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Replenish Mental Energy

Replenish Mental Energy

T6: post-completion as a within-subjects Replenish Mental Energy. The Rellenish is to refuel when the tank is ¼ full instead of waiting until you hit empty. You may be dealing with depleted mental energy.

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If you feel abnormally fatigued for Replenish Mental Energy Menatl period of Reeplenish, we encourage you to seek medical advice. To be clear: Your brain Replehish fueled with the same food Replwnish your muscles!

That means what you eat impacts your cognitive functioning in a big way. Here are some basic guidelines for maintaining sufficient energy levels throughout the day without sacrificing too much:. The most effective way to eat healthier is also one of the hardest: Making more time to cook at home.

Here are some practical tips I've personally found helpful for creating and sticking to a cook-at-home routine despite the fact that I don't like to cook. Sleep is the most productive thing you do all day. No one really knows why we need sleep. Despite its paramount importance to your health, happiness, and productivity, sleep feels optional.

Your boss holds you accountable to deadlines. Your friends expect you to show up when you say you will. Your family relies on you to get dinner on the table.

But no one is holding you accountable for getting enough sleep except you. Do a full commitment inventory and figure out what else should go in order to make room for sleep. Those are your ultradian rhythms. Image Credit: Fast Company.

Ultaradian rhythms are driven by a whole host of things happening in your body — hormone levels, metabolic processes, cardiovascular functioning — and they affect your energy, mood, and cognitive functioning.

These rhythms take the form of minute peaks of energy followed by a minute trough that repeats throughout the day with the peaks trending lower and lower as the day goes on.

The Eisenhower Matrix is a helpful framework for distinguishing between the two. Instead of pushing to the point of mental fatigue, give your brain a chance to relax and reset.

Will your energy return to peak levels? Probably not, but a regular refresh will help you sustain your focus over a longer period of time instead of crashing by midday. In his book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect TimingDaniel Pink gives this advice for taking more productive breaks:.

Something beats nothing. High performers work for fifty-two minutes and then break for seventeen minutes. Moving beats stationary. Social beats solo. Research in South Korean workplaces shows that social breaks—talking with coworkers about something other than work—are more effective at reducing stress and improving mood than either cognitive breaks answering e-mail or nutrition breaks getting a snack.

Outside beats inside. People who take short walks outdoors return with better moods and greater replenishment than people who walk indoors. Fully detached beats semi-detached. Tech-free breaks also increase vigor and reduce emotional exhaustion.

Or you may want to use an afternoon break to just sleep. A minute nap at a low-energy point between noon and 4pm works best for most people. When you have one program open running one task, all the RAM is dedicated to that one thing and everything zips along nicely.

But then you open another window. And another. And then a new internet tab or twenty. Each additional demand on your computer slows things down. Here are some of the ways you can lighten your mental load:. This could be fully completing the task at once or determining the next actionable steps to move it along.

Make it a habit to have a work shutdown ritual at the end of every day, where you review and move forward tasks that you didn't get to. The best way to deal with mental fatigue is to take proactive steps to minimize it in the first place and then work around it as best you can. But sometimes you just have to slog through your energy troughs.

Set a timer and get to it. Once the timer goes off, identify the next micro-task and work on that. If you have to force your way through a mental slump, break work down into micro-tasks you can finish in 10 minutes or less.

Acknowledging that fatigue is a natural result of challenging your brain can be freeing in and of itself. We need to learn to work with our natural rhythms instead of simply trying to overcome them. Becky is editor and logophile-in-residence at Doist. You can find her trying not to take life too seriously.

So far so good. Join millions of people who have finally organized their work and life. Collaboration Goals Productivity Remote Work Time Management Todoist. Illustration by Kelsey Wroten. What is mental fatigue? What causes mental fatigue? Becky Kane Becky is editor and logophile-in-residence at Doist.

Achieve peace of mind with Todoist Join millions of people who have finally organized their work and life.

: Replenish Mental Energy

How to Recharge Your Mind and Body When You Feel Drained

When you need an injection of mental clarity, close your eyes and practice ten rounds of this. Unitask: Technically, the brain cannot actually multitask. Rather, it switches rapidly between mental tasks, which is detrimental to productivity and drains mental energy.

Schedule breaks: Deep work focusing on one thing for a period of time increases your chance of getting into a flow state is incredibly beneficial for the brain. Do something that works your brain in a completely different way. Rest: Dial in your sleep hygiene at night and give yourself permission to rest, ideally before your body forces you to e.

through illness, injury, or burnout. Use your mental energy wisely. Mental skills Performance Mindfulness. Sep 7 Written By Daya Grant. Here are a few ways to replenish your reserves: Move your body: You know I preach movement.

PMID S2CID Nutr Rev. Review of the evidence". Brain Res Rev. Eur J Cancer. Am J Med. Categories : Mental states Subjective experience. Toggle limited content width. Within this conceptualization, mental energy is multi-dimensional construct consisting of 1 the mood of energy i.

Mental energy researchers have focused primarily on the mood of energy and cognitive resource dimensions, with motivation being studied primarily in the goal literature and quality of life being studied primarily in the social welfare literature.

The feeling of mental energy is impacted by sleep duration Boolani and Manierre, , time of day Wood and Magnello, , resistance exercise Ward-Ritacco et al. Experimental evidence shows that increasing this feeling increases vigilance Maridakis et al.

Considerable attention has also been devoted to investigating mental energy as a cognitive resource James, ; Carver and Scheier, ; Lieberman, ; Goldfarb and Henik, ; Shenhav et al. The mental energy as a cognitive resource literature considers the amount of mental energy available to perform a cognitive task e.

In this perspective, changes in the availability of mental energy are inferred from changes in-task performance Lieberman, , including sustained attention Schmeichel et al. We investigate the mental energy as a cognitive resource dimension in this work. The extant literature proposes that cognitive resources i.

There are three factors that influence the pre-task allocation of cognitive resources to working memory: the difficulty of the task costs , the size of the benefit rewards , and the cost-benefit trade-off.

A number of theories posit that expected task difficulty influences the amount of mental energy made available prior to initiating task pursuit.

The theory of motivational intensity proposes that the amount of mental energy available prior to a task will increase as the expected difficulty of a task increases, but that mental energy will decline as it becomes apparent that a task is impossible to perform Brehm et al.

Similarly, goal-setting theory assumes that more aggressive goals require more mental energy for goal pursuit Latham et al. Supporting this idea, working memory functions better when people can anticipate the difficulty of a task, suggesting that a difficulty cue allows a person to prepare for the task by allocating more cognitive resources to working memory Manelis and Reder, A number of theories propose that the expected benefits associated with completing a task influence the amount of mental energy made available prior to engaging in task pursuit.

For example, drive-reduction theory assumes that the motivation i. Incentive theories of motivation propose that people will work harder for more positive outcomes Bolles, ; Bindra, ; Wigfield and Eccles, Goal-systems theory assumes that motivated goal pursuit depends on the appeal and importance of the goal outcome Kruglanski et al.

In each model, more appealing, rewarding, or important goal outcomes generate more desire to engaging in the task, the implication being that more mental energy is available. A third factor that influences cognitive resource allocation is an analysis of the mental costs of engaging in a task vs.

the benefits of task completion. Cognitive resources are allocated only when the reward is sufficient. This conceptualization assumes that mental effort is costly Kahneman, ; Kurzban, ; Shenhav et al.

People allocate the minimum amount of resources needed to complete a task, not the maximum amount of resources given the potential reward Goldfarb and Henik, For example, cognitive energetics theory Kruglanski et al. Similarly, the expected value of control EVC theory Shenhav et al. Importantly, cost-benefit analyses that modulate the choice of tasks and the allocation of cognitive resources are considered to be subconscious Boksem and Tops, ; Kurzban et al.

Moreover, a growing literature suggests that a cost-benefit approach to choosing action is an adaptive advantage because it motivates behavior toward more rewarding activities and away from less rewarding ones Boksem and Tops, ; Kool et al.

Existing accounts of the pre-task allocation of cognitive resources to working memory are not able to address how people avoid the cumulative effects of mental energy deficits.

If the pre-task resource allocation system is designed to conserve cognitive resources because mental effort is costly , then there will be more under allocation than over allocation of resources in a given time period.

The under allocation of cognitive resources will inevitably lead to a deficit of mental energy and diminished cognitive performance. Thus, it would be advantageous for people to have a post-task mental energy replenishment system.

A post-task mental energy replenishment system may not eliminate a mental energy deficit, but it would mitigate it. Mental energy deficits are a common outcome in a conservative mental energy allocation system. The challenge for such a system is to determine how to address each mental energy deficit.

We propose that post-task mental energy replenishment is one solution. Post-task mental energy replenishment is more likely to occur when the actual effort-reward trade-off is favorable. That is, if an accurate allocation of resources would still have resulted in engaging in the task the reward justified the actual amount of mental energy invested , then the mental energy deficit will be replenished.

Replenishment occurs because the error in pre-task mental energy allocation is acceptable given the reward. In contrast, when the actual effort-reward trade-off is unfavorable, mental energy replenishment should not occur.

If an accurate estimate of the cognitive resources needed for the task would have resulted in rejecting the task or engaging in other tasks the reward does not justify the unexpected amount of energy used , then the mental energy deficit should be a signal that cognitive resources estimates were miscalibrated and corrective action should be taken e.

To illustrate these ideas, consider a situation where a person is shopping online. The person finds an acceptable product at a major retailer. She then determines it is worthwhile to invest additional cognitive effort in searching for a better deal i.

If the search is more difficult than expected, there will be a mental energy deficit at the conclusion of the search. Post-task mental energy replenishment will occur if the reward realized savings over original price is sufficient given the actual amount of effort i.

Mental energy replenishment will not occur if the reward is insufficient given the actual amount of effort i. An insufficient cost-benefit trade-off can occur because the unexpected amount of effort was too extensive i. As illustrated in the example, there are two forces that drive mental energy replenishment: the need for mental energy replenishment and the favorability of the cost-benefit trade-off see Figure 2 , high reward.

First, unexpected effort creates a mental energy deficit and a need to replenish mental energy Jansen et al. The larger the amount of unexpected effort, the greater the need to replenish Jansen et al. Second, replenishment should be strategic — it should be sensitive to the favorability of the actual cost-benefit trade-off from the completed task.

This claim is consistent with the finding that people reinvest in tasks that are, on balance, rewarding Boksem and Tops, ; Kool et al.

An integration of the need for replenishment and favorability of the cost-benefit trade-off vectors predicts that energy replenishment will be an inverted-U function of the amount of unexpected effort when rewards are high see the solid curve in Figure 2 , high reward.

Replenishment will not occur when unexpected effort is too low because the need to replenish would be negligible see A1 in Figure 2 , high reward or when unexpected effort is too high because the cost-benefit trade-off would be unfavorable see A3 in Figure 2 , high reward.

Replenishment occurs when unexpected effort is moderate because there is some need for replenishment and the cost-benefit trade-off would be favorable given the high rewards see A2 in Figure 2 , high reward.

When rewards are low, the favorability of the cost-benefit trade-off declines because the rewards are less likely to be seen as worth the extra investment of effort, and thus, energy replenishment will be low see the solid curve B1-B2-B3 in Figure 2 , low reward.

Given that we are the first to propose post-task mental energy replenishment, there is little literature directly supporting the idea. Instead, one must assess if the predictions are consistent with how a conservative, pre-task cognitive resource allocation system would operate.

The system we propose can not only guard against an insufficient amount of mental energy, but it can also help correct large energy allocation errors.

Large mental energy deficits create a strong motivation to replenish. Consequently, a simple mental energy replenishment system could replenish energy any time there was a high need. Yet, this approach would not allow the system to learn — there would be no feedback.

A better system, the one we propose, inhibits automatic mental energy replenishment when there are large energy investment errors. Unexpectedly large mental energy deficits are a signal that priors about the expected costs of completing a task need to be updated, as the anticipated effort for this type of task is highly miscalibrated Inzlicht et al.

Further, large deficits may signal that the present behavior should be abandoned or changed Boksem and Tops, ; Kurzban et al. A mental energy deficit could even signal the need to switch from performing externally rewarding tasks to engaging in more intrinsically motivated activities Inzlicht et al.

We conducted four studies to test our predictions. Studies 1, 3, and 4 directly measured mental energy replenishment and study 2 assessed mental energy replenishment via performance on a subsequent task.

Study 1 showed mental energy replenishment after completing a high-reward task i. Study 2 used a design similar to study 1 to show that mental energy replenishment can influence performance on a subsequent task.

Study 3 manipulated expected effort and reward to show that a high reward increases mental energy replenishment when the amount of unexpected effort is moderate i. Study 4 manipulated actual effort and reward to show an inverted-U pattern of mental energy replenishment across different levels of effort when the reward is high i.

A2 vs. A3 in Figure 2 , but not when the reward is low i. B2 vs. B3 in Figure 2. The purpose of study 1 was to demonstrate that, when there is unexpected effort, mental energy is replenished upon completion of a high-reward task, but not a low-reward task.

The procedure simulated online shopping behavior. The task involved finding online deals for five products, where reward value was manipulated by varying the bonus associated with finding deals. Participants were asked to find and record the deals. We predicted that participants in the high-reward condition would show mental energy replenishment at the completion of the shopping trip i.

The experiment used a two cell reward value: low vs. high between-subject design. The study took place in mid-December, during the holiday season. At the beginning of the study, we reminded participants that it was the holiday shopping season. Consequently, we would show them several products and have them find the best online deal the lowest price for each product.

Participants in the high-reward condition were further told that at the end of the survey, we would show them the best price we found for each product. Participants in the low-reward condition were not told that they could earn a bonus and therefore would only receive the compensation for completing the study.

Next, we showed participants five products: a Bluetooth speaker, an electric toothbrush, a WiFi router, a hard drive, and a pair of headphones. For each product, we asked them to paste the link of the deal they found and enter the price. Before showing each product, we asked participants to indicate how much mental energy they had at that moment.

We would like to know how much mental energy you have at this moment. We will ask you to indicate how much mental energy you have at various times in this study. On the following scale, please indicate how much energy you feel you have AT THIS MOMENT.

We used a single-item measure because mental energy as a cognitive resource is a concrete, single-component construct for similar measures, see Allen et al. Single-item measures of constructs have similar predictive validity to multiple-item measures provided 1 the construct is uni-component e.

Moreover, the single-item measure allows us to repeatedly assess mental energy in a short period of time, without introducing measurement-based rest periods that might allow mental energy to replenish Masicampo et al.

After completing the fifth deal-finding task i. You have completed the task. To guard against the alternative explanation that greater pay leads to more mental energy, this last measure occurred after task completion but before disclosing the amount of the bonus.

To rule out the alternative explanations of felt achievement and competence i. Afterward, participants in the high-reward condition were shown the best deals. We compared the prices and awarded bonuses. Finally, all participants entered demographic information and were thanked for their time.

The entire set of procedures and stimuli of this and all studies in the paper can be found in the Supplementary Material. A test was used to confirm that effort was higher than expected.

Mental energy was measured six times in total. The average ratings across times and conditions are shown in Figure 3. T1 through T5 indicate the amount of mental energy reported before participants started to search for the first, second, … fifth product, respectively, and T6 was the amount of mental energy reported upon task completion.

To examine mental energy replenishment pre- vs. post-task completion, we used a repeated measures ANOVA with reward value low vs. high as a between-subjects factor and time T5: pre-completion vs. T6: post-completion as a within-subjects factor.

Mental energy replenishment was measured as the difference in mental energy at time T5 and time T6. This within-subject measure was better than analyzing mental energy at T6, because mental energy at T6 could not adjust for difference in mental energy at T5 i.

Consistent with hypothesis 1, there was a significant interaction between time T5 vs. A final set of analyses confirmed that mental energy generated as a consequence of extrinsic task completion did not depend on intrinsic task mediators like felt achievement or competence.

The correlations between mental energy replenishment i. The lack of a significant correlation in the high-reward condition is additional evidence that felt achievement and competence were not responsible for the increase in mental energy.

One may argue that participants in low-reward condition received no reward, which is not equivalent to low reward. The results replicated the main findings of study 1: The significant interaction between time T5 vs.

Thus, using a low-reward condition instead of a no reward condition does not change our conclusions. Study 1 provides evidence that mental energy is replenished at task completion when the reward value is high, but not when the reward value is low.

Further, it rules out the possibility that the influence of reward value on mental energy replenishment is due to intrinsic motivation mediators like feelings of achievement or competence.

This null effect was anticipated because mental energy replenishment after an extrinsically motivated task should not be sensitive to drivers of intrinsic motivation. Study 2 demonstrates the behavioral implications of post-task mental energy replenishment.

Specifically, study 2 replicates the findings of study 1 using a behavioral measure e. A self-report of mental energy was not included in this study in order to avoid contamination across measures i.

Study 2 included an additional factor meant to address the possibility that mental energy replenishment is a consequence of intrinsic motivation contaminating an extrinsically motivated task. Energy management in intrinsic motivation occurs in-task Csikszentmihalyi and LeFevre, ; Deci and Ryan, That is, if a task is enjoyable or engaging, mental energy can be allocated in-task so that the behavior is sustained.

To address this possibility, task completion was manipulated across conditions. Using the same procedure as in study 1, participants were either told the task was completed or not after finishing the fifth part of the procedure.

If intrinsic motivation was contaminating the extrinsically motivated task, this manipulation should not matter.

If mental energy replenishment is a function of effort and reward at task completion i. The experiment used a 2 reward value: low vs. high by 2 completion: yes vs.

no between-subject design. Participants completed a deal-search task, as in study 1, but with five changes. First, as the study was conducted in April non-holiday season , we removed holiday-related words and pictures from the instructions.

Second, we removed all measures of mental energy. Third, task completion was manipulated after participants completed the fifth deal-finding task. You have completed this task. Finally, given the need to immediately measure task persistence, and the null effects in study 1, felt achievement and competence were not measured.

The availability of mental energy was measured using persistence on the second task Braver, Task persistence owing to cognitive resources has been operationalized as sustained effort on unsolvable puzzles Baumeister et al.

On each page, we will show you the book title, author, and a synopsis. After you evaluate some books, you can choose to quit the task. You can quit the task whenever you like. Task persistence i. The results of study 2 provide evidence that post-task mental energy replenishment has consequences for subsequently performed behaviors.

When the reward value was high, task completion increased persistence in a subsequent, unrelated task. However, when the reward value was low, task completion did not increase persistence in the subsequent task. The task completion moderator provides further evidence that mental energy replenishment is a function of the unexpected effort invested and reward accrued from an extrinsically motivated task and that mental energy replenishment does not occur in-task.

Study 2 also addresses the alternative explanation that measuring mental energy makes people more sensitive to mental energy. In study 2, there were no measures of mental energy, yet the results replicated study 1. Second, it could be argued that measuring mental energy creates a demand effect on reports of mental energy in high-reward conditions.

In study 2, the high reward was kept constant, and no measure of mental energy was collected to make mental energy salient, yet the consequences of mental energy replenishment were still obtained in the completion condition. This should reduce concerns about demand effects. The x-axis in Figure 2 is the difference between expected effort and actual effort.

We hypothesize that people replenish mental energy after completing an extrinsically motivated task only when actual effort exceeds the expected effort by a sufficient amount see A2 vs. A1 in Figure 2. One approach to providing evidence for this prediction is to alter the expected effort associated with a task.

When actual effort sufficiently exceeds expected effort i. B2 in Figure 2. This result would replicate the results of studies 1 and 2. In contrast, when actual effort does not exceed expected effort because the person has been led to believe the task will be more effortful i.

B1 in Figure 1. This result would illustrate that the difference between expected and actual effort, not solely the amount of actual effort, is partially responsible for post-task mental energy replenishment.

high by 2 expected effort: low vs. All participants were retained. At the beginning of the study, participants were told that they would complete a simple task where they would be asked to identify the correct synonym for a word.

The synonym had to be chosen from four alternatives. Then, we manipulated the expected effort of the task. Participants in the high expected effort condition learned that the words they would see in the questions were not those frequently used in everyday life and, thus, they would need to invest extra cognitive effort.

This description was intended to match their actual experience during the task i. Participants in the low expected effort condition were not provided information about expected effort and, thus, expected effort should be significantly below actual effort i.

Next, all participants started working on the task. The task involved five sets of questions, five questions in each set. Finally, participants responded to the achievement and competence measures used in studies 1 and 2.

Use your mental energy wisely — Dr. Daya Grant

Issues staying alert? Have you been learning something new? Here are some practices to help you build and replenish your mental energy:. Spiritual energy is your ability to connect to, and draw on, your own sense of purpose, meaning and passion. You use spiritual energy when you have to stand in integrity and have conversations, or make decisions, that are challenging and anything but easy.

Those decisions that are the right thing to do, but not necessarily the easiest to make. You also use spiritual energy when doing things for others, or the community.

Do you feel you are lacking purpose? Is your line of work out of alignment with your personal values? Here are some practices to help you build and replenish your spiritual energy:.

Now that you have a better understanding of the four energies, go ahead and do some detective work: Which of the energies need replenishing? Want the inside scoop on the secrets to achieving conscious productivity, both as a leader and an individual? Join my newsletter for research, trends, and success stories about navigating the new way to achieving true balance of results and well-being.

Sign up to receive your copy of Setting the Foundation for True Work-Life Fulfillment and regular leadership tips, tools, and resources. Feeling drained? Here are specific actions you can take to help you identify, manage and replenish each of these energies definitions for these energies come from Prosilience, by Linda Hoopes Emotional energy Emotional energy is your ability to remain motivated, to overcome negative feelings and thoughts, to avoid being drained by setbacks and to actively enjoy life.

By pausing to identify the feeling and its source, you give yourself a break to reflect and choose the next best action Where can you ask for help or support from others? Physical energy This is the energy that most of us are familiar and comfortable with. Here are some practices that can help to replenish your physical energy: Set a consistent bedtime, and consider a pre-bedtime routine.

Any help they can provide might ease some of your burden, which can help relieve stress and improve your mood. As a result, you might feel recharged enough to manage the rest. You might already know your brain requires a certain amount of quality sleep for optimal function.

But do you know how much sleep you actually need? Most adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night, though your specific sleep needs can vary. Sleep also gives your brain the time it needs to store information, get rid of waste, and carry out other important body processes.

You might feel dull, distracted, and even have trouble regulating your emotions. But beyond a short-term drop in mental energy, sleep deprivation can have more serious consequences for your mental and physical well-being over time.

Find 17 tips to improve your sleep here. A consistent lack of mental energy can sometimes suggest an underlying mental health concern, like depression. Professional support can make it easier to identify potential reasons for low mental energy and begin exploring solutions.

Crystal Raypole writes for Healthline and Psych Central. Her fields of interest include Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health, along with books, books, and more books.

She lives in Washington with her son and a lovably recalcitrant cat. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Ever felt like your mind could use a deep cleaning? Try these 8 strategies to refresh your brain. What you eat can have a major effect on your energy levels. These 7 foods can all drain your energy. Ways to improve concentration, include brain games, meditation, music, and more. If you're finding it hard to focus and these tips don't help….

If you're going to procrastinate, you might as well read this. Feeling tired may just be a symptom of our modern lives. But feeling tired all the time, a condition called fatigue, could be a sign of something more…. Constantly dream of romance? Fixate on thoughts of your partner? Feel a need to always be in love?

Learn why — and why this isn't an "addiction. Toxic femininity, or behavior that aligns with patriarchal beliefs about what women should and shouldn't do, can affect your well-being.

Here's how. A new study, released this week has found that death rates are increased for people with obesity who are also socially isolated and lonely. A new study finds a type of psychedelic called ibogaine may help people with traumatic brain injury.

In the study 30 male Special Operations Forces…. A Quiz for Teens Are You a Workaholic? How Well Do You Sleep? Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect. As mental energy is closely linked with intellectual performance, so is it tied to immune function.

Activated by stress and infection—any threat, external or internal, including troubling thoughts—the immune system triggers an inflammatory response that makes significant demands on energy. Evidence indicates that inflammation also shifts attention towards negative bias , a possible pathway to depression , the mother of all low-energy-feeling states.

Increasingly, any number of disruptions to metabolic processes in brain cells are being implicated in mental health disorders, including depression and cognitive decline. Sitting at a desk all day decreases energy without necessarily increasing fatigue. And moderate exercise has been shown to increase energy without affecting levels of fatigue.

Neurotransmitter systems seem to differ between the two: Energization, driven by dopamine and norepinephrine, supports approach behavior; fatigue, facilitated by serotonin and inflammatory cytokines, underwrites avoidance behavior.

Perhaps because we live in disquieting times that we struggle to make sense of—even decisions about what to put in the garbage bring us face-to-face with existential threats—there are unrelenting demands on mental energy.

There are known ways of sustaining mental energy. Most accessible, perhaps, is the judicious use of whatever mental energy individuals already have. Habits are nothing if not great conservers of mental energy. They obviate the need to make any number of decisions.

Good habits are even better; they additionally avert the need to expend energy on mopping up the damage done by bad habits. New York University psychologist Gabriele Oettingen developed mental contrasting as a way to mobilize the energy necessary to turn goals into achievements.

The technique requires imagining a future you want to attain—writing a book, say—and the best outcome of that desired goal—feelings of accomplishment and pride. The critical part is then avoiding pure fantasy by contrasting your wishes with the reality of the work necessary to attain them.

The judgments people then make about how likely they are to attain the desired future are activating, and the energy mobilization can be measured physically in tests of hand-grip strength. Further, Oettingen finds, mental contrasting gives rise to a universal arousal state in which energy is transferrable to mental tasks wholly unrelated to the fantasy that birthed it.

The Energy Pantry Day in, day out, most mental energy is acquired from without—from diet.

The Making Of Mental Energy | Psychology Today

Many different neurotransmitters have been theoretically implicated in the control of mental energy. Mental energy can be affected by factors such as drugs , sleep , and disease.

Drugs that may increase mental energy include caffeine , modafinil , psychostimulants like amphetamines and methylphenidate , and corticosteroids like hydrocortisone and dexamethasone. Drugs that may decrease mental energy include sedatives and hypnotics like antihistamines , benzodiazepines , and melatonin , as well as dopamine receptor antagonists like antipsychotics.

There are many marketing claims of foods, beverages , and dietary supplements improving mental energy, but data to substantiate such claims are limited or absent. Sleep deprivation may decrease mental energy in an exposure-dependent manner. Contents move to sidebar hide.

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Download as PDF Printable version. Not to be confused with Energy psychological. Nutr Neurosci. You also use spiritual energy when doing things for others, or the community. Do you feel you are lacking purpose? Is your line of work out of alignment with your personal values?

Here are some practices to help you build and replenish your spiritual energy:. Now that you have a better understanding of the four energies, go ahead and do some detective work: Which of the energies need replenishing? Want the inside scoop on the secrets to achieving conscious productivity, both as a leader and an individual?

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Feeling drained? Here are specific actions you can take to help you identify, manage and replenish each of these energies definitions for these energies come from Prosilience, by Linda Hoopes Emotional energy Emotional energy is your ability to remain motivated, to overcome negative feelings and thoughts, to avoid being drained by setbacks and to actively enjoy life.

By pausing to identify the feeling and its source, you give yourself a break to reflect and choose the next best action Where can you ask for help or support from others? Physical energy This is the energy that most of us are familiar and comfortable with.

Here are some practices that can help to replenish your physical energy: Set a consistent bedtime, and consider a pre-bedtime routine. Avoid those screens before bed! Take opportunities throughout the day to slow your breathing down to 10 or fewer breaths per minute Stay hydrated!

Drink water first thing in the morning, and carry a refillable water bottle with you throughout the day Avoid too much sitting which may be tempting when you are physically drained! Here are some practices to help you build and replenish your mental energy: Reduce your multitasking — focus on one thing at a time.

Those of you that work with me directly know that I am not a believer in multi-tasking. Develop a mindfulness or meditation practice that works for you. Here are some practices to help you build and replenish your spiritual energy: Get clear on your values: What do you personally stand for? What matters most to you?

Look for themes and insight into what has meaning and purpose for you Care for yourself. Those in service professions tend to drain their spiritual energy. Engage in activities that you find joyful and uplifting — prioritize those in your calendar Now that you have a better understanding of the four energies, go ahead and do some detective work: Which of the energies need replenishing?

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Replenish Mental Energy -

Whatever mental energy is, it plays a role in shaping personality and accomplishment over the life span. The late behavioral geneticist David Lykken saw mental energy as the companion ingredient that catapults talent into genius.

He considered it a capacity shared by great thinkers and achievers from Archimedes to Isaac Newton, Ben Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Teddy Roosevelt, and Pablo Picasso. As mental energy is closely linked with intellectual performance, so is it tied to immune function.

Activated by stress and infection—any threat, external or internal, including troubling thoughts—the immune system triggers an inflammatory response that makes significant demands on energy.

Evidence indicates that inflammation also shifts attention towards negative bias , a possible pathway to depression , the mother of all low-energy-feeling states. Increasingly, any number of disruptions to metabolic processes in brain cells are being implicated in mental health disorders, including depression and cognitive decline.

Sitting at a desk all day decreases energy without necessarily increasing fatigue. And moderate exercise has been shown to increase energy without affecting levels of fatigue. Neurotransmitter systems seem to differ between the two: Energization, driven by dopamine and norepinephrine, supports approach behavior; fatigue, facilitated by serotonin and inflammatory cytokines, underwrites avoidance behavior.

Perhaps because we live in disquieting times that we struggle to make sense of—even decisions about what to put in the garbage bring us face-to-face with existential threats—there are unrelenting demands on mental energy. There are known ways of sustaining mental energy. Most accessible, perhaps, is the judicious use of whatever mental energy individuals already have.

Habits are nothing if not great conservers of mental energy. They obviate the need to make any number of decisions.

Good habits are even better; they additionally avert the need to expend energy on mopping up the damage done by bad habits. New York University psychologist Gabriele Oettingen developed mental contrasting as a way to mobilize the energy necessary to turn goals into achievements. The technique requires imagining a future you want to attain—writing a book, say—and the best outcome of that desired goal—feelings of accomplishment and pride.

The critical part is then avoiding pure fantasy by contrasting your wishes with the reality of the work necessary to attain them. The judgments people then make about how likely they are to attain the desired future are activating, and the energy mobilization can be measured physically in tests of hand-grip strength.

Further, Oettingen finds, mental contrasting gives rise to a universal arousal state in which energy is transferrable to mental tasks wholly unrelated to the fantasy that birthed it. The Energy Pantry Day in, day out, most mental energy is acquired from without—from diet.

Macronutrients—proteins, carbohydrates, fats—are essential. So is the entire panoply of micronutrients. As the energy powerhouse that it is, the brain definitely needs a steady supply of them all.

Many people reach for dietary supplements designed to boost mental energy. Most important for brain activity are B vitamins, vitamins C and D, omega-3 fatty acids, and magnesium. By Hara Estroff Marano published July 5, - last reviewed on August 16, Share.

Some experts describe mental energy as a mood state where you feel productive, motivated, and prepared to get things done. Low mental energy can easily translate to a drop in physical energy, too.

Physical movement might not involve the same level of cognition as, say, solving a math problem or preparing a report. Still, it requires brainpower. If you consistently feel low on brainpower, try adding some of the following foods to your meals each day:. Regularly eating a balanced diet can help you meet your nutritional needs.

This can go a long way toward maintaining your mental energy, instead of simply providing a short-term boost. Still, a quick snack can often provide a mental pick-me-up.

A healthcare professional or dietitian can offer more guidance on creating a meal plan that fits your dietary needs. Your brain also needs water to function, so staying hydrated could have a noticeable impact on mental energy. According to research exploring the effects of caffeine on cognitive, physical, and workplace performance, between about 40 and milligrams of caffeine can help improve:.

Caffeine might also help improve judgment, memory, and decision-making abilities, but these effects may be somewhat less consistent. How much caffeine is in your favorite beverage?

It varies, depending on brewing strength and other factors. According to a review :. Get the details on caffeine content in other drinks and foods. According to the American Psychological Association APA , evidence consistently suggests that exercise benefits your mind as well as your body.

Beyond helping promote physical health, regular exercise can do a lot to improve:. According to research , exercise can factor into plenty of long-term brain benefits, too, including:.

Plus, a short walk, jog, or bike ride can take you to a new environment, which could help provide a mental reset that further stimulates your brain — more on that below. Learn the benefits of yin yoga for a mind and body reset.

Certain supplements might also help increase mental energy and lead to improvements in memory, thinking, and attention. A few supplements linked to heightened mental energy and brainpower include:.

Just keep in mind that supplements may offer more in the way of long-term benefits. Adding a regular meditation practice to your day could make it easier to mentally recharge and refocus — which can, in turn, help renew energy in the mind and body. The potential benefits of meditation can include:.

New to meditation? These tips can help you get started. Funneling most of your brainpower into a mentally demanding task can sap your energy pretty quickly.

Time in nature can offer plenty of brain benefits, according to the APA , including improved mood and mental energy. Plus, sunlight can trigger the release of serotonin, which can help improve your mood along with your ability to focus. Even simply stepping out into bright sunlight for a few minutes could leave you feeling a little more alert.

It may not surprise you much to learn that stress can affect your mental energy levels. Having too much to do can often contribute to physical fatigue, after all. Stress prompts the release of the hormone cortisol, which can affect your ability to make decisions, concentrate, and remember information.

Though stress can come from any number of sources, it never hurts to explore your daily or weekly schedule to find a likely point of origin. You might not be able to ignore every task, of course.

But consider setting aside some less urgent responsibilities. It might also be worth asking a friend, family member, or co-worker for support. Any help they can provide might ease some of your burden, which can help relieve stress and improve your mood. As a result, you might feel recharged enough to manage the rest.

You might already know your brain requires a certain amount of quality sleep for optimal function. But do you know how much sleep you actually need? Most adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night, though your specific sleep needs can vary.

Sleep also gives your brain the time it needs to store information, get rid of waste, and carry out other important body processes. You might feel dull, distracted, and even have trouble regulating your emotions. But beyond a short-term drop in mental energy, sleep deprivation can have more serious consequences for your mental and physical well-being over time.

Find 17 tips to improve your sleep here. A consistent lack of mental energy can sometimes suggest an underlying mental health concern, like depression. Professional support can make it easier to identify potential reasons for low mental energy and begin exploring solutions.

Crystal Raypole writes for Healthline and Psych Central. Her fields of interest include Japanese translation, cooking, natural sciences, sex positivity, and mental health, along with books, books, and more books. She lives in Washington with her son and a lovably recalcitrant cat.

Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

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