Recharge your batteries: 10 x more energy for everything you love

It is as if bewitched: Actually you would have to be rested, slept well, was perhaps only a few weeks ago on vacation - and yet you feel tired, listless, exhausted. The energy that you once had seems to have been used up like the pocket money in childhood, which was no longer enough on Wednesdays for the coveted sweets, although you wanted to get along with it until Sunday.

20% of Germans feel "almost always" exhausted!

Being leached out as a kind of normal state is a new and, above all, widespread phenomenon: over 20 percent of Germans feel almost always? tense and exhausted, almost half "often", the surveys of health insurance companies show.

What's going on there? Should not we have enough energy in our comfortable life to do what we want or need to do instead of being unfocused during the day and fix and all in the evenings? In other words, what can we do to make us feel powerful and alive?

First: Change the setting!

Immediately buzzing possible answers in the head around: better timing, more sports, eat healthier ...! Everything right, sure brings something. But one crucial factor we should not forget: Those who want more energy should first of all take pressure off their lives. Granted, that's easy to say, if you have to reconcile job, child, partnership and all the other duties and desires as a working woman. And yet it depends on what attitude we take to the thing (s), how good we are in feeling management.

Negative feelings cost strength, positive feelings make us active

The American psychologist Barbara Fredrickson of the University of North Carolina says:

"When we make an effort, feel rushed or under pressure, we experience anger, anxiety or impatience, these negative emotions drive us to overcome problems or pressing tasks, but it is precisely those who cost strength and energy So positive positives like joy, affection or curiosity give us new power - no matter how much we really have to do. "

In many studies, Fredrickson has shown that positive emotions make people more creative, energetic, and open to new things. ? 3 to 1? is the rule of thumb established by the psychologist: Those who consciously experience three times more positive than negative feelings a day feel permanently alive and powerful.

The most effective source of power remains unused

Maybe you think now: How should that work? Nothing pleasing happens to me, that's why I'm so finished ... The problem is usually not that we do anything good in everyday life - but that we do not actively use this power source.

After all, our warning system in the brain is polarized to catastrophes and dangers, therefore, we perceive negative situations and feelings much more than the positive. And so many special moments disappear completely unnoticed: the nice encounter at the bakery, the farewell kiss of your partner, the funny WhatsApp of a friend.

Is that ringing something? Maybe you'll smile when you think about it. Lightness is spreading in you. Energy flows. The switch in your head can not be changed overnight. But this is how it works.

1. Go, get out of here!

Dr. Daniela Haluza, Specialist at the Center for Public Health of the Medical University of Vienna, sends people into nature.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Why does the famous walk in the forest do us so well?

DANIELA HALUZA: The very fact that one is in nature away from everything else that surrounds oneself in everyday life - computers, work, colleagues - leads to a relaxation reaction. It does not have to be the forest walk: the stress-reducing effect is already detectable if you have sat on a park bench for only five minutes; the heart rate decreases, less stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are released, the number of immune cells in the blood increases.

Even the sight of green plants can reduce stress. There is a famous study from the 1980s that has shown that people in the hospital recover faster if they can see green from the window than just a brick wall.

2. Sugar free

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde editor Daniela Stohn is a specialist in fitness and nutrition issues andabstains from sweets - once a year, for four weeks.

DANIELA STOHN: "The toughest days are always the third and the fourth day, when the first euphoria is gone and there is a craving for chocolate, cheesecake, gummy bears ... It's like a withdrawal - I'm irritable, unconcentrated and ill-tempered.

For three years I have been eating sugar free every January. And fortunately, meanwhile, the greed attacks pass by in a few days and the energy returns instead.

If you stuff many quick-digesting carbohydrates from Naschkram, pastry and white bread into it, the following happens: The blood sugar level rises in a flash and drops off after a short time. The result is a renewed jieper for sweets. I try to escape this vicious circle and reduce my sugar demand to normal. Like a reset button that I press once a year. With success: Once the withdrawal is over, I feel energetic and fit. I taste more intense and I'm not so tired at noon.

Why do not I always live like that? Because I like to snack - and? sugar-free in the long term not only means no sweets, but also fruit yoghurts, juices, cereals, pasta, white flour products and much more. And I would not be able to do that. "

What could stop me?You have to plan very carefully what you want to cook, because many processed foods fall away.
Energy Booster:The good body feeling afterwards is unbeatable!

3. The portfolio of good feelings

Barbara Fredrickson, Professor of Psychology at the? University of North Carolina, pleads for oneintrospection with long-term effect.

BARBARA FREDRICKSON: "Think about your life and recall each and every one of the positive feelings: joy, pride, gratitude, cheerfulness, interest, hope, pleasure, inspiration, awe and - last but not least - love.

Then put together objects that you wholeheartedly associate with each of the positive emotional variations. Take a box, an album or create an electronic folder that you can watch again and again on your smartphone.

Invest time! This portfolio is a collection, a shrine to every nuance of positive mood.

My first portfolio was about the feeling of love. Images of my two little sons and my husband, a quote from French writer Marcel Proust, are: "Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy. They are the enchanting gardeners who bring our soul to bloom.?

I also added a snapshot of a lush, overstuffed armchair in our living room, where we silently cuddle together as a family and spend time together. And finally, my love portfolio contains a picture that perhaps demonstrates how deep inside I am a scientist: two chimpanzees chasing each other. It reminds me that love's love is old, universal and unstoppable.

When I look at my portfolio, I think about pausing more often, calling home when I'm on the go. The love that I share with my sons and my husband inevitably opens my heart and fills me with new energy - and it shows me how to live more intensely. "

What could stop me?You need some time and rest - at least a day, maybe longer - to create the album
Energy Booster:In peace and contemplation lies the power.

4. Break the rut

The sports scientist, motivational speaker and author Christo Foerster swearsMicro adventure.

CHRISTO FOERSTER: "I'm happiest when I just go out, no matter what the weather is like, because there are a lot of little adventures out there - British author and adventurer Alastair Humphreys calls them micro-adventures - you can not book them, just do them.

They become especially intense when I think completely out of the box and challenge myself anew. Why not just go by bike to the sea overnight, just walk straight ahead for two days or build a raft for my backpack and transport it across a lake?

But it is also less ambitious.Out of doors are always good days for me - nature is not a place we visit, it's our home, that's why it gives us so much energy.
I also draw much strength from the realization that it is always possible what I make myself possible. That I can go somewhere between two normal office days and spend the night outside in the bivouac. We mostly long for things that are far away. But there are 1,000 stars directly above us. We do not have to wait for them, they're waiting for us. "

What could stop me?The biggest effort is turning the switch in your head - adventure is mainly a matter of attitude. Sleeping outside is also possible with the mattress in the garden.
Energy Booster:Doubles as a pair for two.

5. Absolute devotion

Marion Molter, database manager and typeface artist, draws strength from sinking into one activity, the so-called flow.

MARION MOLTER: "In the morning I work as a database manager, in the afternoon I am in my studio - I have developed myself to be a calligraphy artist with many self-taught and many courses Most associate with calligraphy Asian or Arabic typefaces, but I work with our occidental writing, the also has a lot to offer for typeface artists. And: She's got something to do with me. Who writes, connects with himself. And that gives energy.

Of course, in my classes, participants often hesitate and say, "But I do not have a nice handwriting. But that's not the point. Those who use a pen, brush or wood and ink instead of the usual pen will break away from old habits or even fears and can enjoy how powerful writing is.
You are completely in yourself. The writing tool glides over the paper, you are focused, but not tense. One is in the moment, because writing is complex - and those who digress in thought, are committed. "A sense of flow sets in, the courses are always filled with quiet joy.
It is said that writing and language in the brain are very closely linked to emotions and images. I can understand that. Because when writing develops immediately a feeling that says one, this letter must be larger or smaller. And? In the end one is always amazed that the result is an artistic one.

Personally, as a 365-day project, I write one word a day, which is an important nuance of the day. I choose the writing tool and the color that suits me intuitively. This year, I always write something that I have done or felt. Angry, happy, celebrating, making beautiful, active, restless are words that I've already calligraped this year. It's like a little tribute to the day. "

What could stop me?It takes 15 to 60 minutes per day, possibly also a course visit to come in.
Energy Booster:Just be somewhere else - best of all - be yourself. "

6. Pretty funny

Dr. René Proyer, psychologist at the Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, sets upHumor.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Mr. Proyer, you have found in studies that humor is an important source of contentment and energy in life. To be honest, in my everyday life, not so much fun happens ...
RENÉ PROYER: "That's a question of perspective, we gave our study participants very simple ideas - and everyone could do the humor exercises and benefit from them."

? Humor exercises? sounds rather unwitzig. What can you imagine?
"For example, the task of reading something funny or watching a funny movie, or gathering the most bizarre events that happened during the day, which is by the way the simplest exercise with the biggest effect - when you spend a few minutes in the evening Time takes and notes the three funniest events of the day, one is astonished that one always guaranteed something to think of it. And you usually have to laugh again when you remember it. "

But will I be more satisfied with that?
"Our study participants were even happier with their lives six months after the exercise week, and obviously the learning effect is great, those who practice humor are more fun, and a lot of everyday life becomes easier, and because you notice it right away, you look the other way humorous on the world, you can find funny things everywhere you just have to look. "

What could stop me?In order to be receptive in stressful everyday life to how much fun things actually happen, one needs curiosity and openness.
Energy Booster:It automatically sets up more ease.

7. The stretch pose

For Angela Schöneck, ChroniquesDuVasteMonde beauty editor and certified Kundalini yoga teacher, isyogathe ultimate source of energy.

ANGELA SCHÖNECK: "Yes, I know, yoga, yoga again, yoga for cows, yoga for cows, nude yoga ... God, but when, for a while, I could not summon up any energy for the least, I became occupied with the body after a few weeks back to myself again.?My? Yoga is Kundalini Yoga after Yogi Bhajan, a pretty dynamic style. Each of the exercise series has fixed asanas, ie postures, by the energy channels, the meridians, or organs are positively influenced.

One of my favorite postures that gives me instant energy is the stretch pose. The preparation: lay on your back, stretch out your legs and arms, your feet are close together, the arms are on the body, the palms are pointing to the thighs. Then push the lower back towards the floor, lift the head slightly, make the neck long - the chin slips slightly towards the sternum - and drop the head again.

And this is how the exercise works: Tighten the pelvic floor and at the same time release legs (feet are stretched), arms and head / neck in full tension approx. 15 centimeters from the floor and inhale and exhale deeply through the nose. The eyes fix the feet. To the lower back? relieve, calmly bend your knees a bit. It's exhausting, but it takes a minute!

What could stop me?Absolutely no desire for yoga.
Energy Booster:Yoga is great. Point. The stretch pose itself is strenuous as I said and therefore medium fun, but really effective.

Extra: We show you the best yoga exercises.

8. Free yourself

Volker Hirschfeld is a coach and convinced of theIdea of improvisation.

VOLKER HIRSCHFELD: "In improvisational theater, adults get the permission to play, and most of all: to play with each other, which one does not have otherwise.To play conventional theater, you first learn the role, at Improtheater you slip directly into a role, is diva or burglar, child, musical star, you are seductive or evil, you play what you feel in yourself, everything you should never be, and many of the participants experience it as an explosion of energy after the first excitement.

The Improtheater has only a few rules, but they are important: for example, accepting offers. So if someone meets me as a diva, I respond to the diva and do not just wipe the role away. This requires great concentration, because you have to get involved in the other and at the same time feel in yourself. The head turns off, intuition and body take over - you feel the role more than that you think about who you are and what you say then. One is at the moment and fully there.

When you are connected to your body, something happens that you could call happiness. You can feel an incredible power. Many people can take this experience into their everyday lives. You become more relaxed when dealing with others. Know that the playfulness of the encounter gives you energy when you get involved. And you also dare to show yourself more.?

What could stop me?You have to want to play and have time - about two hours a week or for a weekend course.
Energy Booster:To rediscover oneself.

9. An XXL package close by

Anik Debrot, Research Associate at the Department of Psychology, University of Lausannethe power of sex and tenderness.

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde: Ms. Debrot, you examine why sex is a real energy boost for couples. Is not that clear?

ANIK DEBROT: "Honestly, science has not really had much to say about this for a long time, but at first you might think that the biggest energy boost in sex is orgasm, but our studies show that maybe that's not quite true."

What is it then?
"Most of the energy is probably because you experience so much touch and tenderness when you have sex, the touch is probably the real source of power that we tap into during sex." If we touch another person, we clearly show that I am for you there, and you are important to me, and that feeling is essential to our well-being.

In a first study I was able to show that couples who often exchange small caresses each day feel happier and better understood by the other. Those who receive pats can cope even with grief or stress better. When you get sex, so to speak, the XXL package touches. "

Also give? Harmless? Touching energy? For example a hug among friends ??
"When we are touched or touch another person, we physically feel that we are not alone, much less misleading than verbal exchange, and when a friend is sad or uncomfortable, you should never hold back the impulse to admit it Of course, you should not break any social norms, but in general you can say: Touch is a great source of power. "

What could stop me?Tenderness or touch can not be demanded. Neither from the partner nor from friends.
Energy Booster:Consciously given touches give strength.

10. I'll be with me

ChroniquesDuVasteMonde employee Markus BruggemeditatesEvery day.

MARKUS BRUGES: "The ticking of the kitchen clock, my breaths, in-out, in-out.I can feel myself sinking deeper into myself, as my breath goes into my ribcage and my stomach. It took a while for me to get it right: to consciously perceive the sounds around me and still be with me.

I was facilitated by a multi-day course in the European Institute of Applied Buddhism (EIAB) in Bergisches Land and later a longer stay in a Buddhist monastery in California.

Meditation was for me above all an exercise in patience.
My thoughts used to always go away, they were either in the future or in the past. At some point it annoyed me that I often felt so hectic. In the meantime, I like to meditate with you? an app,? Headspace? is her name. With me, I take ten minutes daily for Andy, who guides me with his friendly voice.

Researchers scanned the brains of meditators-and after eight weeks, they had more brain tissue in the areas of compassion and perception; and less in those for stress and anxiety. I also observe that in myself. I am more aware of myself. Be more aware when I'm stressed and just take a deep breath. "

What could stop me?One should take ten minutes daily, better would be 20.
Energy Booster:More serenity and a better handling of stressful situations.