Increase your energy level

Some days we feel bored to death. We do not feel like doing any physical or mental activity on such days. We also know that there is nothing wrong with us physically or mentally. So, we feel that our energy supply is low to do any given piece of job. What do we do to regain our lost strength or enthusiasm?

Psychologists say that this low energy is due to fatigue. When you do a particular job for a long time, fatigue sets in. When we feel the first signs of fatigue, we tend to stop whatever work we are doing.

However, if there is an outside stimulus to continue what we have been doing, things can change. For instance, think of a manual worker digging a pit from morning till evening. Half way through the day, fatigue is bound to set in. If the worker is told that he will get a handsome bonus if he finishes the work before a particular time, his energy level will automatically rise to a new high.

Such stimuli will tap a new level of energy in us. This is quite evident even in mental activities. For instance, a student working on a sum may give it up at the first sign of fatigue. However, if his mother promises to give him a valuable gift, he is bound to plod on without any sign of fatigue. Sometimes, you will be surprised to know that there is so much hidden energy we never dreamed ourselves to own.

Sources of such extra energy are not tapped because we never push through the obstructions of fatigue as a habit.

Most of us are used to enjoy higher levels of energy and to live in harmony. But we know that our energy level might curve in at any time of the day giving us reason to panic. With the downward trend in energy supply, we tend to feel downhearted and lose our enthusiasm in many projects we are handling. When our fires of enthusiasm are dampened our performance suffers. As a result, we may be compelled to use only a small part of our mental and physical resources.

There are, of course, exceptional people who push themselves up until the task is complete. However, the majority of us are so weak-willed that we just give up doing whatever work we are engaged in at the first signs of fatigue. We should know that these exceptional people handle such situations quite well. If you happen to talk to some of these people, they will say that they have certain unusual sources of stimuli that can be tapped at any given moment. On the other hand, some of these exceptional people have the unusual ability to create a necessity to carry on their work continuously without getting bored.

Seasoned administrators know how to stimulate their employees. If a subordinate officer is entrusted with some responsibility he is more than likely to perform his job satisfactorily. A new position of responsibility will definitely reveal a person's capacity to perform even a difficult task.

Oliver Cromwell' s career is a stock example of how war will stimulate a man. We can cite so many other examples to show that new responsibilities can positively affect a person's performance. Every instance of a child's illness gives his mother a new bout of energy.

The mother is not going to lie low when her child is suffering from some disease. In many households, women as mothers and housewives shoulder many responsibilities thereby minimising their chances of suffering from low levels of energy. As a result, a housewife always keeps herself busy with numerous household chores while her husband is subject to low levels of energy.

Despair also can make us lose our enthusiasm even to live in this world. However, the same despair can make some of us heroes. For instance, a person who loses everything he has earned in a sudden disaster, may contemplate even committing suicide. However, we have heard of people who become virtual heroes in such hopeless situations.

During the recent floods and the tsunami disaster in 2004 we saw how certain people rose to the occasion without bowing down to their fate.

Human experience shows that we perform better under excitement. But it is the will that propels us to perform great tasks. The problem with will is that we find it difficult to use it whenever we want. If we can summon our will as a habit at any time, it will also give us a new sense of awareness of our capabilities.

Man's energy budget is like his nutritive budget. There is a kind of nutritive balance in our body. Accordingly, we may neither gain or lose our weight. However, we must know our limits. For instance, rivers do not flow upstream. But you can swim upstream if you really want to do so. Although we can try to push our energies to the maximum, there are human limitations such as illness and mental problems.

The human body is such a wonderful creation that it has stored up reserves of energy waiting to be tapped.However, we have forgotten all about such creations as we are inundated with modern machines to do all the hard work. With the advent of affluence, people hardly use their hands as they did in the past. As a result, they suffer from a lack of exercise. Modern man is also less fit than his forefathers.

Therefore, being healthy both physically and psychologically seems to be the secret of avoiding lack of energy. Healthy people remain active most of the time and they rarely get into a situation where they feel a lack of energy.

There are various methods of keeping fit nowadays. Workouts in a gymnasium, playing tennis or cricket, and doing yoga exercises are some of the methods to maintain a healthy body and mind. As the Latin adage says, "Mens sana in corpore sano", a healthy mind is in a healthy body. Those who wish to increase their physical and mental energy should pay a little more attention to their lifestyle. By doing so, they can pecker up their energy level whenever they want.