onset of cold symptoms may shorten the duration of the symptoms. Vitamin C may provide benefit for people at high risk of colds due the the frequency of exposure.
- Echineacea. Study results on whether echinacea prevents or shortens colds are mixed. Some studies show no benefit. Others show some reduction in the severity and duration of cold symptoms when taken in the early stages of a cold. Different types of echinacea used in different studies may have contributed to the differing results.Echinacea seems to be most effective if you take it when you notice cold symptoms and continue it for seven to 10 days. It appears to be safe for healthy adults, but it can interact with many drugs. Check with your doctor before taking echinacea or any other supplement.
A light bulb moment
As someone who from time to time stuggles to digest wheat or more specifically gluten which in the past has created holes in my intestine walls (leaky gut syndrome), I was interested in a recent piece of research. Like a lot of people if I eat too much wheat or gluten then I start to bloat and get digestive issues. Researches have discovered that the reaction that some people have could be caused by fructans (the sugars in wheat, barley and rye). The researchers from Monash University (in Austrialia) suspected that the sugar cold be the real cuplrit because people with IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) still have some of the symptoms even after following a strict gluten free diet. In a 2013 research project, they noticed that the symptoms of people with gluten intolerance didn't change whether they ate food that was rich in gluten or not. They took 59 people with gluten intolerance and gaven them a different cereal bar to eat each week. Although the bars all looked the same, one contained gluten, another fructans and the third had neither ingreditant. The fructands bar increased bloating by 15% and gastrointestinal propblems by 13% and neither the gluten bar nor the one without either ingreditant had any effect. If frutans are the real problem then people with a gluten intollerance could use soy sauce as its low in sugars. While this research is interesting. For me its a bit of a light bulb moment. The reason is that I find that I can eat organic sourdough bread and I tollerate this much more. Organic sourdough bread has gluten but due to the backing process it sis very low in fructans. Reference http://www.gastrojournal.org/article/S0016-5085(17)36302-3/abstract
