Some Alternative Practices to Energize Your Life

When all is said and done, life is always better in a myriad range of different ways when we are able to live with a heightened degree of energy and purpose on a daily basis.

For too many of us, finding “energy” in our everyday lives is something of an impossible task, and we end up relying largely on substances such as caffeine to an inordinate degree to try and get us through each day and to compensate for our imbalanced lifestyles.

When trying to find avenues to make your everyday life more interesting, motivating, and energetic, you might do a range of different things — from calling chat line numbers when you’re feeling lonely, to trying out different high tech devices that promise to make you feel more energetic, or that offer to help you to deal with the stresses of everyday life better.

As in many cases, though, there are a lot of benefits to be had from exploring certain “alternative” practices that have a more holistic focus — things that can help to restore you to a state of balance and that can very powerfully rejuvenate you.

Here are just a few alternative practices to try, that might energise your life.

Yoga

Yoga is a deeply holistic tradition with very ancient roots.

It includes a combination of physical postures which strengthen and lengthen muscles while improving flexibility and posture, a focus on deep breathing exercises, and a very central spiritual component.

If you’re striving to live a more energised daily life in particular, all sorts of different forms of exercise are likely to be beneficial. Simply walking around more can go a long way towards boosting your energy levels, in and of itself — as sedentary living has very detrimental effects.

But not all forms of physical activity have a comparable set of benefits to yoga. Yoga is quite unique in how it helps to promote the health, strength, and flexibility of the different muscles and joints in a low-impact manner while having an overall vitalising effect.

If you do a powerlifting routine, there’s a good chance that you will find yourself feeling absolutely shattered after your workouts sessions, that you will experience stiff muscle groups, and that you will feel all sorts of aches and pains on a daily basis — along with a significant likelihood of different injuries.

If you do yoga, however, you are far more likely to find yourself feeling rejuvenated after each session — and more energised, balanced, comfortable, and mobile on a daily basis.

Sea swimming

Sea swimming can be an extremely energy-boosting and rejuvenating experience for all sorts of different reasons, likely including a variety of reasons that no one is even aware of.

As for some of the stuff we are aware of, though: sea swimming typically involves becoming immersed in some pretty chilly water, which naturally has an awakening and stimulating effect in and of itself. At the same time, cold water exposure in reasonable doses and at reasonable intervals is thought to convey a range of great benefits, including better stress management, better vascular function, and even elevated mood.

In addition to cold exposure, sea swimming also involves immersing yourself in all of the salts and trace minerals that are floating around in the sea — and it’s long been thought that this can have a variety of positive and energy-boosting effects in and of itself.

Regularly swimming in the sea also means getting some moderate physical activity in, while at the same time getting closer to the natural world, and stepping back fro the concerns and preoccupations that may be hounding you in your normal life.

Forest Bathing

People have been drawn to forests for a very long time, and have found there to be something magical and powerful about them — and the Japanese trend of “Forest Bathing” is just one of the latest incarnations of that fascination.

The idea of Forest Bathing is, essentially, that you should take the time to simply be in a forest on a regular basis — ideally strolling, perhaps — and that doing so can help to melt away stress and to promote deep feelings of wellbeing, and better overall health.

It’s been suggested by some that the benefits of being around trees are partly to do with the health-promoting aerosols that trees release into their surroundings, but there’s also the fact that trees produce fresh air, and that walking in the forest involves physical exercise.

While there’s no perfect and clear-cut answer why so many people find the experience of Forest Bathing so simultaneously energising and relaxing, it’s undeniable that this experience does happen.

Making Forest Bathing a part of your regular routine may help to enrich your life in a number of different ways, with boosting your energy levels just being one.

Deep breathing and pranayama

While pranayama breathing exercises are a part of yoga, many people do yoga without much if any attention to the breathing component, and a variety of other people focus on breathing exercises without doing the yoga poses, or “asanas.”

Deep breathing can be energising, not least of all because it helps to stimulate circulation and give the internal organs a massage through the action of the diaphragm muscle.

Deep breathing exercises can also mean better oxygenation of the blood, and a better ability to expel stale air from your lungs and to take in fresh air instead.

Positive visualisation and questioning of negative beliefs

While there can be plenty of physical reasons why you might be experiencing low energy levels, negative states of mind and habits of thought can rob you of your energy and sense of balance, too.

By taking up positive visualisation practices, and by identifying and questioning negative beliefs that may be at play in your own life, you can help to ensure that you feel significantly more optimistic and motivated on an everyday basis, in general.

When your mindset is significantly more empowered and upbeat, you will very likely find yourself feeling more energised as well.