How has your wellbeing recently been? Do you keep it in balance or have a whole list of reasons to justify why you feel like you do right now? In this blog post I want to take you through an awareness journey of your wellbeing.
Energy and physical wellbeing
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ’wellness’ was first used in the 1950s as the opposite word of ‘illness’. You can also find that it was first used in the English language back in the 16th century and originated from the Italian word ‘benessere’, meaning ‘wellbeing’. If you’re looking for an energy boost, understanding wellness can be a key part of your journey.
You, and everyone else, use it to describe how ‘well’ you are as a human. Study of people, undertaken by the Gallup in more than 150 countries, identified 5 components that impact wellbeing overall state, those are:
- Physical
- Financial
- Career
- Social
- Community
Researchers from the Rollins College in Orland identified 9 pillars of wellbeing:
- Physical
- Emotional
- Creative
- Environmental
- Financial
- Occupational
- Intelectual
- Social
- Spiritual
I’m sure that if you would dive deeper into the topic you can find few other top fundamentals of wellbeing but in all of them the ‘Physical Wellbeing’ will be listed as a first one. Why? – you ask. It’s because in a nutshell, ‘Physical Wellbeing’ means having good health and enough energy boost to get things done on a daily basis.
No doubt, you want to be ‘well’ and feel ‘well’. It is desirable and normal. You tend to know and recognise the consequences of your energy dips very well. You know how it feels to be tired, sleepy and being prone to illnesses. I want to focus on the route causes which forms awareness of your wellbeing state and give you tips on how to stop them.
How do you feel wellbeing?
Imagine that your body is like…hmmm… like Christmas lights – nice comparison, isn’t it? 🙂 Just stay with me on this comparison, go with the flow and imagine the nicest, brightest colour for you. A colour that you would choose to brighten your house, garden, room etc. Got it? Cool.
Now, imagine that a few of your lights in the set have stopped working. How bright would your decoration look then?
Next, I need you to think about your ‘Physical Wellbeing’ in the same way. You can and you’ll still shine but you won’t illuminate as you would expect to do if something doesn’t work in your body as it should be.
Have you ever wondered if you can solve all ‘Physical Wellbeing’ issues at once? I would like to know your thoughts, so drop me a comment at the bottom page of this blog. Many people wonder how amazing it would be. I bet you personally think the same. But my thought is that everyone says ‘no, it’s not possible’. Is it?
There are ‘supportive tools’ you have available to choose from and improve your “Physical Wellbeing’. They are just like a replacement fuses typically packed in a box of lights – they not solve the problems of all lights but will improve the illumination.
Action vs. reaction
The most interesting bit about your ‘Physical Wellbeing’, in comparison to the chain of lights, is that the fast action you take to improve energy creates a fast reaction in your body. By ‘action’ I mean all positive, challenging and a mix of both events you experience. Let me picture this for you and analyse a few examples.
Example 1
Action – You get the most exciting news, e.g. huge lottery win.
Reaction – Your endorphins burst in a split second and the world is yours. Now you can be financially free and have time freedom. Every fibre of your being is expanding with energy boost and mentally, physically and spiritually you feel simply awesome.
Example 2
Action – You continue sleeping less and less hours every night.
Reaction – At first coffee, strong tea or a catch up nap can put you back on your feet. The longer lack of sleep continues then the shorter time your body has to regenerate. You will struggle to wake up at the time you need and against your body’s readiness to do so – does missing morning clock alarm feel familiar?
You’re likely to yawn more which is a reflex that your brain induces to wake you up or make you more alert. You’re likely to have dark circles under your eyes (signs of tiredness, those to be shadows cast by puffy eyelids), hearing but not listening to others (too little sleep leads to poor concentration and cloudy thoughts or listening fatigue). Disturbed eating patterns come into play or even eating disorders.
Did you know?
Did you know that people who sleep little tend to have higher ghrelin levels, meaning they feel more hungry, and feel less fullness compared to those who get 7 – 9 hours of sleep? Hence this impacts your body’s ability to get the right nutrients at the right time to allow your body to keep going effectively.
It’s like you can’t expect a car to run if you don’t put petrol in. The ‘I’ll do it later’ or ‘I’ll recover next week’ etc. will have the same effect as you would say ‘I’ll put petros later but now I need to get from A to B’.
This is not a magical spell that will fix the problem, exactly the same approach applies to your ‘Physical Wellbeing’. Despite wishes, putting aside what your body needs now, to a later time, will impact your performance.
What is the rescue?
Nutrients deficiency mixed with little sleep create your low energy.
You know that day can’t have 80 hours for you to solve all your challenges. But, try to gain a little more sleep every day. It can start from just as little as 30 min.
When it comes to vitamins and minerals you must remember that they don’t give energy boost. They trigger processes, at cellular levels in your body, responsible for energy production. This includes metabolising food you eat (carbs, proteins, fats) and oxygen transportation. When you have inadequate levels of nutrients in your body, your energy levels are affected. You can see this through the consequences of your mental and physical fatigue.
How many vitamins impacts your energy boost?
Below is an answer to your question. You can see how lack of key 1 vitamin can cause a domino effect and as a result your low energy level.
- Iron (Mineral) – without iron, oxygen that is delivered to your whole body is limited and this causes extreme fatigue (mental and physical). Low iron level symptoms include tiredness, headaches, low concentration, dizziness, muscle ache.
- Potassium (Mineral) – low level impacts control of the balance of fluids in your body. This is very important to your blood as it keeps your heart healthy and functioning correctly.
- Vitamin D – helps you to regulate the level of calcium and phosphate in your body. Low D levels symptoms affect bone and muscle strength which contribute to your fatigue.
- Vitamins from B Group:
- Vitamin B1 (Thiamin) – it helps other B tyle vitamins to break down and release your energy from food. Also helps to keep your nervous system healthy.
- Vitamin B2 (Riboflavin) – releases energy from food you eat, keeps your nervous system healthy as well as your eyes and skin.
- Vitamin B3 (Niacin) – helps release energy from food. Just like B2.
- Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) – it helps to store energy from protein and carbs in food and use it from substances that carry oxygen in your blood.
- Vitamin B7 (Biotin) – helps to process fat. In other words, it helps to process the most nutrient dense food (fat has 9 calories where protein and carbs have 4 calories each) in your body into energy.
- Vitamin B12 – releases energy from food you eat, makes red blood cells that carry oxygen and keeps your nervous system healthy. Low B12 levels contribute to anaemia.
- Folic Acid (Vitamin) – it works with B12 to form healthy red blood cells.
Best long-term energy boost
To find out what is your tailored best energy booster, you need to speak to your doctor and do a full count blood test. This way you will find out that is the right solution for you.
Don’t get fooled by buying the most expensive set of vitamins or one that has them listed at the largest amount on the nutrients label.
Supplements of such kind are designed for healthy people. They likely not to be right for you or not right now. There simply won’t be a need for you to take all the supplements as you can have some or most from your diet. Also remember that many of the good things will actually be bad for you. A blood test will help you to target your specific needs.
How to recognise low nutrients levels ?
A good first step is to have your awareness checked. How have you been in the last months? Can you recognise a situation, a pattern that led you to how you feel now?
Second thing is to think about your symptoms. Does your fatigue last longer than 2 weeks? Do you often wake up tired despite getting enough sleep? Do you feel unmotivated to start your day or perhaps you struggle with engagement in activities that normally were easy for you to do?
What else do you recognise in you that you think is a bit unusual? Don’t blame age! It has nothing to do with it during your awareness analysis of recent months.
The reality check
I asked you earlier if you thought that fixing all lights at once is possible. I hope you can see that it is but it depends on your awareness awakeness stage.
It can be that you are in a stage in which a boost of key nutrients will get you back on the desired track. You also know that life can take a toll on your energy level and lower your energy boost completely. A few weeks won’t solve the problem quickly. Keep your head up high because you have the skills now and know what to do, so you are in control.
If things are not possible for you to be fixed all of the time – don’t worry. Again, you now know what to do. Take small improvement steps and you will see a difference. It can take a few months – so what? You are still on a good trajectory and not being passive to signals your body sends you daily.
Natural vitamins or supplements?
Taking synthetic vitamins can be harmful if you don’t need them or overdose them.
But, they can also help you with getting the adequate and right amount of nutrients.
In those situations your doctor is the best person to consult your case with.
With natural foods and drinks you get other very important nutrients that help your body to role properly. They can help, for example, with vitamin absorption.
