Life takes a lot of work! Busy social lives, taxing careers, exercise, even grocery shopping for the healthiest foods is exhausting. In today’s chaotic world, any of these daily activities, on top of the general tension, just adds a lot of extra stress. And all this stress messes with your neurotransmitters, so they don’t get recharged overnight, and you wake up feeling like a foggy mess.
From your digestion to the heartbeat, emotional bonding to breathing, chemical messengers are known as neurotransmitters keep your brain and your body communicate. And when you wake up fatigued, chances are your neurotransmitters are affected by all this chronic stress.
The higher your stress levels, the higher your cortisol levels. And cortisol produces more of the neurotransmitter called Glutamate. Glutamate wreaks havoc on our bodies because it creates free radicals – or unattached oxygen molecules. These free radicals seem to have one mission: to do damage to your brain. They can punch holes that eventually kill brain cells.
No wonder so many people these days are waking up foggy and fatigued!
Fire Up those Neurotransmitters
You can’t snap your fingers and simply command stress to back off, putting your neurotransmitters and the rest of your brain in balance. But you can cultivate some practices to combat stress, and the more you practice them, the better you’ll feel.
For most people, you’ll start to feel the results quickly – with extra energy and zest for life.
If you’ve been dealing with chronic fatigue for a long time, it may take a while to restore your energy. But hang in there! You can fire your neurotransmitters back up and find your long-lost vigor!
5 Ways to Reduce Stress for Energized Mornings:
1. Meditate:
Certain meditation techniques, such as loving-kindness meditations or mantra meditations, can be particularly useful for the early morning hours. They set a positive tone in your brain and cultivate positive feelings for the rest of the day.
2. Exercise:
You don’t have to jump into a full workout in the morning – for a lot of people; it may be better to save that for later in the day.
In general, physical exercise is one of the best things you can do for your brain. As it increases the production of new brain cells, slows down brain cell aging, also increases the levels of dopamine. And it also shifts your mood almost immediately and gives you a positive outlook on life.
In just five minutes of exercise, you can get these benefits and energize yourself for the day. And there’s a lot you can do in five minutes. Search for a 5-minute HITT workout or Yoga routine on Youtube or do some rebounding on a mini-trampoline.
3. Gratitude Journaling
Shifting our mindset to focus on all the positive things in our lives and the world acts can radically fire up our neurotransmitters to reduce stress and fill us with fueling energy. Positive thoughts have been shown to activate certain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine and serotonin, the “happy chemicals”. Thus, focusing our attention on things we are grateful for forces a shift to the positive – and positivity naturally shoots energy through our body.
Take two minutes to jot down a list of things you are grateful for every morning. This simple act stimulates more neurotransmitters in our brains than nearly anything else we can do. Feeling good is what enables us to engage in activities that fuel us – and keep your energy going strong for the rest of the day.
4. Take a Cold Shower
Bio-hackers like Wim Hof and Dave Asprey are all about cold showers. Exposing yourself to a cold shower triggers a host of biological processes in your body, like:
- Increasing blood flow
- Increasing neurotransmitters
- Upping your respiration
All these benefits spike your energy and boost your mood, and set you up for a great day.
5. Dab on Some Supercharging Minerals – Or Take a Bath!
Mineral balance is fundamental to an energetic body with fully-firing neurotransmitters. And the amazing thing about minerals is that they can be absorbed transdermally – and this can be far more effective than oral supplements.
Strontium, in particular, can fire up our neurotransmitters almost immediately. Interestingly, it can affect the neurotransmitter to have higher peaks and prolonged firings throughout the neuronal network. One study, “Neuronal Network Activity,” shows that Strontium enhances the firing rate, bursts of spikes throughout the neuronal network, and elevates release at different times. Suggesting that increased off-timed release on the single-neuron level promotes bursting activity throughout the network.
If you live near natural mineral cold or hot springs – you’re lucky. These pools are usually rich in strontium and can get your neurotransmitters fired with a quick dip.
But for the rest of us, you can dab Ka-Pow!, a mixture of Strontium and other key minerals onto your forehead to fire up neurotransmitters!
Control the Neurotransmitters that Control You
Set yourself up for success. Make sure you have your meditation recording primed the night before and/or a 5-minute exercise video ready to play. Get yourself a beautiful gratitude journal you’ll be excited to write in. Stock up on energizing minerals and/or psyche yourself up for a cold shower.
These tips are easy to implement, and they can make a huge difference in your day — and hopefully the rest of your life.
