Need energy and focus? When I ask people what would make the biggest difference in their enjoyment of life, energy and focus hits the top of the list.

We are tired, stressed-out, pulled in a thousand directions, surrounded by electronics that give off electro-magnetic radiation that effect our brains in God-knows how many ways. No wonder our adrenals are shot, our sleeping is sketchy and we caffeinate our way through the day.

Personally, I have been through chronic fatigue twice and adrenal exhaustion countless times. (No one knew about it until recently but my symptoms feel VERY familiar so I am sure I have been through it before.)

Give your brain regular breaks.

Conscious thinking, setting goals, planning, visualizing, is all accomplished in the pre-frontal cortex. The pre-frontal cortex cycles down every 90-120 minutes making focused work very difficult. Your body signals the downshift with yawning, hunger and sleepiness. We can only force ourselves to push through it by setting off the stress response in our body.

Instead take a quick 5-10 minute break. Get up, get a drink of water, chat with a coworker, get a breath of fresh air.

Drink plenty of good water.

This one is a twofer:

  1. Be sure to drink enough water: While everyone differs a bit, you need to drink approximately half of your weight, measured in pounds, ounces of water.
  2. Be sure it is clean water: Tap water is not what you think it is. Sadly, there are chemical and toxins in our water, flouride, chlorine and, most recently, the finding that Chromium-6 (the chemical Erin Brokovich found) is still in 2/3 of the water in the US, you need to be sure the water you are drinking is truly clean.

Get the right sleep.

Yep, we know we need sleep and we probably aren’t getting enough. But did you know the “right” sleep makes a difference?

Again, two thoughts for this one:

  1. Lights out by 10:30: Maybe even 10pm, depending on your physiology. We begin to get our second wind (read: initiate the stress response and a hit of adrenalin) between 10:15 and 10:30pm which then makes getting to sleep much harder.
  2. The time before midnight counts double for quality: Our sleep before midnight is doubly powerful.

Become friends with Young Living Peppermint Essential Oil.

Research shows Young Living Peppermint Oil lights up the part of our brain we use for focus. Really, how cool is that? (Sorry, I can’t reference it. It is in a DVD. You can see the trailer here and order it here.)

I create a spray with the oil and spray my face (eyes closed!) for a quick pick-me-up:

Consume antioxidants.

If you are in search of ONE supplement you can add to your life that gives you the most bang for your time it’s antioxidants. If you aren’t sure what they are, here is the 2 cent description:

Free radicals are the bane of our existence. They are essentially the by-product of living and wreak havoc in our bodies. They are linked to early aging (gack!), cancer, inflammation and dementia. They are also tied to: fatigue and brain fog, basically they make our bodies run less efficiently. AND we have more of them when we are stressed, not sleeping well, eating food that isn’t perfectly clean. (Ha! Anyone?)

Anti-oxidants are the Pac Man for free radicals. They eat the free radicals to help the body run more efficiently.

You can find anti-oxidants:

Food Sources: goji berries, blueberries, dark chocolate (phew!), pecans, cranberries, and more.

Essential oils: Clove (nature’s strongest anti-oxidant), Thyme, Mountain Savory, Cinnamon Bark

Essential oil infused products: My favorite is a Young Living product called NingXia Red. It is an anti-oxidant juice that tastes good and feels amazing in the body.

Ready to take the next step with Young Living?