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DR JOHN DEMARTINI - Updated 1 year ago
People constantly ask me what is the wisest way to increase their energy levels.
If you perceive that your level of energy is low or diminished, it may just be a valuable feedback from your body to help guide you towards a more meaningful and authentic life where you are inspired, vitalized and energized.
A diminished level of energy can be a wonderful opportunity to guide you back to the basics that underlie an inspired, energized and vital life, so let’s look at 6 proven steps to turbocharge your energy levels in 2023 and beyond.
STEP 1: CLARIFY YOUR HIERARCHY OF VALUES
This, in itself, is the highest priority action you can take to help increase your energy levels.
If you haven’t yet heard me speak about values, then let me briefly explain what I mean by values.
Like every human being on the planet, you have a unique set of priorities, a set of values, a hierarchical set of actions that are most to least important in your life.
- Each time you live congruently with your highest values, your energy levels go up.
- Each time you attempt to live by your lower values, your energy levels go down.
Think about it this way - if you are doing something you love to do and you're energized by it and engaged in it, you're most likely to be spontaneously inspired to do it.
On the other hand, if you're feeling like you have to force yourself to do it and require extrinsic motivation (the promise of reward or the threat of punishment) to get you to do it, you likely have the brake pedal on and tend to frustrate, hesitate and procrastinate in the process of completing it.
So, anytime you do lower-priority tasks, you're likely to drain your energy. In fact, the majority of times that people feel overwhelmed and drained is when they feel trapped doing something that's not engaging, not inspiring and not spontaneously fulfilling for them.
Most people have little or no idea as to what it is that they truly value.
Perhaps they have a vague idea or possibly they’re clouded by perceptions of what they believe they “should”, “ought to”, “must” or are “supposed to” be doing.
It’s for this reason that I designed an easy and more objective process to help individuals identify their unique set of highest to lower values. This process can now be done privately online, by having individuals fill in the Demartini Value Determination Process available on my website. It takes around 30 minutes for you to complete and will take you step-by-step through a series of questions that will help you identify what your life already actually demonstrates as being most important to you.
Once you have clarified your highest values, you can then look at how aligned or congruent your life currently is with those highest intrinsic values.
If you are spending the majority of your day performing lower-value tasks, that may be powerful feedback as to why your energy levels (and likely your fulfillment levels) are lower than what you would love them to be.
An example I often use is that my highest values are teaching, researching, and writing. I am most energized when I fill my day with those tasks. However, if I spent my day in my lower values such as cooking or driving, I will feel drained, unfulfilled and feeling diminished intrinsic drive to complete those low priority tasks.
To sum up this step: The Demartini Value Determination Process is a wise and efficient first step you can take when aiming to raise your energy levels.
STEP 2: PRIORITIZE YOUR LIFE ACCORDING TO YOUR HIGHEST VALUES
I often say that if you don’t fill your days with high-priority actions that inspire you, they are likely to become filled with low-priority distractions that don’t.
No one else is likely to dedicate his or her day to ensuring that you live fulfilled by your highest priority. That’s up to you.
It takes planning and holding yourself accountable on a daily basis, but the benefits far outweigh the time it takes to plan.
Here are some practical ways to begin:
- Make a list of every single thing that you do throughout the day on an average day for multiple days for months. Just aim at compiling a list of exactly what it is that you do.
- How much is it producing per hour? How much meaning does it have? Is it something that is essential for you to do? Could it be delegated? Is it something that you would love to delegate so that it frees you up to spend more time doing what you love?
If you're not delegating your unique lower-priority actions, you're likely trapped doing things that drain you.
Instead, if you're performing higher-priority actions, you tend to regain energy.
You can see this play out when you have more energy at the end of the day than when you started. If you look closely at your day, you likely filled it with things that inspire you.
At this point, you may not yet be in a position to delegate those lower-priority tasks. In that case, it is wise to:
- Clarify exactly what it is that is draining you. Be specific.
- Find out how specifically completing these lower-priority task or tasks is helping you fulfill what you intrinsically value the most. I refer to this as linking – linking your lower-value tasks to your highest values because at the end of the day, it comes down to your mindset. It’s not actually about what you’re doing but your PERCEPTION of what you’re doing. Eventually, it is wise to delegate these actions, but temporarily linking these activities to what is highest in priority reduced its draining effect.
I like to explain it this way. Suppose I ask you if I can hit your thumb as hard as I can with a hammer. Your likely response would be a flat-out refusal.
Suppose I then offered you ten million dollars if I could hit your thumb with a hammer - your response will tend to be completely different. Why, because you associate a fulfillment reward with having your thumb hit by a hammer – your perception about it has changed.
So, if you take the actions you do on a daily basis that are not as inspiring to you and are things you perceive you should/ought to/must do/ are supposed to do, then it is wise to identify how temporarily doing it until you can delegate it will help you fulfill what's most meaningful to you.
I am certain that your energy levels will immediately go up.
To sum up this step: if you would love to have more energy, then it is wise to learn to prioritize your life. Prioritize how you spend your time, what you read, whom you hang out with, what you spend your money on, and how you fill your space. Living by priority, in itself, can transform both your life and your energy levels.
STEP 3: PRIORITIZE THE WAY YOU EAT.
Some people live to eat and indulge, while others eat to live and perform. I prefer the latter.
I'm not an indulgent, impulsive eater in that I already know what I'm going to eat in advance and don't live by outside influences telling me what I'm going to eat.
After decades of research, observation and self-reflection on what maximizes vitality in individuals I found a series of actions that are effective and wise to follow. I do them on a daily basis:
1. Prioritize your eating and do it with moderation, rhythm and consistency.
If you overeat, you'll tend to feel tired and sluggish. If you undereat, you are likely to have insufficient vital energy from food.
So find out what moderate zone works best for you, be consistent and keep rhythmic.
That means that if you choose to eat two meals a day, eat two meals a day at consistent times.
If you choose to eat three meals a day or five meals a day, stick to that. This is wiser than skipping meals, overeating and feeling guilty and undereating and feeling proud and creating a yo-yo cycle.
Anytime you add volatility or irregularity to your eating, you're going to add volatility to your blood sugar, which is going to make you feel high and then low. That's why so many people use stimulants such as coffee, tea and sugar during the day and then switch to sedatives such as alcohol or sleeping medication at night.
Eating in moderation the foods that you truly love which have also been demonstrated to help you perform most efficiently is wise, but excessive amounts of stimulants or sedatives are going to wobble your system instead of giving you vital energy.
2. Prioritize eating maximum-performing foods.
This includes making sure you eat an adequate amount of fiber. If you're not eating enough fiber, your Bristol stool specimens will move towards rocky hardness. If you eat too much fiber, it'll move towards wet and loose stools.
If your stools are too loose, you’ll tend to drain energies and electrolytes. If they are too hard, you’ll tend to slow down and constipate. Both extremes affect energy levels.
Each one also creates a different microbiome in your gut. Loose stools can result in the secretion of neurotransmitters into the brain to make you feel fatigued, frustrated, anxious or depressed.
Both extremes alter neurochemistry in the brain: when you're under distress response, it dries up the bowels and slows them down.
When you're under elation and some sort of infatuation, it speeds it up. As such, it is wise to keep the bowel regulated through balancing your emotions.
Drink water every day – it’s the universal solvent.
I pretty much only drink water and fresh vegetable juices. That’s it. As a result, I'm a high steady energy guy.
To sum up this step: The longer and the more volatility you have, the shorter your lifespan is likely to be. The more consistent, moderate and rhythmic you are, the higher the probability of elevated energy you'll tend to have.
STEP 4: MODERATE YOUR EMOTIONS
In all likelihood, you have experienced times when you have felt highly emotional, followed by a decrease in your energy levels.
Unbalanced emotions are pivotal when it comes to your energy levels. So, if you would love to have more energy, it is wise to learn to moderate your emotional extremes.
This is something I focus on quite specifically in my two-day signature Breakthrough Experience program that I teach most every week to audiences around the world.
Firstly (as I outlined in Step 1 above), I help you get clear about what your highest value is, so you're more governed, more inner directed, more focused, more empowered, more moderated and more masterful.
Secondly, I teach you a scientific method called the Demartini Method to help you dissolve any volatilities, reactions, and subconsciously stored baggage that you may be trapped in that's stopping you from being present, empowered and vital.
To sum up this step:
- Your energy levels go up to the degree that you're centered; and
- Your energy levels go down the second you're wobbly and all over the place.
Emotional volatilities drain your energy. As such, it is wise to learn to manage your emotions by first learning to balance your perceptions.
STEP 5: HAVE A MISSION AND VISION FOR YOUR LIFE THAT ALIGNS WITH YOUR HIGHEST VALUES
If, like many people, you are not clear about your unique and most meaningful purpose in life, then it is wise to take steps to clarify this.
In the same way that you are unlikely to build a house without having a clear blueprint of the final product or set out on a vacation without having a clear destination in mind, so too is it wise to wake up every morning having a clear vision for your life.
A powerful starting point to wake up your inner visionary would be to ask yourself:
What is it that I would absolutely love to do and how do I get beautifully and handsomely paid to do it?
What are the highest priority actions I can do today to make that happen?
What obstacles might I run into and how do I solve them in advance?
What worked and what didn't work today?
How do I do it more effectively and efficiently tomorrow?
No matter what happened today, how is it helping me fulfil my highest values and mission?
To sum up this step: I often say that those with a vision flourish while those without a vision perish. You can read more on “Finding Your Purpose” here.
STEP 6: PRACTICE GRATITUDE
Anything you cannot say thank you to will occupy space and time in your mind and run your life until you do see both sides equally and become grateful.
Once you see things ‘on the way’ instead of ‘in the way’, you’re set free of the bondage and burden of incomplete and one-sided emotional perspectives.
When you are grateful:
- You are more poised than poisoned, and more homeostatic than emotionally erratic.
- You tend to be more vitalized, have more energy and physiologically be more balanced and well.
To sum up this step: Anything you are ungrateful for becomes baggage and anything you are grateful for becomes fuel. You can read more about how to practice gratitude here.
TO SUM UP:
Your whole life is offering you feedback to make sure you're living an authentic and vital life.
Your highest value is where you’re the most authentic; purposeful; where you excel the most; where you’re most likely to have the least resistance and the most effective and efficient actions; where you're spontaneously inspired; and where you tend to have the most energy.
Doing something because you have to, or because you need a reward or a punishment to get it done, is not going to energize your life.
If you would love to learn more, or be guided through the processes I’ve mentioned above, then I could love you to attend my next two-day Breakthrough Experience program.
Just know that your vitality in life is directly proportionate to the vividness of your vision. Let's get clear on your vision at the Breakthrough Experience and let's help you have more purpose, inspiration, energy and vitality in the coming weeks and months ahead!
Are you ready for the NEXT STEP?
If you’re seriously committed to your own growth, if you’re ready to make a change now and you’d love some help doing so, then book a FREE Discovery call with a member of the Demartini Team so we can take you through your mini power assessment session.
You’ll come away with a 3-step action plan and the foundation to empower your life.
Book Your TICKET for Dr Demartini's Breakthrough Experience
If you’re ready to go inwards and do the work that will clear your blockages, clarify your vision and balance your mind, then you’ve found the perfect place to start with Dr Demartini at the Breakthrough Experience.
In 2 days you’ll learn how to solve any issue you are facing, transform any emotion and reset the course of your life for greater achievement and fulfillment.
You’ll unlock your true potential and lay the groundwork to empower all 7 areas of your life.
Get ready to take your life to a whole new level of meaning and purpose.
Today is the day you step into your power and value yourself by investing in your inspired life when you sign up for Dr Demartini’s signature seminar the Breakthrough Experience:
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