How to Boost Your Energy Level in Minutes Each Morning
Light Me Up
The minute you wake up get your body out of sleep mode by stepping into bright light. Step outside for optimum results.
A Little More Flow
Head outside or in front of a morning window for just 10 minutes of vinyasa flow yoga and you will increase the blood to your brain, stretch the stiffness out of your body after a night of sleep, release mood-cheering endorphins, and sky-rocket your wakefulness.
For the maximum energy, health, and well-being effect, aim for at least 10-30 minutes of flow yoga each morning.
The Polar Bear Super-charge
Live near a lake, a river, or a cold pool? Jumping into cold water will recharge you with energy.
You can set your shower to icy and jump in. Aim for two to three minutes. Can’t last that long standing under the cold spray?
Try first putting your right leg under the cold water for 30 seconds, then the left for 30 seconds. Repeat the cycle with each arm. In a final step jump under the spray and let the cold water rush down your spine for at least 30 seconds.
The cold water will increase your circulation and give you a rush of feel-good endorphins. You may not believe me now, but with time you can get addicted to your daily rush of cold water.
Green? For Breakfast?
Drink green juice for breakfast and you will be consuming a smorgasbord of vitamins and minerals.
You can try this recipe:
A handful of kale, 1 inch of ginger, 1 apple (cored), ½ a lemon (without the seeds), and 1 carrot. Mix everything on high speed until smooth.
Lock the Door
Add more sex to your life. Daily sex will not only ramp up your energy level, but it will also improve your immunity, lower your stress and depression, and stimulate your brain function.
Too tired every night to end the night with a sensual experience? Wake up a few minutes earlier. Sex will give you a better energy boost than a cup of coffee and start your day with a smile.
Productivity Sprint
What’s the first thing you do when you get to work? Aim your first morning energy at high-value medium and long-term project work, or work that requires high creativity, innovation, or concentration. Don’t be tempted to check your emails, not yet.
Set a goal for what you want to accomplish in 90 minutes, then start your timer. I use the app toggle and my alarm clock to set goals and track time. Start your productivity sprint and stop when your alarm goes off. Did you reach your goal?
Take a rejuvenation break of five minutes. Optimally you should stretch and move your body during this break to reawaken the energy within your body and mind.
Follow your mini-break with another 90-minute productivity sprint before you check your email and take a 15-minute break.
Hello Present Moment
Using your morning pause in work to take a 10-minute mindfulness break outside will skyrocket your energy. Focus on the present moment and the awareness that lies behind your thoughts. Listen to the sounds, feel the breeze on your skin, the feel of your clothes, and revel in what is beautiful around you.
Use Your Nose
Breathe in the scent of either peppermint, citrus, or rosemary essential oil at the end of your 10-minute mindfulness session.
You can add a drop onto your wrist and breathe in, add the scent to a diffuser in your office, add a few drops to a cup of hot water and breathe in, or breathe in the scent straight out of the bottle.
Peppermint, citrus, and rosemary essential oils will revitalize you and kick your energy up a notch.
The Good Stuff
Coffee is healthy and throws your ability to concentrate into high gear. So grab a cup during your work break and enjoy a spike in work productivity.
Just be sure to refrain from coffee and caffeine after 2 pm, which will negatively impact your sleep quality at night and give you low energy the next day.
Go Nuts
You may be tempted to reach for that piece of cake at the coffee break. Resist. Sugar and processed foods will give you a quick energy hit and then you’ll experience a crash in energy.
Instead, reach for a handful of almonds, walnuts, or cashews a piece of dark chocolate (70% or higher), or a sugar-free yogurt. A handful of nuts will add healthy omega-rich fat to your tunny, which will keep boosting your energy, while the small amount of sugar in the dark chocolate or yogurt will make that energy last longer.
Spa Water
Is there a jug of water with sliced citrus inside on your desk? There should be.
Women need to drink 8-9 cups of water per day and men 10-13 cups. Even slight dehydration will negatively impact your energy and ability to think.
The citrus slices in your water will give you vitamin C and add a light flavor to your drink. Resist the urge to drink sugar sodas, which will spike your blood sugar and then throw you into a sugar low.
Do Not Disturb Before Lunch
If at all possible, refuse meetings in the morning and push them to the afternoon. Leverage your high-energy morning hours to steam through your work, making markable progress on your long-term, medium-term, and high-value projects.
Pushing meetings to the afternoon doesn’t just mean you free up your best hours for your most important and valuable work.
I Hate My Boss… or THAT Co-worker…
It also means you won’t burn your energy and willpower in dealing with negative, difficult, and temperamental people before you have a chance to get a few hours of productive work accomplished.
Anger, anxiety, and stress use up boatloads of your energy. Even at low levels being chronically angry, anxious, or stressed can exhaust you and steal away your vigor.
Hey, I’m a mega-huge fan of the de-stressing power of yoga, but that may not be your solution. (Alas, yoga cannot fit everything in one’s life.)
Negative emotions get a bad rap, but they are helpful signals telling you something in your life isn’t right. Perhaps you need to eliminate energy vampires from your life, find a new way to handle your boss, change your job, move to a new home or city, add more exercise, fun, or personal development into your life, or something else.
A stress-management coach can help you uncover the root of your stress if you feel stuck and can’t get a handle on your negative emotions.
You can get stress-relieving tools to better tolerate stress until you can decide and move towards changes in your life that bring lasting relief.
Release and Repair
Anger, anxiety, and stress aren’t the only energy drainers. Worry, fear, shame, guilt, and even happiness and pride can be exhausting if they are chronic, or if you repress the feelings.
I know what you’re thinking. Why would I repress happiness and pride?
Fear of failure to fit in with your social circles and in your relationships could cause you to downplay and suppress your happiness and pride.
I know it sounds messed up, but you could be getting more positive attention, and your needs met, when you fail or complain.
You may not even realize how exhausted you are from pushing your emotions down. To experience a skyrocket in your energy, commit to feeling your emotions, release those that no longer serve you, and repair yourself by being authentic.
From Zero to Amazing
How do the relationships in your life make you feel? Rank each of your relationships on a scale of one to five on how much energy they give you, with one being a terrible energy steal, to five being an energy rush.
Does a talk with a family member leave you exhausted? Score her one. Does your best friend leave you content and uplifted? Give her a 4. What about that new lover? Does she give you an energy rush that lasts for hours after you see her? Mark her down as a 5.
Analyze who is stealing energy from your life, who is giving you a charge, who is neutral, and those that lay somewhere in between.
This exercise doesn’t mean you should kick little Aunt Marget to the curb. It just means that you know you need an energy-boosting activity after listening to her complain about her arthritis and neighbors for forty minutes at the family get-together.
More importantly, maybe it will make you think about whether you are an energy charge or steal for the people in your life. ☺
Lunch Smart
So, you KNOW you should heap your lunch plate with at least three different kinds of vegetables and add protein and whole grains to increase your energy level for the afternoon. Hey, so DO IT.
The vegetables are full of energizing vitamins and minerals, and the protein and whole grains will release sugar slowly for long-lasting power for your afternoon.
Eating low-glycemic foods like lean proteins, vegetables, and whole grains safeguards you against the lag in energy people who eat processed foods and sugars experience soon after lunch.
Wait on the Cocktail
Alcohol at lunch will rob you of your get-up-and-go after lunch. Wait to enjoy your cocktail until the evening when you are willing to relax and experience less energy.
Did you hang a do not disturb sign on your back during the morning work hours as I suggested? Then you didn’t interact with any exasperating people that stressed you out this morning. Now you’ll be less likely to order that glass of wine with your lunch.
You Have 10-Minutes
Use ten minutes of your lunch break to go for a walk outside. The natural light will stimulate your senses and wake you up, while the walk will release endorphins and improve your energy for up to two hours.
Walking through a park or view of green will also give you a boost in well-being and decrease your stress levels.
Stand Up Only
Make your meetings stand up only to kick up everyone’s mental and physical energy. Stand-up-only meetings will also cut the meetings shorter so you can get back to work faster.
If the meeting is just the two of you, you may even head out for a stroll while you work through your agenda.
I’ll Take Green and a Side of Chia
During your afternoon break try a cup of antioxidant-rich green tea, matcha, or roobis teat for a health-improving energy charge.
Add a cup of sugar-free yogurt with chia seeds, which are high in essential fatty acids. Chia seeds will refresh your body and mind as they lower inflammation and increase brain power. Hate yogurt? You can sprinkle the chia seeds in a fruit smoothie, on oatmeal, or even your peanut butter sandwich.
Be Younger Next Year
If you didn’t go work out in the morning, then it’s time to hit the gym for a 40-45 minute exercise session. Repeat every day, six days a week to experience a jolt of rejuvenation unlike anything else you could possibly do for your energy levels and health.
You can literally be younger next year if you work out aerobically every day of the week. Add in two days of strength training and your energy levels and youthfulness will be off the charts.
Don’t hesitate if you can’t manage to walk to your mailbox without getting short of breath. Aim for a slow steady walk for thirty minutes.
Are you an athlete? Then set a new goal, like a marathon, lake crossing swim race, or being able to hike up a mountain. Push yourself to hit a higher level of fitness and work towards your goal to re-wire your body with youthful energy.
Give Me the Good Stuff
Sure, you’re eating your veggies and lean proteins. But adding a multivitamin to your routine will increase your energy. Many people are low on vitamin D, magnesium, and iron.
Consciously also eat more foods high in magnesium and iron, like almonds, proteins, dark leafy greens, chickpeas, legumes, and whole grains.
Inspired? Got get yourself some more energy with one or all of these ideas!