Day #33 - 40 Days of Training Videos - Do you feel drained at the end of the day?

Ever feel like you don't have enough willpower to resist the cookies, chips, or wine after a long hard day?

Do you feel the need to reward yourself with food because of stress, or emotional overwhelm?

Sometimes we're drained because of the mental focus we put into a project or the number of decisions we've made throughout the day. Experts call this decision fatigue.

I've felt this way on a regular basis as have most of my clients.

I've been researching the brain for about 3 years now, especially the part responsible for will power. My research has helped me understand how to train, and manage this amazing resource.

Many of us beat ourselves up when we lack self-control or the energy to take care of ourselves the way we want. We feel we've failed in this area, even though many other areas of our life seem fine.

There's an important piece of the brain puzzle you may not be aware of...

Maybe you believe as I used to, that our will power is like a muscle which grows stronger with work.

It doesn't!

The part of the brain responsible for will power, is more like a battery which loses it charge very quickly. Similar to a cell phone.

We can't put more charge in our phone by talking more–neither can we recharge our mental battery by working it harder and longer.

This is not a character flaw, this is the way we are designed.

Our mental energy is a resource which needs to be managed.

Here's some of what diminishes our mental battery:

• Stress
• Emotional Overwhelm
• Focus
• Decision Making
• Resisting Temptation

If we come home after focusing on a project all day, or handling the emotional overwhelm of raising kids and making decisions. It is easy to understand why we might rather snack on the couch than go to the gym. We've depleted our mental battery!

There are few things we can do to make the most of our mental energy:

• Do our most important self-care work (body, mind, spirit) first–when our battery is charged. We can't give away what we don't have.
• Take breaks throughout the day– especially helpful if the this includes oxygen, eg. walking or deep breathing
• Get quality sleep. Create a dark, quiet, calm environment for sleeping. Better to read fiction, take a bath, do yoga or pray rather than work.
• Feed quality "brain food" into the body. If it comes in a package with ingredients you can't pronouce it's not brain food. We literally create or damage our brain cells by what we eat.

Interesting fact: Our brain uses 20% of our body's overall energy. That's more than any other part of our body including heart, lungs or legs.

Let's manage this resource well.

Watch Video #33 in 40 Days of Training Videos here.