These past few weeks have been completely exhausting for me. There have been a lot of changes happening in my life (good ones), and they all have been happening back to back. I knew these changes were coming and like normal I did my best to prepare for them. However, even with doing my best to be prepared things still a got little out of control and proved to be a bit overwhelming.

As a result of all the changes that have been happening in my life, I’ve been extremely tired and exhausted, and have barely even been able to find more than 4 hours in the day to rest, sleep, and catch my breath. A couple of days ago I sat down and really took the time to reflect on how well (or poorly) I had been taking care of myself, how present I have been with others, how helpful I may or may not have been for those who may have needed at one time or another. Most importantly I also took the time to reflect on how patient I have been with not only myself, but with everyone else as well.

Using that time to think about all this made me realize something…I hadn’t been doing a good job with taking care of me so that I could present the best of me to others. Instead, I’ve been on autopilot just doing things as they came, but not doing them efficiently, and only giving about 30% of myself to others. This is not who I am, I don’t half-ass things, and knowing that I was not putting my best foot forward left a sour taste in my mouth.

I knew it was time for a change and that I needed to get back to being myself. Being on autopilot and just forcing myself to go, go knowing that I was super low on energy, and refusing to take the necessary time to efficiently take care of myself, really did take a toll on me mentally, physically, and emotionally. There were 6 small little changes that I made in my daily routine to help give me a quick energy boost to get through the day and give more than 30% of myself to others.

This is what has inspired the post for today and I hope that it helps you too. I’ll share with you 6 small simple changes I’ve been making over the past couple of day and how I’ve been implementing these changes into my daily routine.

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6 Ways to Quickly Boost Your Energy When You Really Have None

1. Smile

I was once told that smiling possessed magical powers that were also super contagious. I was in high school when I was told this, and I was told this because in high school I never really smiled. Despite how silly it sounded I liked the message that was being communicated so much so, that I printed up a small section of it, and tapped it to my bedroom wall right across the way from my bed where I would be able to see it always. This was back in my freshman year of high school, and it’s been there ever since (longer than 10 years).

Little did I know that smiling really was contagious, and that there were magical powers hidden within it. When you smile or when others smile at you there really is something magical that happens to our bodies. We instantly feel inspired, uplifted, motivated, appreciated, acknowledged, and somehow any bad mood or thought we may have had, disappears. Even if it’s just for a minute our mood and spirits instantly improve for the better. Smiling is like the perfect distraction and the key ingredient to boosting your mood instantly.

The trick to keeping this tip effective and working all day for you is that you sort of just have to smile all the time. Of course, there were hours during the day when I didn’t smile, it’s not like I had a smile glued to my face, but for the most part I smiled as often as I could. Whenever I caught my own reflection, whenever I made eye contact with someone else, and even when I was engaging in casual conversations with others, I did my best to smile as a way to keep my energy and spirit up.

How I incorporate this change: Something that I started to do a lot these past couple of days is waking up, looking in the mirror, and just smiling for about 10 seconds at myself. Sounds super silly, trust me I know, but you guys I really did start to notice a change in my energy and demeanor for the day. Even though I had spent weeks prior to doing this habit completely exhausted and getting very little to no sleep, I did notice that I had enough energy to power through at least two hours of the day. All it took was a simple smile.

2. Get moving

This one is super important. Something that was a natural part of my daily routine that I specifically neglected to do all last week was workout. Working out every morning gives me the boost of energy that I need to start my day, and helps to put me in the right frame of mind to get through the challenging hours that make up my day. However, all last week I neglected myself of this self-care activity simply because I literally did not have the energy to even put on my workout clothes.

While I’m not saying that you should absolutely be working out, what I am saying is that you should be up and moving in some fashion. Whether this is going for a walk, participating in water aerobics, walking around the office at work, cleaning your house, or even just getting out and going somewhere, you want to get your body moving. This will help in getting your blood circulating and slowly building up your energy momentum to do a lot more during the day.

The key here is to not do anything intense or strenuous. Remember, you’re already low on energy and the last thing you want to do is participate in some kind of physical activity that is going to require you to muster up the energy that you just don’t have. So instead opt for something that is going to get your blood flowing, slightly get your heart rate up, but isn’t going to leave you feeling more exhausted than what you already are.

How I incorporate this change: I started walking a lot more. Since I couldn’t find the time or energy to get up at 5:00am and do my workouts I made a point to go on at least a 30-minute walk at some point during the day. Usually this would be while I was out and about. Instead of just getting in and out of places I took my time and lingered longer than what I may have needed to just to ensure that I was walking and moving and not just being present in that go, go, go mindset.

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3. Pep talk yourself

This is by far the best way to get yourself excited and hyped up for any activity that you are getting ready to take part in. Something else that I’ve been taking the time to do these past couple of days are pep talk myself during specific times in the day. Usually this is in the shower or while I’m getting dressed, during my drive to wherever my destination is, and even when I’m lying in bed at night waiting for my mind to shut down.

My pep talks usually sound like something along the lines of:

“Today you are going to rock it. I know it seems like you’ve got a lot on your plate right now, but in retrospect, it’s not. It’s just one more thing added to your already busy schedule than what you are used to, but that doesn’t mean you are incapable of completing all your tasks for the day. You’ve got this, even if you think you don’t, you’ve got this”

Pep talking helps in giving yourself the words of encouragement that you may need in that moment. Pep talking is not something that I do often but I do think there is a lot of value in doing it. For starters, only you will really know what it is that you may need to hear in a moment of desperation. While others around you can observe your lack of energy, you being stressed or overwhelmed, they’re not in your body feeling your emotions. They can do their best to give you those words of encouragement, but ultimately, you’re going to have to give that to yourself as well to really feel that spark of energy at your core.

How I incorporate this change: I’m learning to simply embrace the awkwardness that comes with talking to yourself out loud.  Finding those random moments of privacy helps to make it not feel as awkward as it does when you’re talking to yourself around other people. So, whenever I get even just a couple of seconds to myself, I do a quick pep talk to help get myself excited, relieve myself of some stress, and to keep pushing forward with my day.

4. Be sure to eat and drink water

I feel like this is no secret. I am a big believer in drinking plenty of water throughout the day. I’m also a big believer in eating as healthy as you possibly can, even if this means simply eating healthy meals or snacks and not immediately jumping to the healthier lifestyle right off the back. The ironic thing about this tip is that I was actually doing a really good job with eating clean and healthy for the weeks that I was feeling low in energy, I just wasn’t eating that much during the day.

Looking back at it now I know it wasn’t the food that I was consuming that was making me have low energy, feel sluggish and tired, but it was the fact that I was only eating about 1 or 2 meals a day. During these weeks I was so focused on getting things done as quickly as possible that I wasn’t really paying attention to my body. My body had gotten so use to recovering on very little sleep and going long hours without any food, that eating just wasn’t a priority for me and I felt that throughout my whole body. I wasn’t really eating during the day, except for lunch and dinner, and ended up satisfying my hunger by drinking a ton of water.

It wasn’t until a couple of days ago when I started to notice that I was going to bed feeling full but waking up in the middle of the night starving. On top of that I was taking part in intermittent fasting, but I wasn’t eating during the hours that I should have been eating (except for maybe 1 or 2 meals). Even with drinking plenty of water I still felt tired and exhausted and this was because I didn’t have that energy boost that we naturally get from eating.

How I incorporate this change: I’ve put a pause on my intermittent fasting for now so that I could get back into a normal eating routine. This includes eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as snacking on healthier options throughout the day. I’ve also been making sure that I’m still fueling my body with plenty of water.

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5. Nap when you can

So important and something that I wish I had taken advantage of more these past couple of weeks, is finding those little moments during the day to nap. I will be the first person to admit that I love taking naps and I always have! Usually on a normal busy day for me I nap whenever the youngest little one takes a nap, which is usually for about an hour or two. Then I’m wide awake, full of energy, and ready to crush the rest of the day.

However, when I do feel like I have a lot on my plate or I feel like things have to get done immediately, I tend to skip out on taking my naps because I’m stuck in that go, go, go mindset. This was the case these past couple of weeks. Instead of napping I somehow manage to convince myself that I needed to take advantage of every minute in the day to get things done. Whenever I would finish with one task, I would immediately move on to the next one, and I’d keep this routine going until it was time for me to go to bed.

How I incorporate this change: This past weekend I made a point to take a nap whenever I had the chance to. I usually ended up napping for about 10 minutes or so every couple of hours. However, I was still grateful and eager to take advantage of that time because those 10 minutes allowed me to recover, reset, and get back on my game with a new burst of energy. I’ve also been making a point to go to bed a lot earlier than I have been these past couple of weeks.

6. Fake it til you make it 

Honestly, this would be the last thing that I would recommend to anyone. I feel the whole fake it til you make it method isn’t really allowing you to give at least 50% of yourself, which doesn’t motivate you to give more of yourself. However, I do acknowledge that sometimes this is the only way we are able to get through the day. Putting on a really good front and faking it until you get there will help you put yourself in that place of high energy that you want to be in.

This can be something as simple as smiling every time you talk to someone, or talking in an upbeat manner as though you were really excited and passionate about something. The reason this happens is because we put ourselves in that ideal place mentally and emotionally. We may not genuinely feel like we are happy and excited and full of energy, but pretending that we are until we begin to naturally feel it really helps in getting us to that end goal.

How I incorporate this change: Even when I really don’t have the energy to do something I still participate in the activity and keep going until my body starts to wake up and feel the activity taking place. For example, I neglected to workout all last week, and the first thing I did Monday morning was get up and workout. It wasn’t at 5:00am, when I like to do my workouts, but I told myself that I was going to workout at some point during the day. So as soon as I saw a window of opportunity, even though I didn’t have the energy to do it, I still participated in a 30-minute workout routine.

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While these tips may not be the best way to increase your energy, I did find that they were the quickest, simplest, and most effective habits that have been working for me these past couple of days. I’ve got a couple of more busy weeks/months ahead of me, and while I am planning on jumping back into a normal routine, I’m also going to continue to practice some of these habits daily as well.

What tips do you have to quickly boost your energy levels?

-Xo

Kimora