10 ways to find energy when you are tired.

Are We Having Fun Yet? by The Wandering Angel

It’s happened yet again – you stayed up a bit too late last night, and now you’re not feeling as sharp and attentive as usual. When you’re feeling tired, it often makes you feel sad and depressed as well. Struggling to pay attention to ordinary tasks and feeling off-kilter often makes us think we have failed.

What we're really missing is a lack of our usual enthusiasm. We need a few tips and tricks to help us reenergize and rejuvenate ourselves. Once we’re feeling better we easily get back on track to accomplishing the goals and objectives of the day.

Here are 10 tips to help you rediscover your vitality and strength:

1. Drink more water to stay hydrated. Being dehydrated makes can make your muscles.
2. Do some deep breathing. Deep belly breaths add more oxygen to blood making your body work more efficiently.
3. Get up and move. Physical activity wakes up both body and brain and helps you feel more alert. Another exercise benefit is the mood enhancing dopamine that is produced. You’ll feel less depressed as well as tired and have more energy.
4. Eat light, healthy meals and snacks. Now is not the time to have a biggee-size fast food meal and energy drink. Digesting these foods will make your body more sluggish and slow your thinking even more. Instead try nuts, easy-to-grab fruits, and steamed or raw veggies. Salads and
5. Sit quietly for 10 minutes. Close your door or retreat to a quiet space where you won’t be disturbed. Close your eyes and let you mind rest. Take a few deep breaths to loosen tight muscles and add more oxygen to your body. Rejuvenates body and mind.
6. Do 5 minutes of stretching. Simple twists and bends will increase blood flow to the arms, legs and brain, helping you feel more awake and able to think more clearly. It will also loosen stiffness and relief aches and pains in the body.
7. Do something different. Take a new route to the office, talk to a new person at work, put on music you don’t normally listen to. Changing your routine by even a small amount will increase your interest in the world around you, arousing your curiosity. You’ll soon find yourself thinking more clearly and be better able to concentrate on the important tasks of the day.
8. Have a laugh. A bad mood can make you feel worse and exaggerate your weariness. Add something positive to your day. Share a joke, read a funny quote or simply smile at your coworker. As your mood brightens those endorphins will make you feel more active and happy.
9. Light up your day. Go out in the bright sunshine. Light and dark direct our body clocks to tell us when to sleep and when to wake up. So it makes sense that spending more time in natural light will make you feel more vigorous.
10. Have a splash. Splash some water on your face to wake up. Then dab on some of your favorite perfume or essential oil. Citrus scents like orange and lemon are proven to help focus the brain.

More great articles on getting an energy boost:

12 reasons you’re tired and what to do about it.

7 ways to boost energy at work.

Your guide to never feeling tired again.

Be a Better Villain.

Humor gives us perspective and insight into almost any situation. This book review/humor guide helps us to see how even something as terrible as crime and plots to destroy the world can be funny. Using humor, exaggeration, and playfulness, this look at make-believe evil can be used as salve against real-life malevolence and foul deeds.

The Villain’s Guide to Better Living by Neil Zawacki is a fun-filled, rib-tickling romp through the mind and life of your average evil doer. As Neil explains the hardships of villainy “You can invent a death ray, but you still have to work nights at the video store. You can even replace all humanity with robots, but you can’t convince any of them to go to the movies with you.”

Through this book we find that like real-world criminals, those in the fantasy realm suffer the same fears, frustrations and issues as we every day citizens. Many are geeky, immature, self-conscious and nervous. They struggle with home decorating – should they use glowing green mutant men or the warm orange glow of torches for indoor lighting?

What about home protection? Should you go with a classic, paint-peeling, bat-infested, musty, creaky haunted house, or simply use an invisibility spell to keep out intruders? What about work? You need money to finance your diabolical ventures. You may need a professional resume writer. One proficient in wording and phrasing who can turn: “Raising an army of the dead,” into “Knowledgeable in training coworkers.”

There are even tips for your daily commute. Such as making those traffic jams more bearable by “unleashing your swarm of monkey men.” I have to admit I find the idea tempting myself. If only I had thought to make such an army! There are even tips for “motivating your minions.” Some suggested techniques are “whippings, bribery, ogre supervisors, and lots and lots of shouting.’ Wait – that sounds somewhat familiar. . .

Mr. Zawacki even dips into the social arena, with tips on forming fiendish alliances. Thoughts include “creating life (your own undead monster), secret societies, seedy alien bars, and mind control (such as hypnotism).” Couple that with a one-eyed moat monster or a three-headed hellhound and you’ve got all the companionship any bad guy could ask for.

We could all do with a good laugh, and this book provides those in spades! Filled with unpleasant insight, and revolting revelations, this is one horrifically good read. With all the stress of politics, finances, and the every day struggle of living, this is a must read for humor fans and horror fans alike. Check it out today.

Dealing with Frustration.

Grr! by Martin Kingsley

Many of us experience this feeling over and over. Frustration – that annoying, angry, irritated feeling of being taken advantage of, a feeling of confusion or misunderstanding. A sense of impatience with the pace of progress – yours, someone else’s, or just with life in general.

A lucky few may be graced with patience and fortitude to calmly perceive the situation and respond appropriately. The rest of us though, don’t overcome these negative states quite so easily. Especially when we’re having one of those dreaded “bad days,” where one thing after another goes wrong.

Frustration can come without warning. We may be having a happy, productive, positive day, when suddenly the computer stops working, traffic slows to a crawl and the grocery bill just went up another ten dollars. Our peaceful mood evaporates as we are faced with things we can’t change. Things that get in our way, and cause havoc and chaos in our otherwise orderly life.

So what can we do? How do we reign in those feeling of exasperation as the hassles of life continue to build? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

Techniques to fight frustration:

1. Take a deep breath. This old standby does work. If you can take 5-10 deep breaths, and physically relax tense muscles, you will regain control of your body and mind, before you say or do something you’ll regret. Closing your eyes helps, but it’s even better if you can combine it with a safe, quiet place like your bedroom or the bathroom at work.

2. Walk away and quit. Don’t overlook this miracle cure for frustration. If you feel tension building, walk away from your project or task. For 10 minutes, an hour, a day or a week, simply stop what you’re working on until you begin to regain perspective or feel calmer. When you return you’ll see solutions you’d have missed earlier.

3. Do something else. This is similar to #2, but with added benefit of giving your mind and body something to concentrate on. At work you could make some phone calls or data entry before returning back to the difficult issue. If a family fight, walk into another room to read or watch TV for a while. This technique can be very effective, but is useless if not put into practice.

4. A friendly voice. Sometimes all we need is a friendly ear to let us talk about what’s bothering us. Often while we talk we will figure out a resolution ourselves, or our confidant can suggest a great alternative.

5. Ask for help. This one is so simple, we usually overlook it. Maybe we can ask our spouse to do some more chores tonight, or ask a coworker for advice on a task. We can also ask for help at online chat groups for some good non-biased feedback. The inscrutable is once again coherent.

6. Exaggerate. When I remember to do this, it really does work. In your mind you exaggerate the problem or annoyance you’re having to monstrous proportions. Adding more and more detail until your mind reaches the biggest, baddest situation you can imagine. You spouse is a hateful dictator who rules with an iron fist and works you like a slave night and day while he parties with glamorous big-busted beauties, spending cash like Bill Gates on an acid trip. Feel the snickers and giggles forming? Works like a charm!

7. Scream it out. For those days or weeks when the stress is building – bills are due, the car needs work, paperwork is piling up and the dog just threw up on the carpet; let it out. Sometimes a good healthy bout of pillow pounding, feet stomping, non-stop cursing fest is exactly what you need to release the tension. Better to take it out on the furniture than some unsuspecting convenience store clerk.

8. Slow down. One of the least obvious solutions when we are feeling aggravated and upset is to slow down. A deliberate, unhurried pace helps us to focus on one task at a time. By using the steps above; walk away, deep breath, do something else, we can calm ourselves and bring a more positive frame of mind. Anger and haste lead to errors and mistakes that we can easily avoid if we slow ourselves down.

Also see:

Game of Opposites – frustration technique.

Stress Relief at Helpguide.org

New Year Do-Over.

Happy New Year by Mykl Roventine

It’s coming! It’s almost here! That special, wonderful day when we get a chance to right the wrongs and fix our mistakes – instantly. New Year’s Day is our “do-over,” day. That chance we had as kids when we made an easy mistake and messed up before we even got started. We’d just shout out “Do Over,” and viola – like magic our mistakes were forgiven and we had a chance for a fresh start.

Our do-over, could range from anything as simple as trashing a bad drawing to re-starting a friendship. No matter how badly we screwed up, we could claim these golden words, and begin again. Do-over’s were a magical, mystical method of fixing anything, at any time, for any reason. Like wiping the chalkboard clean and starting a new problem, “do-over” offered endless possibilities and chances for corrections.

We didn’t learn that “do-over” wasn’t a valid method of fixing errors until we got older and learned that other people could hit a baseball on the first try, or color a picture perfectly within the lines without needing a chance to redo it. We learned that we should be better, faster, quicker and smarter on the first try – without the need to practice first or fix anything.

The problem with this of course, is that it’s completely unrealistic. We’re not all great dancers, talented athletes, or even good readers on our first try. We need help, practice, and a chance to keep trying until we get it right. Or at least to do it better. Do-over is that magic method we need. A chance to work on our flaws, missteps, bloopers and blunders. An opportunity to fix things to the way we’d like them to be.

This year, don’t dread your New Year’s Resolutions and waste time worrying about past mistakes. Instead, imagine how you could do it differently. Create a new mindset and a new idea of yourself. Don’t let current trends and fads guide you. Envision the new you – and then work to make it reality. Just do-it-over.

Work with your strengths. Focusing on your flaws doesn’t make them disappear, and sometimes just makes you feel worse about yourself. If you’re not a morning person and have no energy to get up, no amount of coercion is going to make you a jump out of bed with a smile at 6 a.m. Instead, use that evening energy to get as much done for the next day as possible; make your lunch, pick out your clothes, put your shoes, keys, wallet and ID badge by the door. Make it as easy as possible to start the day off right.

Do-over your idea of yourself. Instead of seeing someone who doesn’t like to exercise, discover the person who loves to use their workout to catch up on the news or favorite sports show. Do-over your ideas about how things have to be done, and try a new way of living. Don’t like the drive to work? Get a satellite radio to make it more enjoyable. Use a tape recorder to brainstorm ideas for your new project. Or train your mind – mull over brain teasers or practice tongue twisters on your way to work. You’ll arrive alert and relaxed.

Above all, remember that whatever mistakes you made yesterday, whatever you messed up, today is a day full of new beginnings and fresh starts. Every day can be a “do-over” day if you need it to be. When you put forth the effort, you will see results. So what will you “do-over” today?