3 Things That Are Sucking Your Energy And How To Deal With Them

I’m sure that when you hear the phrase ‘suck your energy,’ something or someone immediately comes to mind. This is probably the tip of the iceberg when it comes to energy suckers in your life. There are many others that could be lurking around, quietly sucking out all your energy. Added together, these things can be a major cause of general fatigue. See which of the 3 common energy suckers might be lurking around you and learn a few tips on how to deal with them.

We all have at least one person in our lives who we must deal with who sucks the life out of us! You know it’s true because you feel amazing before seeing them and then during conversation, you begin to feel like your candle has been snuffed out. They seem to take a lot of energy just to be around.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we also know of people who are givers. You feel better after being around them! I know, for myself, that if I have something physical to do, like a workout, I would rather have just finished being around a giver than a taker. It takes time to get your energy back up after being around an energy vampire!

So how do you solve this issue without cutting the negative people out of your life completely? The answer is to do some creative scheduling as much as possible. For example, if you are planning on working out during lunchtime, and you need to get going quickly, choose to schedule meetings with energy givers just before lunch. You can see your energy takers after your workout when you feel more resilient.

If you don’t have a choice, or if someone caught you by surprise, then you can practice detachment. By that, I don’t mean tuning out the other person. Remain present, but place a mental screen between your feelings and your conversation. This takes practice, but the more you practice, the easier it will become. If you engage in conversation with your energy takers without attaching emotion, you can also be more objective. Practice compassion for this person. Realize that they are an energy sucker for a reason. When you step outside of your own emotions these situations are easier to deal with and take less time to bounce back.

Every time you rush from one place to another, can’t find your keys, or schedule appointments too close together, you add to your stress level. Over time, this wears on your adrenal gland. When your adrenal gland is drained, you are close to hitting bottom.

So what do you do? Start scheduling wiggle room between things on your schedule. More time between appointments, more time to get ready in the morning, more time to get projects done–you get the idea. Also, make it a habit to put your keys, wallet, etc in the same place all the time. Items usually get separated when you rush around.

The little bits of messes all around us quietly zap our energy, whether it be several extra items on the kitchen counter, extra bottles of this and that around the tub, or magazines and books strewn around like they were tossed. Each on its own doesn’t seem like much, but when it’s always there and it’s in conjunction with other little messes, it all adds up! When you have a tidy space around you, your mind is free to relax rather than subconsciously processing what’s in front of it.

So what should you do? Well, if you think this might be a daunting task, start small, but start in an area that will give you maximum impact for time spent. Maybe this is the bathroom. Start with removing all loose items from the counter and around the tub. Replace just a couple of items that are most needed yet look nice. Put everything else away. Leave the room and come back a little while later and take note of how you feel. It feels good! Bit by bit, work your way around the house. Be prepared to start a donation bag and a garbage bag. Once you get going, you’ll realize you don’t need half the stuff around you!

Identify your energy suckers, deal with them, and lead a happier life! How do you deal with your energy suckers? Let us know in the comments!

How do you boost your energy level? 10 Practical Ways to Boost Your Energy Level

Featured photo credit: eVo photovia Flickr

Jennifer Wasylenko is the founder of Prana Personal Training in London Ontario. She is a certified Fitness Professional (ACSM), Yoga Teacher, Thai Yoga Practitioner, Mtn Biker/Instructor, Distance Runner, Black Belt in training, Dog runner, and Tea/Coffee lover!

View the original article here

5 Simple Stretches To Boost Your Energy At Your Office Desk

Everyone knows that sitting for long periods of time is bad for your body and your mind. Getting the blood flowing helps you stay fresh with creativity, boosts energy and helps your body work more efficiently. Many of us don’t have the opportunity to get up and move around as often as we should. Here are 5 simple stretches you can do while sitting to improve your mind and body.

Sitting in your chair while keeping a long, tall spine, place your right hand on the outside of your left knee. Use that hand as leverage to twist to your left, and place your left hand as far to the right as possible to have something to hang onto while you twist. Now join it with your breath. Exhale as you move into your twist, inhale as you ease off. Repeat on the other side. Repeat each side 2-3 times.

Sitting on the edge of your chair, clasp your hands behind your back, opening up your chest and shoulders. Inhale/exhale several times, noticing that when you inhale your stretch increases. Release and repeat 2-3 times.

I call this one Seated Pigeon as it is a cousin to the yoga pose called Pigeon, which is performed lying on the floor. Clearly this isn’t an option at work. This Seated Pigeon version might not work if you are wearing a short skirt or dress unless you have an office to yourself!

Sit on the edge of your chair and place your right ankle over your left knee. Be sure that your left foot is directly under your left knee. Sit nice and tall, imagining a string is pulling the crown of your head up towards the ceiling. This one is great for releasing your gluteus medius and minimus muscles, as well as your piriformis muscles. These are your hip abductors. These are usually what aches when you sit so much! Hold each stretch for about 30 seconds, repeat each side 2-3 times.

Sitting truly shortens and tightens your little hip flexor muscle. It’s the one at the front in the crease of your hip. It runs through your pelvis to your back, so when it is tight it often presents with an achy back. To lengthen this one out while at your desk, sit at the edge of your chair but shift to face to your left. Take your right leg and extend it behind you with as straight a knee as you can. Sit tall and lift your sternum while trying to tuck your tailbone under. This increases the stretch. Repeat on the other side. Repeat both sides 2-3 times.

This is an easy one to do either just before you sit down or just after getting up. While standing, soften your right knee and extend your left leg in front of you with your heel on the floor. On your left leg, draw your toes upwards, keep your knee slightly bent so you don’t strain your ligaments behind your knee. You want to feel the stretch in the belly of the muscle (that is, your mid-thigh, at the back of your leg) rather than behind the knee. Hold the stretch for 30 seconds and switch to the other side. Repeat each side 2-3 times.

It isn’t necessary to do all of the stretches all at once. Take a stretch break every 45 minutes or so and choose a couple of different stretches. Next time choose a different set of stretches. Simple. Your brain and body will thank you for it!

Putting in a full day at the office can make it hard to find the time to exercise. 29 Exercises You Can Do At (Or Near) Your Desk

Featured photo credit: Businessman sitting with a laptop is stretchingvia Shutterstock

Jennifer Wasylenko is the founder of Prana Personal Training in London Ontario. She is a certified Fitness Professional (ACSM), Yoga Teacher, Thai Yoga Practitioner, Mtn Biker/Instructor, Distance Runner, Black Belt in training, Dog runner, and Tea/Coffee lover!

View the original article here

Ditch the 5-Hour Energy: 5 Natural Ways to Energize

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

Live Healthier! You Need To Read This Before Picking Up Another Soda, Energy Drink or Soft Drink.

Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.Sorry, I could not read the content fromt this page.

View the original article here

The psychology of energy savings: Talking behavioral economics with Alex Laskey and Sendhil Mullainathan

Business Alex Laskey of Opower shows the amount of coal that should be able to power a lightbulb for a year. But because of massive energy waste, ten timess as much coal is needed. Photo: James Duncan Davidson

“For the past five years we’ve been running the largest behavioral science experiment in the world,” says Alex Laskey in today’s TED Talk, given at this year’s 2013 conference in Long Beach. “And, it’s working.”

Alex Laskey: How behavioral science can lower your energy billLaskey’s company Opower partners with utility companies to deliver personalized home energy reports, all based off the insight that people are more inclined to take action on an issue when they think other people are doing better than they are. People’s energy consumption changes for the better after receiving these reports — either in the mail or through their app and website — and the effects appear to be long-lasting. This year, Laskey says, Opower expects to inspire 2 terawatt hours (TWh) in saved electricity. That’s enough to power a city of more than a quarter million people for a year.

This idea was sparked by a study run a decade ago by Arizona State University psychology professor, Robert Cialdini, who conducted an experiment to see what might make people turn off their air conditioner, and turn on their fan. Might money persuade them? Or an appeal to their better selves? Or the thought of saving the planet? Nope, nope and nope. Turns out, the one surefire way to get people to do something was to tell them their neighbors were already doing it. As Laskey comments in his talk, “Social pressure is powerful stuff.”

Sendhil Mullainathan: Solving social problems with a nudgeThat’s why Laskey and his team at Opower have partnered with behavioral scientists, including Cialdini, to experiment with different types of insights and, in doing so, try to make a dent in the giant energy problems facing the world. One of their unofficial advisers is Sendhil Mullainathan, professor of economics at Harvard and founder of Ideas42, a company “using behavioral economics to do good.” (Watch Mullainathan’s 2009 TED Talk from TED India, Solving social problems with a nudge »)

We got both Laskey and Mullainathan on the phone to talk about this fascinating field of the little things that make a person conserve energy. An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

Alex, how did you come across behavioral economics, and why did you think it might provide a solid foundation for a company?

Alex Laskey: I came across it accidentally. Dan Yates and I had the notion that a utility bill is a wasted opportunity, and that if we had better information about energy consumption we could do something. We knew how energy efficient our cars are, for instance, and we thought it would be great to know how efficient our homes are. We were introduced to Bob Cialdini, one of the grandfathers of this field and one of the most cited behavioral economists. We didn’t know who Bob was, but we met with him in Phoenix and then he decided to take sabbatical and spent a year working with us to make sure we didn’t screw up. So that was my first introduction to behavioral science and economics. Since then, I feel very fortunate to have been introduced to this work and now embraced by this community of talented thinkers.

How did you two come across each other?

AL: Todd Rogers, who now teaches at the Kennedy School, introduced us because they are jointly involved in Ideas 42. Sendhil came to see us in DC a number of years ago, when we were about 35 people. My read was that he was excited about all the data we had and the opportunities we had to run experiments. For economists, it can be hard to get hands on a lot of data and find people willing to do innovative experiments.

Sendhil Mullainathan: To add to that, it’s also the case that in some sense the behavioral space has grown faster than reality. People will often take an interesting experimental study which has been done in the world, perhaps at small scale, and then it’s touted as some big solution. For me what’s amazing about Opower is precisely that it’s not a tiny study. This is a live operation using the principles at unimaginable scale. Opower is the best example of seeing how powerful behavioral economics can be and seeing this operate at scale.

So what has been the impact of this kind of thinking for Opower?

SM: The impacts are strikingly large. And it’s really interesting how persistent and stable they are years on out. It’s not a blip. Capital One does experiments to open credit card mailings, and they might work for one or two months, but after that, the novelty usually wears off. Here, the effects last for years, and they remain even when the intervention is removed. It’s stable behavioral change.

Why do you think that is?

SM: The problem with data is that it says a lot, but it also says nothing. “Big data” is terrific, but it’s usually thin. To understand why something is happening, we have to engage in both forensics and guess work. To guess, one possible candidate is that people aren’t changing behavior, they’re changing equipment. Better light bulbs lead to energy saving permanently.

AL: There’s a good chance that if we stopped sending, there’d be degradation. Our longest running programs are five years old, and it seems that savings persist as long as you communicate with customers. People do revert back to their old ways, and habits do need to be reinforced to sustain them longterm. But I’m optimistic. By and large people want to do the right thing. They want to save energy, they don’t want to waste it. They want to eat healthily, to exercise, give money to charity and so on. It’s hard to get people to do something they don’t want to do, and we’re nudging people to do something they do want to do. We’re bringing their attention in a new way that’s empowering and motivating. And I suspect energy is just one area where one could see these kinds of effects.

SM: That’s a really good point. More broadly, when people think of behavioral interventions, they think they are aimed at getting people to do things they don’t want to do and it’s some kind of mind control. But as Alex says, it’s very hard to get people to do what they want to do, let alone what don’t want to do! Most of these interventions are about translating intentions into behavior. They can appear to an outsider as if it’s about changing behavior, but it’s perhaps better thought of as realizing intentions.

What experiments are you looking to try next?

AL: We’re increasingly experimenting with different channels. Mail is expensive to send out, and we have nearly nine million households getting mail, so we’re trying to see what we can do digitally, with email, text or automated phone calls. We will run around 250 experiments this year. Some of them are quite modest, small experiments, but there are a lot of bigger experiments too. One I’m excited about is a big project this summer which is focused on very near-time actions. Historically we try to motivate people to save energy, period. But for the utilities market and grid, what’s more valuable is getting people to save energy at important times. So on a hot day, everyone turns on their AC and a utility has to fire up more expensive, often dirty power plants. So this summer in Baltimore we’re rolling out a program to 300,000 customers so they can earn a rebate on their utility bill if they save energy during key four-hour blocks, ten times through the summer.

How will that work?

The utility will notify you that the next day is a peak event via text message, email or phone, and remind you that you can earn up to $20 if you save energy between noon and 4. Then, at the end of that time, we’ll do the calculation and notify you of your savings by 6pm. So you saved $12, the average customer in the area saved $8, while the biggest saver earned $20. It’s a different problem to solve so I’m interested to see how that changes the experiment. What communication is needed to get people to do something urgently and quickly? We’ll have results in the fall.

Sendhil, any thoughts or advice on how to make this work?

SM: I’ve learned not to give advice on the fly! But there is a lot of interesting stuff around urgency and what you do to create it. Tangentially related, there are great findings in behavioral science around couponing. If you send out one coupon with a deadline of a week and another that must be used within the next month, you end up having more redemptions with the one week deadline. It’s really amazing. With the month deadline you have four times as much time, but people tend to say they’ll use it in a few weeks’ time and then they don’t do it. Urgency is a very interesting topic.

AL: We’d also love to figure out how to do this without offering financial reward. I’d love to get your take on it as we progress, Sendhil. In fact, one thought to leave you with — how about asking the TED community to design experiments we can run on real world energy consumers? We feel like we’re just scratching surface of what can be accomplished and would love to get creative, talented people to help designing interventions.

A look at some of Opower’s existing platforms, which will inspire 2 terawatt hours of saved electricity this year.

View the original article here

Energy from your feet: When sidewalks and dance floors become energy sources

Business Sustainable Dance Floor doesn’t just light up—it generates electricity as you dance. Photo: Anneke Hymmen, courtesy of Energy Floors

The average person takes about 150 million steps in a lifetime. What if we could turn all that movement into energy? Two innovators are working on it — including a TED@London speaker. While one has built a system to capture the energy of foot traffic, the other is harnessing the power of smooth dance moves.

Mashable directs our attention to Energy Floors, a groovy company based in Rotterdam that has used dancefloor power to create more than 8 billion joules of electricity so far. In 2008, the team created Club WATT — an ecological dance club with flooring tile that harnesses the ecstatic movements of dancers, converting kinetic energy to actual electricity. Their first big idea: Launch a network of sustainable dance clubs with glowing, interactive floors, while simultaneously launching a line of floor tiles called Sustainable Dance Floor. But as CEO Michel Smit tells the TED Blog, that business model proved unsustainable, so the company shifted its focus toward using dance floors to raise awareness of energy usage.

Enter the Mini Sustainable Dance Club, tiny portable dance clubs that fit six to eight people. These can-shaped rooms are step-activated, so when curious visitors walk up the three stairs, the club ignites into an interactive and intimate experience that gives dancers visual feedback — the more enthusiastic the dancers are about getting into the groove, the more the illuminated illustrations on the walls intensify. When a threshold is reached, a mirrored disco ball spins. These “clubs in a can” can be set up by two people, and are naturally becoming a hit at outdoor festivals.

PaveGen floor tiles catch the energy of everyday walking. Here, they appear in London’s West Ham Underground station. Photo: Courtesy of PaveGen

This idea of regenerative energy flooring is similar to one we’ve seen presented on the TED stage. Laurence Kemball-Cook, a London-based industrial design engineer, was working at one of Europe’s largest energy companies when he set his sights on making the power in cities more sustainable. In a country prone to overcast and mild weather, solar and wind energy are anything but practical. But he had another idea.

During TED’s worldwide talent search stop in London, Kemball-Cook gave a talk about PaveGen, his technology company that develops sustainable flooring tile. The flooring tile, made out of things like recycled truck tires, works to convert the kinetic energy created from a footstep into electrical energy that can light pathways (and even tweet).

After Cook installed PaveGen tiles at music festivals and the 2012 London Olympics, as well as in school hallways, he realized that people were gravitating toward his system because of the instant feedback it gives. Which is exactly what makes the Mini Sustainable Dance Club such a fun idea too.

View the original article here

104 Ways to Boost Your Energy

We’ve all been there. Groggy, exhausted, foggy—and desperately in need of an energy boost. Keep this list handy in case of an emergency.

Shower. A shower first thing in the morning will wake you up without coffee.  Water hydrates your skin, warms your muscles, and relaxes your body.  A hot steamy shower clears the sinuses and hydrates your lung tissue so you can breathe better. Being clean all over can make you feel like a new person.Drink water. Like plants, you will wilt if you don’t drink enough water. How much should you drink? Listen to your body. Here are 25 ways your body tells you it’s time to drink.Sunbathe. Sunshine can lift your spirits and lighten your emotions. Your body needs about 30 minutes of daily sunlight exposure to make vitamin D. Here are Dr. Frank Lipman’s 10 healthy ways to get more sun.Breathe fresh air. Fresh air oxygenates the blood, and refreshes the body and the mind. When the mind is fresh, it boosts productivity. Open a window at the very least, and try to take a short, 10-minute walk outdoors every couple of hours. Stretch. During the night, your muscles produce a fuzz-like substance that binds them together. Stretching melts the fuzz and frees the muscles to slide along each other. Stretch frequently. Do it first thing in the morning (this free 10-minute video will guide you). While you are at the office, do this 4-minute neck and shoulders stretch.Receive a massage. Massage has many benefits. At the very least, massage eases tired, sore, and tense muscles and relieves stress, and it can lower your blood pressure and improve your circulation. Deep tissue massage removes limitations and increases your range of motion. Invigorate yourself. You can get a cheap massage at a local massage school.Bond through touch. We all need physical contact, affection, and a sense of security. People who are not touched enough have higher levels of cortisol. Nurturing touch bonds you with your child and helps them to develop new neural connections. Embracing your partner or a loved one can be emotionally healing. Ask first if it’s okay if you give them a hug, and then embrace them.Have sex. Sex relieves stress, lowers blood pressure, and boosts immunoglobulin A (an antibody that fights colds). There is nothing like a post-coital glow to put a bounce in your step afterward, and feeling desired boosts confidence, adding fuel to your movements.Do tai chi. Tai chi encourage the proper flow of qi—an energy force that flows through the body. Here is the Harvard Medical School’s list of health benefits from tai chi. Need a boost now? Check out this video.Drum. There is something primal about live drums. Bones start shaking, muscles start quaking, and before long, you’re dancing. It can’t be helped; drums move us, infusing us with primal, joyful exuberance we never knew we had.Honor your feet. Your feet have carried you all these years. What is their personality? Tired? Cranky? Taking good care of tired, sore, cranky feet can reanimate you. Here are the best ways to pamper your feet.Listen to your body. When you experience pain, you injure yourself. Stop. Listen to the voice of your body, which speaks in sensations of pain and pleasure. When you experience pain, seek movements that produce pleasurable sensations. This may mean that you may need to tweak the way that you walk, sit, stand, or get out of bed.Eat healthy. When we feel a depleted, many of us (myself included) think about sweet or carb-laden foods to stimulate us. Sugar, coffee, and carbs may give a brief stimulation, but the effects are short-lived. Vivify yourself by choosing a healthy snack, like a banana or some protein.Smile. There are many hidden benefits to smiling. When you smile, let it reach your eyes. Smiling when you run brings a childlike joy to your workout. Smile when you work, smile when you are with friends: smiling is infectious and can bring joy to you in the most unlikely of circumstances.Laugh. Laughter is contagious, improves blood flow and sugar levels, boosts your immune system, and improves your sleep. Laughter is good for your health, and stimulates the lower abdomen. Even if you start with a fake laugh, it can become real. Having trouble getting started? Watch a comedy, read a hilarious book, take a class in laughter yoga, join a laughter club, or just watch and listen to laughter.Dance. Moving your body in a random, primal way that is pleasurable circulates the blood and oxygenates the body, which quickens the organs that depend on it. More than that, it can be liberating. When you get home from work, put on some music and dance like nobody’s watching. Or listen to your iPod and start dancing wherever you are!Align your posture. Those who walk with hunched shoulders and a concave back appear depressed. This posture compresses the stomach and lungs, so you cannot take deep breaths. To change your posture, rotate the inside of your elbows forward (as if you would draw blood). This rotates your shoulders back and down away from your ears, correcting your posture in your upper back. For the best posture and instant elegance, walk like a giraffe—it creates space in between the vertebrae.Eat more vegetables. All dieticians agree that we should eat more veggies.Dr. Joel Fuhrman says our bodies function best when we eat more nutrients per calorie and plenty of fiber. These fruits and veggies have the highest nutrients per calorie. Soups and salads are an easy way to eat a spectrum of vegetables for a quick nutrient punch, while soups are a fabulous “emergency food” for those with busy schedules. Just make a delicious batch, freeze half of it, and reheat as desired.Prioritize sleep. If you aren’t sleeping enough, you aren’t going to function well during the day. Every task will take longer. Sleep should be a top priority. Here’s a free resource that will help you to get the sleep you need.Move. Frequently. This can be as easy as stretching or some good cardio. Movement circulates the blood and brings fresh blood to vital organs and muscles. This brings oxygen to areas that need it, leaving you feeling refreshed.Use a neti pot. If you have a cold, using a neti pot can bring instant relief, and regular use of a neti pot improves breathing even when you’re not congested. A neti pot uses a salt water solution to mechanically flush away pollen and allergens that cause inflammation in your sinuses. Always use water that has been boiled (and then cooled to warm), to avoid the Naegleria fowleri amoeba found in lakes, rivers, and hot springs.Meditate. Meditation has loads of benefits. In as little as 2 minutes a day, meditation can melt away stress, help you to relax and to heighten awareness. To meditate, simply pay attention to your breath. Check out these tips on how to meditate daily. Nap. Naps make us more productive, but the trick to napping effectively is to have the nap last no more than 45 minutes. Here’s why. Ideally, 10–20 minutes should be enough to recharge.Repair. Door squeaks, things that need gluing—there are many small repairs that need to be done, and every time you see them, you make another mental note that they need to be done, leaving you overwhelmed and guilty for procrastinating. Commit to making one small repair today. It won’t take as long as you think, and you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel. Your internal dialog will diminish, and you will feel motivated to accomplish more.Capture ideas and tasks. Once it’s written down, your mind doesn’t need to repeat itself on a loop to remind you to do it. Use either a moleskine plain pocket notebook (the ones without lines allow you to draw pictures or flow charts) or the free app, Evernote.Procrastinate mindfully. It can feel overwhelming to think about all the things you must do. Instead, set a start date for a project, and don’t begin thinking about it until the start date.Empty your inbox. Even if you have a search function available, seeing the clutter of all those emails takes a psychological toll on you—especially if you have a smart phone. To process your email inbox quickly and efficiently: Sort your email by sender. Most will be junk mail. Unsubscribe from ALL emails with advertisements and delete. For the remaining emails: reply, read it, put it in your calendar, or watch the video. If you don’t have time, put it in Evernote and file the “processed” ones all in one folder, labeled “Archive” (delete all other folders). Most email programs, such as Gmail, will allow you to easily search an archive folder. Process in small batches (15 minutes/day) until it is empty.No email first thing in the morning. This simple change can skyrocket your productivity. You could spend hours responding to email, leaving little time or energy to finish your most important tasks that require focus.  Instead of checking email first thing in the morning, wait 1–2 hours. Most people and situations can wait one hour. Use that hour for focused work instead. When you do check your email, put a time limit on it so you can get back to focused tasks.Turn on your peripheral vision. Are you ever working at the computer and someone walks up and startles you? This tunnel vision—where you focus on one thing (the computer) and the rest of the world vanishes—can be undone by turning on your peripheral vision. It slows down your perception of time and opens you up to receive more of the world. To turn on your peripheral vision, soften your eyes so that you see your hands while still looking at the screen. Now, take in more of the room around you while still looking at the screen. Sustain it for as long as you can.Listen to pleasant sounds. The laughter of children, birdsong, the babbling of a nearby creek or tinkle of a fountain, the whisper of wind. Our lives are filled with sounds that are pleasant and unpleasant, so pay attention to the pleasant ones; it can lift your spirits and bring calm and composure to a hectic day.Harmonize a small area. Take a moment and look at your home as if you were going to buy it. Is the paint peeling? Is the hardware old? Does it need a light bulb? Pick one small area—a shelf, a table, or a corner of your house—and examine the details. Make small repairs, declutter, and take a moment to decorate. Harmonize the area in a way that is pleasing to you. If you need some guidance, check out these feng shui tips.Exhale longer than the inhale. It forces your parasympathetic system to kick in and calm your body down. It doesn’t matter how much longer the exhale is, just as long as the exhale is longer than the inhale.Focus on what you have. When you focus on what you want, you think about all the things you must do to get it. Focusing on what you have takes away your task list and you appreciate what is. You are present and experience gratitude. You tap in to a sense of abundance. To focus on what you have, start a gratitude journal.Read. There are many health benefits to reading. Reading before bed can relax you. Reading early in the day can inspire you to create. Either way, reading can support you with sustaining your energy.Rest your mind frequently. Your mind gets tired, too, as it can only sustain attention up to a maximum of 20 minutes. The Pomodoro Technique uses this to your advantage: you spend 25 minutes focusing on a task without interruptions (with some time built in for warm-up and recap). Take a 3–5 minute break, then go for another Pomodoro session. Every 4 pomodori, take a longer break of 15–30 minutes.Do one thing at a time. Why single tasking is better. Our brains slow down while multitasking. It takes time to switch from one thing to another. You save more time and simplify by focusing on one thing at a time. You’ll feel less pressure, more peaceful, and achieve a sense of flow.Forget how little time you have to get it done. The best way to tackle a deadline with a large project is to be present with it. Once you finish part of a project, it can be tempting to think, well, to finish that much took me 1 hour, so it’ll take me this 16 hours to finish the whole thing. Don’t do that. This mental calculation adds to unnecessary stress. Instead, be completely present and tap into a state of flow. When we do that, things don’t take as long as we think they do.Auto-track your finances. Auto-tracking can clear your mind and reduce stress by helping you to face the reality of your spending, saving, and investing habits. This in turn allows you to tweak these habits and plan for the future. If you do auto-track, I recommend that you use a reputable, secure and FREE software, such as Mint. If it’s free, how they make money? Read this. It’s really easy to use. Once you are past the 10-minute setup, each expense is automatically entered into Mint by way of your accounts, with no effort on your part. So say goodbye to receipt clutter. Mint calculates all of your monthly expenses and generates reports to boot.Live below your means. Spending money beyond what you bring in causes stress and can strain your relationships. While living below your means may require some discipline, it allows you to have a little extra to pay off your debts, and to save for the future.Do less. When you do less, you have so much more time to enjoy life. You have less stress. You are vibrant. Here’s how to start right now doing less.Add buffer time. Things often take longer than what you think they will. Once you estimate how long something will take, double the estimate and work with that schedule. This will allow you (and those working with you) to work at a low-stress non-frantic pace.Eliminate advertisements. Advertisements distract. Reduce the mail you receive and time spent processing it by unsubscribing from all email advertisements, which will reduce up to 80% of your junk mail: doing this will end “prescreened” offers of credit and most unsolicited commercial mail. For annoyance-free web surfing, block ads using the FREE software Adblock Plus for Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.Limit use of electronics. Especially backlit devices, which in as little as 2 hours can drastically reduce melatonin production, causing sleep problems. Watching TV before bed for 2 hours or more can cause us to have trouble sleeping.Say no. Many of us tend to overcommit, so we spend energy in directions that are not as important to us. Focus on what matters to you. Give yourself permission to say no to the rest. Here are 7 simple ways to say no.Delegate. Have more tasks than there are hours in the day? Let go of perfectionism, micromanagement, and control. Empower those around you to step in to something greater. Allow them to shine and to support you at the same time. Everyone benefits. If you are a small business owner, you can hire a virtual assistant for short tasks using a service like Efficise or if you are really limited on cash and need help with proofreading or promotion, you can have help for $5 using Fiverr.Shorten emails. Email distracts us from our most important tasks when our mind is best able to do them. Respect other people’s time (as well as your own). Treat emails like text messages. If you have one question, just write the question in the subject heading (you’ll get a quicker answer). If you have two questions, make sure your email is less than 5 sentences. Don’t ask more than 2 questions. Have too much to say? Here are some rules for short, effective emails.Slow down. Rushing increases stress and risk, so give yourself permission to slow down. Doing so generates peace, presence, and calmness. Here are some simple ways to slow down.Tell the truth. It takes mental effort to track lies. Why bother? What if someone finds out? Empower yourself; live truthfully. When you consistently tell the truth, people learn to trust you. If you have lied to anyone about anything, tell the truth—it will instantly lift a heavy weight off of your shoulders (even after a cathartic cry). Always be honest with yourself and all others; it is the foundation of having integrity.Address problems. Turning away from problems can leave you feeling with a sense of guilt (for not dealing with them sooner) and overwhelm (it’s one more thing that you have to do). Turn toward your problems. Deal with them. Solve it. It will restore your energy.Learn. As we learn, we form new neural pathways in the brain. There is an extra rush—a little brain cookie, if you will—at the thrill of figuring something out for the first time all by yourself. Here is how to teach yourself anything.Buy less packaging. It requires energy and resources to make a package and ship it to your location. Once you open the package, if you don’t reuse it, you must discard or recycle it. That means more trips to take out the trash, more trips to the curb, you must pay someone has to come pick it up at the curb (or take it to the dump yourself). What has no packaging? Farmer’s market or community supported agriculture (CSA) goods, and used items from a resale shop, a consignment shop, or from craigslist. Go to the store and reuse containers when you buy in bulk. Buying items with no packaging forces you to buy local. This stimulates the economy in your community and supports small business owners.Sign up for a CSA share or farmer’s market delivery. Services like these conserve energy. No more hassles with kids wanting candy in the checkout line. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) allows you to get a box of (often organic) produce from a local farm for a low price. Find a CSA near you. Many places will even deliver a box of organic produce to your door for a small fee. Some will also add locally made fresh bread, eggs, cheese, meat, poultry, pies, etc. There is so much food in these boxes it is a challenge to eat it all!Communicate more effectively. Problems often originate from misunderstanding—a direct result of miscommunication. Communication consists of a transmitter and a receiver. Transmit with clarity. Track your body language and actions, and have your actions and gestures consistently match your words.Think less, listen more. Miscommunication is draining. Often many of us assume what the person is saying, or projects a story onto the person that may or may not be true. Rather than allowing an internal dialogue to circulate in your mind, practice the art of listening to what the person is actually saying.Experiment and break things. When you break something, you learn from it. Learning something new can inspire and propel you. Knowing that you are just experimenting, just playing with a project or idea takes the pressure off any need for it to be perfect.Talk to a friend. Companionship can quickly pull you out of a funk. It doesn’t matter whether you share your troubles with them or not. If you can’t be with them in person, using Skype will allow you see their body language and facial expressions, and in a phone call you can hear sympathy and understanding in their tone of voice. Need a friend to talk to? Go here.Be sociable. Conviviality brings contentment. Host a festive potluck dinner with friends (at a park if you don’t want to clean up). When there is good food involved, it can enliven you even more.Play a game. A little competition (and the thrill of winning) can make you vivacious. Games with friends often bring laughter and good conversation.Tell others why you value them. Everyone needs to feel valued, so share it. Point our behaviors that you would like to cultivate in yourself. Thank others for what lesson(s) you learn from them. The joy they feel from receiving your words is infectious.Play music you loved as a teenager. It will remind you of youthful days. The music will give you a youthful, exuberance. Then, you can dance like nobody’s watching.Look at photos and videos of happy times. Nostalgia can vibrate your emotions in waves of delight, giving you sense of well-being.Play with a child. Children have that spontaneous laughter, wonder, and surprise that is infectious. Hearing a high-pitched giggle or squeal at your silly antics can help you to remember not to take life so seriously.Celebrate. Often we are so swamped with things to do, we don’t take time out to celebrate our accomplishments. Schedule some down time to celebrate what you’ve finished.Do improv. An improvisational comedy workshop is a great way to get you out of your rut and break away from habits. These workshops are short games that allow you practice thinking quickly, listening to others, being present, and acting silly. Find a workshop near you, and think differently.Take a news fast. Bad news can rattle you emotionally. You may wonder, “What if that had happened to my child?” News can cause your mind to spin more “what if’s” and “whys”, resulting in overwhelming sadness, anger, and fear. This week, take a break from the news—no TV, Internet, radio, app, or newspaper news.Organize. Clutter is postponed decisions and actions. And clutter can cause you to repeatedly remind yourself that you have to take care of that task. Take a weekend and just dive in and get it done using this amazing book. Or, you can declutter in 15-minute intervals with a little help from FlyLady. Set a timer for 15 minutes, pick up an object, and put it where it belongs. And only handle each object once.Be generous. Generosity is a great way to remove clutter from your home, creating space for abundance. If you want to empower yourself, donating is better than selling. There are many nonprofit organizations that would be delighted to receive a donation for a cause. And you can use ItsDeductible (free) to estimate the total value of donations that you can deduct from your taxes.Don’t take things personally. When you take something personally, your belly sinks, and you feel depressed. This tip is from The Four Agreements and is the most powerful practice I have ever done. (Yes, it’s easier said than done.) Wondering how not to take things personally? Use the power of three technique.Don’t make assumptions. This tip is also one of the Four Agreements. If you don’t make assumptions, you don’t project a story onto something, you simply receive the person or the situations as they unfold before you. This is a fundamental aspect of receiving. Track your thoughts. Once you notice a thought flow through you as someone else is speaking, ask yourself, “Am I assuming something here?”Have less. When you have fewer items in your life, there is space for everything. Everything is harmonious, orderly, and in its place. There is less to repair. You take care of what you have. You have space for abundance to flow in to your life. When you commit to have less, you buy fewer items, so you keep more money (or you can pay debts). Having less food can result in weight loss. You don’t need to be an extreme minimalist, just have a little less each day.Let go. This is an extension of have less. Have less is physical. Let go includes letting go of control. Release beliefs and philosophies that no longer serve you or your relationships. Let go of friendships that you maintain out of obligation or leave you feeling drained. Here’s the beginner’s guide to letting go.Journal. Writing is cathartic. You spew all of your problems onto a page and then they don’t seem as big anymore. You are able to empty your mind of your worries. You no longer need to carry them with you, the page can.  Journaling at the end of the day is cathartic. Furthermore, you can write down the lessons you learned.Transmute anger. It is normal and natural to feel anger. The good thing about anger is that it can act as fuel and motivation to do something now. Transmute that emotion into accomplishment and do something that needs to get done (like exercise, or cleaning the house).Release fear. Fear is functional. Fear keeps us from getting eaten by predators, helps us to avoid getting hit by a car or getting killed. Fear can also limit us. Fear is not bad, however, the root of many people’s choices is fear-based. When you choose something, ask yourself, “Is this choice made from love, or fear?” Just notice the truth. At some point you may wish to tweak it. Letting go of fear is exhilarating and liberating. If fear holds you back from your capacity to love, let it go.Decorate with meaningful objects. Often, we hang on to things we don’t like because a certain person gave them to us and “oh, what will they think?” Let go of the obligation to keep these things. Give them away to someone who will make better use of them. Your house speaks to you all the time. Use these simple steps to activate yourself daily with supportive messages you send yourself through the placement of objects.Let go of perfection. Perfectionism perpetuates this feeling as though it is never good enough, and often results in procrastination. Here’s how to break that habit. If you do your best, it is good enough. Keep your word and get it in on time.Use public transportation. Navigating traffic causes stress and saps you of energy. Why not use this time better? Get some work done, or enjoy a good book.Use intention while cleaning. Using intention while cleaning is meditative and it makes this mundane task more pleasurable. Pretend that your thoughts are powerful enough to record your emotions, thoughts, and intentions into the space. Consciously consider: Why do you place this object here? For example, I place a fresh flower vase under a picture of myself and my husband to symbolize a love that grows. Why do you clean this area? For example, I clean this area to create order in my life, for when there is order in my life, I have a sense of well-being. What would you say to this area? For example, when clearing out a corner that is often cluttered I could say, “I clear away stagnation in my life.Receive. You get more out of life if you simply receive it. Here’s how to tell whether you are open to receive, and what do to so that you can receive more out of life.Break out of your rut. Doing something new stimulates new neural connections in our brain and makes us feel happy. List 25 things you have thought about doing but haven’t. Pick one and do it this week. Go ahead. I dare you.Play your abandoned instrument. Even if it is just for 15 minutes, and leave your inner critic elsewhere. Approach the instrument and the music with the fascination of an infant. There’s no need to be perfect. If you don’t know any songs, improvise. Creating music taps into your uniqueness, inspiring you. Leave the instrument out to encourage yourself to play it more often.Walk in nature. Bringing in natural beauty calms the emotions and relaxes the mind. The connectedness you feel with all living things is an immeasurable energy boost. Go outside. Sense the breeze on your skin, the warmth of the sun on your face, and listen to the birds. Relax. Breathe new life into your body.Take the long way home. Breaking away from habits stimulates new neural connections and gives a sense of freshness to the day. Go ahead; it may take you a little longer but isn’t it time for you to get to know your own neighborhood a little differently?Invent a new recipe. Getting away from using recipes is liberating.Here’s a game to play to spark creativity: Make a rule that you will only go to the grocery store twice per month, so every other week, you’ll use up the older items that are in the back of your cabinets.Share love. Do you tell your friends that you love them and that you are grateful that they are in your life? If not with words, do you do it with action? How about your family? How often do you hug your family or kiss your spouse? You need to receive love. You also need to give it. Connect to your love of simply being alive. Now, think of all of those who have shaped who you are. Those that touch you life in a meaningful way. Even connecting to the love you feel for others can galvanize you.Do something kind. This is especially great to do when you are having a rotten day. There is something rewarding in meeting a need that someone else has. It could be as simple as letting them in to your lane in congested traffic or giving a hug to someone who needs it.Connect. Connection galvanizes you. Connect with others. Connect with all life. Reach out to someone through touch, a phone call, a text, Skype, or a letter.Do what you love. The daily drudgery of spending your time and energy on something you dislike can be immensely draining. When you do what you love, it stimulates pleasure centers in the brain, making you happy.Get comfortable with not knowing. We often exhaust ourselves by asking, “what if___ happens?” Going over all the possible outcomes can drain you—especially if you are emotionally attached. Let go of your need to know. The outcome will unfold in its own natural time.Create something new. Creating enlivens you, for it reveals your uniqueness to the world. Draw, paint, write, sculpt, compose, or take an artistic photo. Create something new and place it where everyone can see. Even if it is not finished. A work in progress is still art in itself.Make a vision board. A vision board creates a powerful visual reminder of what is most important to you this year. Here’s how to make one.Crystallize your goals, write them down, and check in weekly. Here is a great post on how to set goals with focus and a stellar free workbook available here.Know your why. Why do you do what you do? What motivates you? What is your passion? Your inspiration? Once you know your why, you have the motivational fuel to accomplish anything. Need help to find your why? Here are 20 “what” questions to help you find your “why”.Acknowledge beauty. Pause for a moment to enjoy the sun reflecting on water, the bright green growth of a plant shoot, or the plumage of a bird. Acknowledging beauty—even noticing an attractive person—can calm your mind and make you feel happy. If you see beautiful stranger, tell them that they are beautiful. Who doesn’t enjoy receiving that kind of compliment?Pet an animal. Giving affection to an animal is innate and releases oxytocin, a stress relieving hormone produced by the body. You’ll feel connected and relaxed.Plan fun outings. Is life an endless list of tasks and things to accomplish? You don’t need to be Supermom nor indispensable employee. Plan some fun outings with your family. It doesn’t have to cost any money.Be impeccable with your word. This tip is from The Four Agreements. When you give your word, keep it. Mean what you say, and don’t say things that you’ll regret later.Do only what matters to you. If you work on something that you dislike, it can bankrupt your energy reserves. When you do things that you feel passionate about, it fuels you. List 10 things that you dislike and delegate those tasks.Grow fruits and vegetables. Growing your own fruits and vegetables helps you to feel connected with the earth and helps you to practice cultivating relationships. Gardening is meditative, brings a sense of accomplishment, and you get to ingest all the love you put into growing these healthy foods.Take vacations. (And don’t work on your vacation.) Are you one of the many Americans who don’t take vacations? Here are many reasons you should. Vacations allow you to connect with what is most important, rest, and revitalize. If you think that your work cannot survive without you, they can. Just let everyone know that you will not check email or voice mail or receive phone calls while you are away. When you return to work, you will be more productive than ever.Cultivate relationships with your family. Having a good relationship with your family can boost confidence and your sense of safety and security. Turn off the TV and spend an evening or a weekend just hanging out together.Develop habits that serve you. Bad habits consume your energy; good habits augment it. Go through your repertoire of habits and toss anything that doesn’t serve you. Here’s how to achieve the 7 most sought after habits.Be uncomfortable. Whenever you learn something new, you must get out of your comfort zone. Your brain stimulates new neural connections. Get comfortable with discomfort, and you can master anything. Slight discomfort is key to mastering any new habit. Here’s how to do it in small steps.Get involved with something greater than yourself. Whether it is a religious or other nonprofit organization, an education or conservation initiative, getting involved with something greater than yourself and recognizing its affect mankind can fuel your passion, motivation, and generally make you feel

You need more than time management. You need energy management: Manage Your Energy so You Can Manage Your Time

Featured photo credit: Wind turbine farm with rays of light at sunset via Shutterstock

View the original article here

Transforming energy into music: Cameron Carpenter at TED2012

Photo: James Duncan Davidson

Opening Session 6 of TED2012: Cameron Carpenter, one of the world’s top organists — he’s brought the “king of instruments” out of the church and into concert halls.

He starts with “Slaughter on 10th Avenue,” by Richard Rodgers. The organ sounds are first out of place, then mesmerizing. He then moves into Chopin’s Etude in C# Minor, and the extraordinary variety of his travel organ brings a wonderful perspective to the piece. The experience is simultaneously novel — when was the last time you heard an organ at a conference? — and old.

Watch a gorgeous video of Cameron Carpenter performing Naïades.

Carpenter explains the one simple thing about the organ: energy. “The organ is literally a machine that transforms energy into music, and therefore into emotion.”

He wondered why a machine of such “violence, vulgarity, obscentiy, high drama, subtlety, and understatement” would have a sinecure in, of all places, church. He wonders if the power of the early organ comes from its energy — because, before electricity, the wind-powered pipe organ was the most sustained experience of sound energy many people ever heard.

Today, there are two types of instrument: the traditional pipe organ, and the digital organ. It’s actually unusual for a professional organist to prefer a digital one to a pipe organ. But one great thing about digital organs: they can be moved. And Cameron wants a deep relationship with his instrument — something very difficult to achieve when you can’t move it.

So, his dream is to make the greatest organ in the world: a digital touring organ that can be transported, both around the world and into the 21st century.

#TED2012 cameron carpenter makes the organ sexy hot and contemporary giant sparkling talent in great shoes

—
Sunny Bates (@SunnyBates) February 29, 2012

View the original article here

Manage Your Energy so You Can Manage Your Time

sun pillar by tomhe

One of the greatest ironies of this age is that while various gadgets like smartphones and netbooks allow you to multitask, it seems that you never manage to get things done. You are caught in the busyness trap. There’s just too much work to do in one day that sometimes you end up exhausted with half-finished tasks.

The problem lies in how to keep our energy level high to ensure that you finish at least one of your most important tasks for the day. There’s just not enough hours in a day and it’s not possible to be productive the whole time.

You need more than time management. You need energy management

How many times have you heard (or read) this advice – wake up early so that you can do all the tasks at hand. There’s nothing wrong with that advice. It’s actually reeks of good common sense – start early, finish early. The thing is that technique alone won’t work with everyone. Especially not with people who are not morning larks.

I should know because I was once deluded with the idea that I will be more productive if I get out of bed by 6 a.m. Like most of you Lifehackers, I’m always on the lookout for productivity hacks because I have a lot of things in my plate. I’m working full time as an editor for a news agency, while at the same time tending to my side business as a content marketing strategist. I’m also a travel blogger and oh yeah, I forgot, I also have a life.

I read a lot of productivity books and blogs looking for ways to make the most of my 24 hours. Most stories on productivity stress waking up early. So I did – and I was a major failure in that department – both in waking up early and finishing early.

Energy management begins with looking for your most productive hours in a day. Getting attuned to your body clock won’t happen instantly but there’s a way around it.

Monitor your working habits for one week and list down the time when you managed to do the most work. Take note also of what you feel during those hours – do you feel energized or lethargic? Monitor this and you will find a pattern later on.

My experiment with being a morning lark proved that ignoring my body clock and just doing it by disciplining myself to wake up before 8 a.m. will push me to be more productive. I thought that by writing blog posts and other reports in the morning that I would be finished by noon and use my lunch break for a quick gym session. That never happened. I was sleepy, distracted and couldn’t write jack before 10 a.m.

In fact that was one experiment that I shouldn’t have tried because I should know better. After all, I’ve been writing for a living for the last 15 years, and I have observed time and again that I write more –and better – in the afternoon and in evenings after supper. I’m a night owl. I might as well, accept it and work around it.

Just recently, I was so fired up by a certain idea that – even if I’m back home tired from work – I took out my netbook, wrote and published a 600-word blog post by 11 p.m. This is a bit extreme and one of my rare outbursts of energy, but it works for me.

Once you have a sense of that high-energy time, you can then mold your schedule so that your other less important tasks will be scheduled either before or after this designated productive time.

Block them out in your calendar and use the high-energy hours for your high priority tasks – especially those that require more of your mental energy and focus. You also need to use these hours to any task that will bring you closer to you life’s goal.

If you are a morning person, you might want to schedule most business meetings before lunch time as it’s important to keep your mind sharp and focused. But nothing is set in stone. Sometimes you have to sacrifice those productive hours to attend to other personal stuff – like if you or your family members are sick or if you have to attend your son’s graduation.

That said, just remember to keep those productive times on your calendar. You may allow for some exemptions but stick to that schedule as much as possible.

There’s no right or wrong way of using this energy management technique because everything depends on your own personal circumstances. What you need to remember is that you have to accept what works for you – and not what other productivity gurus say you should do.

Understanding your own body clock is the key to time management. Without it, you end up exhausted chasing a never-ending cycle of tasks and frustrations.

About the author: Prime Sarmiento is a long time journalist and content marketing strategist for online tutorial company Ahead Interactive - provider of live, real-time, video-powered tutorials. You can follow her writing tips in twitter.

View the original article here

5 Hour Energy Liquid Energy Pmgrnte 2 OZ (Pack of 12)

Everyone needs a little help staying sharp during their busy day. Perhaps you can't get it together in the morning. Maybe you hit the wall every afternoon. Or you need some motivation to get off the couch and work out. When you can't afford the letdown, try 5-Hour Energy. It brushes away the cobwebs to help you feel bright, alert and ready to keep going. 5-Hour Energy is packed with B vitamins, amino acids and other nutrients found in everyday foods, or that are already in you. It contains zero sugar, zero herbal stimulants and only four calories. It has as much caffeine as a cup of the leading premium coffee. 5-Hour Energy shots take just seconds to drink and are light and portable. They easily fit in your desk drawer, glove box, locker, purse or backpack. They are non-carbonated and require no refrigeration so you can drink it any time you need a quick boost. Recommended Use: Drink 1/2 bottle (1 oz.) for moderate energy. For maximum energy, drink one whole bottle (2 oz.). Do not exceed two bottles of 5-Hour Energy shots daily, consumed several hours apart. Refrigeration not required. Use or discard any remainder within 72 hours (three days) after initial opening. CAUTION: Contains caffeine comparable to a cup of the leading premium coffee. Limit caffeine products to avoid nervousness, sleeplessness and occasional rapid heartbeat. You may experience a Niacin Flush (hot feeling, skin redness) that lasts a few minutes. This is caused by Niacin (Vitamin B3) increasing blood flow near the skin. Do not take if you are pregnant, nursing or under 12 years of age.

Price: $1.87

Click here to buy from Amazon

Playlist: High energy! Four speakers who bounce around the stage

(TED is on its annual two-week vacation. During the break, we’re posting playlists from the TEDTalks archive. We’ll be back with new talks on August 29th.)

To propel us into the week: four speakers whose infectious high energy animates what they have to say.

1) Clifford Stoll captivates his audience with a wildly energetic sprinkling of anecdotes, observations, asides — and even a science experiment. After all, by his own definition, he’s a scientist: “Once I do something, I want to do something else.”

2) You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called “developing world.”

3) In a presentation that can only be described as epic, comedian Charles Fleischer delivers a hysterical send-up of a time-honored TED theme: the map. Geometry, numbers, charts and stamp art also factor in (somehow), as he weaves together a unique theory of everything called “Moleeds.”

4) Here’s a crazy idea: Persuade the world to try living in peace for just one day, every September 21. In this energetic, honest talk, Jeremy Gilley tells the story of how this crazy idea became real — real enough to help millions of kids in war-torn regions.

Playlist by Emily McManus.

View the original article here

ZYM Catapult Energy Drink Tabs, Berry, 1 Tube

Zym Electrolyte Drink Tabs have a proven formula that provides electrolytes plus B-vitamins to improve hydration and mental focus. Features: Zym Endurance has a unique formula that is designed to help athletes get hydrated fast, to absorb quickly and prevent cramping during strenuous physical activity Tablets dissolve easily in water Crush-resistant tube comes with 10 tablets each 7 Calories, 1g Carbs, 1g Sugar, Sodium, Potassium, Magnesium, Calcium, Chloride, Vitamin C, B5, B6, and B12 per serving (16 oz water)

Price: $7.95

Click here to buy from Amazon

The 10 Worst Energy Zappers and How to Beat Them

Let's face it. If you are trying to accomplish anything in life, whether it is work, raising a family, or even having fun, you need to have energy. When we run into trouble in the form of bad moods or poor productivity, its usually because we are low on energy. Oddly, many of us willingly subject ourselves daily to factors that suck us dry.

Here is a list of the top 10 energy zapping offenders and how you can avoid them.
Lack of Sleep
Duh, right? Well how come we don't get enough sleep? It needs to be a priority and you need to muster up the proper motivation to make it happen. Now, not everyone needs 8 hours of sleep, but some do. How do you figure out how much you need? Experiment. Measure how much you need by how you feel the next day. Are you dragging with droopy eyelids all day if you only sleep for 7 hours? Then that's not enough. If you feel mostly alert, then you've hit on the right amount for you.
Sugar
Avoid it. If you must eat sweets try to combine them with fiber which slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream. Most fruits naturally have both the sweetness and the fiber. The next time you have a candy bar or can of soda, watch for the subsequent energy dip that occurs within 30-60 minutes. Be prepared to nap because that's what you will feel like doing.
Caffeine
I'm sorry, but caffeine is the big lie. Don't hate me. It's simply the laws of physics. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Caffeine follows this law. Initially you will see a kick of energy from caffeine, but everyone pays the price later in terms of tiredness, insomnia, or irritability. This is obviously a personal choice, but there are many, including myself, who have improved their life by eliminating or decreasing their caffeine intake. Here is an article with both pros and cons to help you decide if you want to kick the caffeine habit.
Lack of Exercise
If you don't use it, you lose it. Your muscles store and therefore provide energy. Exercise gives you energy especially if you do it on a regular basis. Shoot for 20-30 minutes everyday to improve your energy levels. Another simple thing you can do is take a 5 minute break every hour to get up from your work to stretch and walk around a bit. So if you're feeling lethargic, get your blood pumping by moving your body. If you're feeling exhausted on a particular day, see #1 and get some rest instead.
Not Enough Oxygen
Many of us have shallow breathing most of the time. When we do that we're not getting enough oxygen which is the element we need to burn fuel inside our bodies for energy. Deep breathing will serve another important purpose and that is moving fluids through the lymph system. Your lymph system eliminates toxins which in turn frees your body to work on more important things like your goals! What to do: 2-3 times a day take 5 minutes to do 10 slow long deep breaths. Breath in slowly, hold, and then release slowly too. You'll be amazed how good this makes you feel!
Processed Foods
The more live foods you eat, fruits and vegetables, the more alive you will feel. Seek to eat healthy foods: whole grains, fruits, vegetables, lean proteins, and good fats such as found in salmon, walnuts, flax seeds, and olive oil. Here are some additional healthy eating tips.
Dehydration
This is an often overlooked cause of fatigue. When you don't get enough water, blood flow to your organs, including your brain, is slowed down making you tired. At a minimum, be sure to at least drink enough water to replace what you lose through your daily activities. This amount will vary from person to person. While many people scoff at the 8 glasses per day rule, it is indeed a good rule of thumb (as explained here). It is also important to note that your water needs can come from juices and other beverages, but bear in mind that caffeinated drinks will make your body shed water so you may need to drink more if you drink a lot of caffeine. Be safe about it and just drink more water.
Stress
Life is stressful by definition, but for many of us, we make it worse by overfilling our schedules. Instead, stop trying to do it all. Figure out what is most important to you. Cut out the rest. Trim your schedule. Learn to say no. And try meditation. By simply meditating once or twice a day for 10-20 minutes will make a huge difference in your stress levels. If you're tired in the middle of the day a "meditation nap" is a great way to rejuvenate your energy. Another thing to elevate your happiness and decrease stress is to practice gratitude and be mindful of keeping your internal voice focused on the glass being half full.
Chronic Pain
Daily pain can take the form of debilitating back pain or as simple as chronic foot pain from wearing tight shoes. The thing with chronic pain is we become used to it to a certain degree. Many people just live with it. This is not good, because chronic pain robs you of energy. Pay attention to your body to identify any pain you are experiencing on a daily basis and come up with a plan to alleviate it. So, for example, if you always feel enormous relief upon taking off your shoes at night, you might want to find more comfortable shoes. If you have sciatica pain you might want to begin a slow regimen of simple stretches such at toe touching and hip opener stretches. If you are having knee pain, and are carrying extra weight, losing some weight might help relieve that daily pain. Other pain relieving strategies include stretching, massage, acupuncture, or a pain management program from a doctor who specializes in this.
Toxic People
People who are negative can rob some of your energy too if you let them. There are a few actions you can take. Make a commitment to not engage with negative people. Don't fight with them. Don't expect better from them. Instead, try to practice compassion for them. Maybe their negativity is a reflection of pain in their life. Focus on that when having to deal with them. Be kind and make it a point to spend time with positive people every day.Wishing you tons of energy. Please share your best energy tips with us in the comments!

View the original article here