Nanny to Mommy

When you stop to think about the kinds of things that you want to do and achieve over the course of your life, and the kinds of experiences that you want to accumulate, how many of those aspirations have to do with lounging around on the sofa for hours at a stretch?

While there’s obviously nothing wrong with rest and relaxation, many of us find ourselves in a situation where we are just nowhere near as energetic and driven as we would like to be on a daily basis, in order to lead the sorts of adventurous and exciting lives that seem to be associated with the deepest and richest kind of meaning.

Of course, if you're always feeling pretty tired and unmotivated, it's likely to be quite difficult to actually get around to consistently doing the things that give you a sense of thriving, purpose and fun on a day-to-day basis.

Part of the solution, then, is to find ways to become more energized on a daily basis.

Here are a number of tips and suggestions that might prove helpful in this regard.

Everyone knows that sleep feels really good, but not everyone realizes just how extremely important sleep actually is when it comes to allowing us to perform to the best of our abilities, over the course of everyday life, either with regards to being quick thinking and maintaining a positive disposition, or with regards to staying healthy and having a good store of willpower.

Viewing your sleep as a really big deal is something that everyone should do – because, as many prominent sleep scientists and researchers have been keen to tell us for a while now, sleep really does appear to be one of the absolute cornerstones of good health, a sense of consistent wellbeing, and also peak performance both in a physical and a mental context.

Unfortunately, huge numbers of people today routinely end up getting very poor sleep on a nightly basis – and get far less sleep each night than they ideally should, too.

At least part of this seems to have to do with our modern digital and electronic devices, and how much time we spend in front of them each evening – but there are likely to be a range of different factors, including the fact that more people are doing shift work. If you find yourself struggling to get out of bed each day and find yourself feeling more or less perpetually exhausted as you go about your business, issues related to poor quality sleep are very likely to be at the heart of things.

Practicing good sleep hygiene, such as stepping back from the digital devices a couple of hours before bed, keeping a bedroom that's dust-free and comfortable, and making sure that you get into bed with enough time to fall asleep and get a full eight hours of sleep, could go a very long way when it comes to helping to boost your overall energy levels throughout the day.

It's also a very good idea to take extra steps to help yourself get a restful night, if you find that you’re routinely tossing and turning.

Herbs to improve quality of sleep might be something to look into, and it could be the case that boosting your baseline level of day-to-day physical activity could also help you to fall asleep more easily at night.

Whatever the case may be, there is no amount of caffeine that can make up for being consistently sleep deprived – and when you start to get more and better sleep on a regular basis, you can expect to notice that your energy levels and your overall sense of vitality are simply far greater than they were beforehand.

Although it's certainly possible to skip a meal and get things done during the day – and while certain intermittent fasting practices have become increasingly popular as well, in light of the benefits of occasional fasting and calorie restriction – the bottom line is that you’re simply far more likely to feel energized and motivated on a day-to-day basis if you are eating enough nutritious food during the day.

In the famous Minnesota Starvation Experiment, conducted during World War II on conscientious objectors to the war, the research team found that individuals who were put on a "starvation diet" – with their daily calorie consumption actually matching that of many modern diets – experienced an enormous loss of energy, motivation, willpower, and drive.

Among other things, the subjects became morose, fatalistic, and uninterested in just about everything except food.

If you regularly skip meals, eat less than you should, or eat unhealthy foods that cause you to feel bad, this can certainly have a detrimental effect on your energy levels as a whole.

When all said and done, food is the fuel that your body uses to generate energy and power you in all the different endeavors that you might pursue of the course of your everyday life.

If you are not eating enough, or are eating the wrong stuff, it's hardly a surprise if you find yourself feeling less energetic and driven than you would like.

At first glance, you could be forgiven for thinking that trying to be more physically active on a day-to-day basis would end up making you less energetic, not more.

When you actually get round to increasing your baseline levels of light-to-moderate intensity physical activity throughout the day, however, one thing you are likely to experience is that you are significantly more energetic, and feel more "awake," "focused," and “motivated" than you did before.

Ultimately, moving around stimulates various processes in the body that generate more energy, in addition to generating more overall positive emotions.

Sitting around excessively, though – which is something that virtually everyone is at risk of doing too much of these days – automatically promotes a more sluggish and lethargic state of being.

Using a daily step tracker in order to hit a particular step target might be one effective way of ensuring that you meaningfully boost your overall level of physical exercise and activity on a daily basis.

Another good idea could be to start and end each day with something like a yoga routine.

It's difficult to feel energetic and driven each day when you don't really have anything to do on that day that you find motivating, meaningful, or even fun.

Taking steps to ensure that every day there is at least one activity that you genuinely are enthusiastic about, can help to not only get you out of bed in the morning, but it can also help to add a bit more zest for life to your day-to-day routine, and can cause you to feel more energized as a result.

Although a major chunk of your overall energy is rooted in what is physically going on in your body, a lot of it also has to do with your outlook.

If you ever find yourself virtually falling asleep in some situation, only to suddenly become filled with energy when something exciting happens, you'll already know all about this phenomenon.