DAY 251 -- Recommendations for energy.

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend Education Week at the BYU campus.  They offered a wide variety of classes/lectures on topics ranging from parenting, to art appreciation, to scripture study, to physical health...

One class I selected dealt with creating personal energy, taught by E. Jeffrey Hill.  He had a bullet list of various things we can do to get, and maintain, energy; and I found it interesting that food was one of the first things he mentioned.  He feels strongly about eating healthy balanced foods, and told the class how he used to never concern himself with eating vegetables and fruits or eating healthy in general.  Then he lost his wife to cancer, and when he began to study about nutrition he learned that people can reduce, by 50%, their chance of getting cancer just by eating vegetables and fruits.  He admonished us to please eat healthy so that we can perhaps prevent leaving our loved ones behind prematurely.

I know this post is a little long, but I figured if you are like me and want (or need) more energy, you might want to read the bullet list of advice given during his lecture:

• Eat energy creating foods at energy creating times.
• Start your day with breakfast.
• Eat a variety of nutrient-rich foods (esp. fruits and vegetables).
• Don't drink soda.
• Eat regular meals with the family.
• Make mealtime a pleasant time (not a time to talk about problems).
• Watch portion sizes.
• Avoid heavy, late-night meals.
• [And I add "drink plenty of water"]
• Get more energy-renewing sleep.
• Avoid exercise, stimulants, heavy meals, and bright lights before bedtime.
• Don't go to bed hungry.
• Have a regular bedtime routine (such as, check the doors, brush & floss teeth, put out your clothes for the next day...whatever you do to prepare for bed, do it routinely each night).
• Keep regular sleep hours: go to bed and get up at the same time each day.
• Sleep in a dark, cool, quiet place.
• Don't try to fall asleep for more than 30 minutes.  Get up and do something until drowsy, then do the bedtime routine over again.
• Engage in more energy-enhancing exercise.
• Start by warming up.
• Remember that exercise energizes.
• Do something that you love that raises your heart rate.
• Variety is the spice of life.
• Exercise with a family member.
• Set a time, and set a goal.
• Laugh more frequently: It generates energy.
• Humor disarms tension.
• Laughing together improves relationships.
• Play with children; it often begets laughter.  (Children laugh 400 times per day, vs. just 15 times a day for adults.)
• Jokes at the dinner table aid digestion.
• Do something unusual, outlandish.
• Remember:  Calamities + Time = Humor (learn to look back and laugh at incidents -- or better yet, learn to find the humor in current situations)
• Think your way to energy.  Our thoughts have more influence than environment when it comes to energy.
• Choose to think grateful thoughts.  Look for the good.
• Think slightly, unrealistically optimistic thoughts.
• Positive mind reading in your thoughts, give others the benefit of the doubt.
• Think of negative situations as...
• Opportunities for growth
• Stepping stones
• Temporary
• Avoid A.N.T.s (Automatic Negative Thoughts.)
• Always/Never type of thinking (... that always happens to me, I never get to...)
• Focusing too much on the negative
• Fortune telling/terribilizing (thinking we know what lies ahead, and it's terrible!)
• Negative mind reading (assuming others think badly about us)
• Thinking with negative emotions
• Tyranny of the "shoulds" (I should do this, I should do that) [gulp...guilty!!]
• Labeling/blaming
• Personalizing (taking things personal)
• Engage in more energy-enhancing social interaction.
• Greet people by name.
• Be courteous and friendly.
• Engage in conversations about the other person.
• Cultivate friendships.
• Partake more frequently of energy-creating spiritual renewal.
• Pray
• Ponder
• Study scriptures
• Fast
• Meditate

H