Do you often groan, moan, or sigh throughout the day? Have you noticed how even the most minor things irritate you quickly? Are you frequently going through the day with little energy and thinking all you want to do is lie in bed?
If you nodded yes to one or all of those questions, then now’s the best time to embrace change.
With a few changes to your lifestyle, personality, and relationships, you can be one step closer to becoming happy and energetic again. This lets you live your best life and may even help you live longer!
To that end, we created this guide sharing tips on what you can do to become happier and more energetic. So read on, as you can start doing most of what you learn here as early as today.
Get More Vitamin D
Vitamin D (VD) is a group of fat-soluble compounds. It plays critical roles in bone, energy, immunity, mood, muscle, and nerve health. So, it’s no wonder a lack of VD can have adverse effects on both physical health and mental wellness.
For example, experts say that VD deficiency can cause or contribute to the following:
- Fatigue and tiredness
- Anxiety and depression
- Frequent infections and illnesses
- Bone, back, muscle, and nerve pain
The good news is that VD deficiency is easy to prevent, as the primary source of vitamin D, the sun, is free. Sun exposure for ten to 30 minutes several times a week may help improve your VD levels.
Certain foods, such as fatty fish (e.g., mackerel, salmon, trout, and tuna), also contain VD. It’s also in small amounts in cheese, egg yolks, mushrooms, and beef liver.
Get Enough Quality Sleep
Sleep services every part of your body, from the molecules to tissues, bones, and systems. So, if you don’t get enough sleep (seven hours for adults), you’re at a higher risk of health conditions. These include mood disorders, depression, fatigue, heart disease, and hypertension, among many others.
To make matters worse, having health problems makes people more likely to have negative thoughts. After all, poor health can result in a lower quality of life.
So, if you always or often get less than seven hours of sleep, it’s time to change that.
Start by ensuring your sleeping environment is quiet and dark and makes you feel relaxed. You should also stop using electronic devices one to two hours before bedtime. It’s also best to avoid beverages like coffee, tea, soda, and alcohol four to six hours before bed.
Take the Time to Destress
Stressful encounters trigger the body’s fight-or-flight response. This response causes many bodily changes, including an increased release of the hormone cortisol.
Cortisol is vital for many body functions, such as alertness, immunity, and metabolism. However, having too much of it, which can happen if you constantly feel stressed, can also be harmful. It may lead to or increase your risks for the following:
- High blood pressure
- Muscle weakness
- Mood swings, irritability, anxiety, or depression
- Low sex drive
To help you deal with stress, give yourself some me-time and enough self-care. This allows you to reflect, find happiness within yourself, and feel more relaxed. It can be anything from taking a long hot bath, going for a nice walk, reading a good book, doing yoga, or meditating.
Consider Your Human Design
Human design, according to its proponents, is a holistic self-knowledge system. It focuses on personalities and “energy types” that can allegedly impact one’s ability to be happy and prosperous.
For example, according to this guide, people with a projector human design type don’t have a lot of energy and can be unaware and feel bitter. However, they may be able to resolve these issues if they respect themselves and others’ boundaries.
You don’t have to follow all the concepts of human design, but at the very least, consider your personality and how you interact with others. They can influence your relationships, which are often factors in happiness and success.
Strengthen Healthy Relationships and Eliminate Toxic Ones
Having few social ties appears to raise one’s likelihood of suffering from depression. By contrast, people with one or more close friendships seem to be happier. They also tend to be better at managing stressful, challenging situations.
So, as early as now, nourish existing healthy friendships and relationships. At the same time, cut toxic ties, as these can affect your physical and mental well-being.
Move More
It may seem counterintuitive to exercise when you lack energy. However, regular physical activity can boost your endurance, cardiovascular system, and muscle strength.
From there, your heart and lung functions and capacities increase. This results in you having more energy to do the things you love and make you happy.
Another benefit of exercising regularly is that it can help improve your mood. When you exercise, your brain produces more endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, and oxytocin.
Those four are also called “happy hormones.” They’re brain chemicals associated with positive emotions like happiness, confidence, and capability. They also help people feel less anxious and stressed and better at coping with physical pain.
Plus, regular exercise can help you control and manage your weight. And when you tout a healthy weight, you’ll look and feel better, too.
All that should be enough reason to put more pep into your step. You can use the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines to help you get started. It recommends getting at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity weekly.
Follow These Tips to Being Happy and Energetic
Being happy and energetic is more than a positive state of being; it’s crucial to your overall health and quality of life.
So, as early as today, go out and enjoy some sunshine, exercise, self-reflect, and do things that please and relax you. Then, come nighttime, do what you can to get at least seven hours of quality sleep.
Are you ready for more tips to help you feel inspired and look forward to a better tomorrow? Then check out our latest blog posts for other motivational guides like this!
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