Feeling Tired?!

“Our fatigue is often caused not by work, but by worry, frustration, and resentment.”
Dale Carnegie

Are you tired? In our fast-paced and over scheduled society, just about each of us feels overwhelmed and fatigued. For some of us, these feelings of fatigue and exhaustion are a daily struggle that ultimately limits our ability to reach our potential and enjoy life.

So what causes fatigue? Surprisingly, one of the number one contributors to feeling tired is stress and anxiety. When you think about it, it seems to only make sense as stress and anxiousness interferes with our ability to get a good night's rest. However, too much stress during our day has also been proven to lower our energy level and our ability to be productive regardless of the amount of sleep we got the night before. In the end, these feelings caused by stress hinder our potential to be successful. Therefore, learning to control and eliminate our stress can go a long way in improving our energy levels throughout the day. Here are a few ideas on how to overcome stress.

#1 Think Positive

Dwelling on unpleasant thoughts almost instantly leads to stress. Rather than looking for the bad, focus on the good. Also, many things in life are out of our control; so why dwell on them? Doing so only wastes our time and keeps us from being productive. Instead, we need to learn to focus on things we can impact. As we fill our mind with positive thoughts and let go of the uncontrollable, we will feel more energy and motivation. And in almost all situations, there is something positive we can focus our thoughts on--thus keeping our energy level high.

#2 Go to Work

No, I did not make a mistake in writing #2. Going to work does in fact increase our energy level. Often in our sedentary society we make the mistake of thinking fatigue at the end of the day is due to too much work, but this rarely is the case. The truth is stress and anxiety result in low productivity, which in turn results in lethargy and fatigue. Thus fatigue at the end of the day is usually not simply a result of the hard work we have done, but it is more likely a result of stress. As we “go to work”, our mind focuses on the task at hand and pushes out negative thoughts. This causes our body to awaken and our alertness increases. Indeed, hard work will makes us feel energized!

#3 Watch Reactions

How we react to the uncertain, unexpected, and frustrating things that come up each day in our lives impacts our energy levels. Each time you receive unexpected news, or something just simply bad happens to you, how do you react? It is easy to have a negative reaction which instantly lowers our energy level. Then if we continue to react negatively by complaining, worrying, or questioning, we slowly reduce our energy level until we are exhausted. Learning to take a deep breath and control our reaction, no matter what happens during our day, will help us keep a positive attitude, increasing our energy level.

#4 Exercise

Regular exercise reduces stress and increases energy and confidence. I cannot reiterate this enough! If you are constantly feeling fatigued, down, sleepy, and distressed, and are not exercising regularly, give it a try! Regular cardiovascular exercise will focus your mind and remove negative thoughts. Exercising is a powerful way to boost energy.

#5 Know Yourself

Finally, find out what works for you to reduce stress. Each of us should discover one or two ways we can instantly lower our stress level, whether it’s by reading a book, watching a favorite movie, playing sports, listening to music, or something else. When you feel stressed, fatigued, and exhausted—turn to what you know helps you to wake up, focus on the positive, and lowers your stress.

So are you fatigued? Rather than simply blaming your fatigue on a lack of sleep or too much work, recognize there are things within your control that can help boost your energy. As you dwell on the positive, go to work, control your reactions, exercise, and learn to know yourself, you will be able to increase your energy level. And by so doing, you will be better able to reach your full potential.