Are you concerned with low energy? Want to explore ways that you can improve your energy? Then this is for you!
Especially if you’re living with a hidden disability like me, energy really can feel like everything! It impacts how you get through your day, how you manage pain, how you show up in the world, how you communicate and relate to other people, how you experience your life!
Let’s dive straight in!
1. Nutrition & Hydration
Balanced nutrition and staying hydrated is great for boosting your energy. This is about wanting to create a regular pattern of eating and drinking what is good for you and also that will build your energy levels. Often when people hear about nutrition and what you choose to eat, there isn’t an immediate link to raising or boosting your energy levels. Please don’t underestimate the power of this my friend! It’s almost like hitting the reset button on your regular eating pattern to as to continually provide a good source of energy. Your body needs the naturally occurring sugars in fruits and vegetables. Your body needs clean carbohydrates like potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, all the other squashes, for good clean fuel. This isn’t a specific blog on nutrition so I won’t go into details here. But think about what and how much you put into your body on a regular basis.
Hydration. It is so important to drink regular and large enough amounts of the best quality water that you can. And don’t tell me that drinking water is boring, or you don’t like the taste, or you only drink soda or something fizzy………. Cultivate the habit of drinking water straight up. Neat. Simple. Delicious. Your body and brain will thank you for this. Sometimes this is all you need – a good boost of water to rehydrate your body.
2. Rest & Recovery
Adequate rest periods and good quality sleep is great for restoring your energy. Rest may not be the most popular word in today’s world, but it should be. Rest doesn’t always mean lying horizontally on the floor or yoga mat either (although that can be simple and very effective). Rest can mean stepping away from your normal environment or routine; being in nature; walking or sitting in the park; or just talking to different people in a different surrounding. Making rest times a priority is a real gem of a strategy.
Good quality sleep is a big deal. Sleep is an important part of your body’s natural cycle, natural flow. How much sleep, and when you choose to sleep, can be quite individual considerations. But your body is very clever at communicating with you in a way you are forced to understand. You will FEEL when you’ve not had enough sleep, so work with your body instead of against it! If you’re are routinely getting poor quality sleep then this in itself may be the culprit in your low energy situation. It is worth spending some time in this area to get it right.
3. Mindful Movement
Understanding how to regularly use mindful movement practices can be great for enhancing your energy. I love hearing Tony Robbins teach on ‘Energy is Motion’. Have you heard that one? How you move your body and learning to move it in such a way that supports you is brilliant. I’m thinking of practices like Yoga and Tai Chi. Knowing how to breathe into your body, how to release your muscles, how to move in such a way that you are massaging your internal organs or getting into that tricky web of connective tissue in between your muscles, joints and bones. This kind of mindful movement practice energises you and your body loves it. It can be challenging if you are in pain, or have limited mobility. What’s nice about yoga is that you can take things at your pace and start slowly. It is never a competition but just about you and your body and learning what energises you and what you can build into a your simple everyday. I really encourage you to consider giving this a try.
4. Stress Management Techniques
Using some techniques to help you manage stress can impact your energy in great ways. If you’re living with a hidden disability like me, you may have also discovered how stress can negatively impact on your hidden disability symptoms. Sometimes you think that actually you’re handling a stressful situation, and then much later it manifests in an unusual way, like a lingering tension headache or disturbed sleep or making you grouchy and giving you an upset or bloated stomach. Having some techniques up your sleeve that you can pull out and use can be really helpful. I have found that leaning into a meditation practice can really lighten the burden on the heart when trying to work through emotional stuff. Also deep breathing and breath work techniques shows you just how powerful oxygen can be on shifting states and energy levels in your body. Journalling, I have really started to love as a great way to create more space in your head and heart but getting it all out and putting it down on paper. As everyday overwhelm can quickly escalate into stress, this is a really good one to practice.
5. Positive Mindset & Self-Talk
Harnessing the power of a positive mindset and encouraging positive healthy self-talk can help you to maintain energy levels. It is often surprising just how effectively and swiftly, a negative mindset can deplete your energy. Always taking the stance that the world is working against you, instead of the perspective that the world is working FOR you. With negative self-talk, you’re sabotaging all the good work you’ve been doing by attacking yourself, or at least, not being on your guard about the quality of the thoughts you are having. Remember, before you even get to articulate your thoughts through words, your thoughts have been forming over and over and over in your mind.
Let’s not talk about the impact of all this negative mindset and negative self-talk on your hidden disability symptoms. It’s not good.
There are tools that work directly against all this negativity, and they’re available to you right now. Practicing GRATITUDE and switching self-talk into the style of AFFIRMATIONS. Truly, I say this from personal experience, you can re-train your default thinking and speaking from negative (oh I’m just being realistic) to positive (everyday in everyday I am getting better and better………feeling grateful for each of my daily steps of progress).
If any of these tips resonate with you, I would encourage you to take a step forward towards improving your energy and daily living.
I look forward to hearing how you get on.
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Many people ask me to share what health, wellness and beauty products I use. Instead of listing out each item individually here on the blog, I made a list of my Top 20 favourites, the ones I personally love and use here linktr.ee/tessafyffe