We know that exercise improves energy production within cells, and that a lack of activity reduces this production [1]. Put simply, exercise increases your energy levels, and a lack of exercise reduces your body's ability to produce energy.

Not only does your body physically produce more energy when you exercise, there's a mental benefit too. People who exercise more self-report higher levels of energy, which is an important measure of the research [2].

This research was done on older adults mean age of nearly 87 , showing that there's a benefit to exercise regardless of age. It goes without saying that one of the ways to boost your energy is to make sure you get plenty of good quality rest.

You can't expect to feel energised if you're chronically under-slept. Most of us should be aiming for hours of good quality per night.

We know that a lack of sleep makes us feel tired and hungry [3]. We also know that when we're tired, we're more likely to make bad food choices. More importantly, we know that the bad food choices we make have a direct impact on mood, energy levels and general feelings of fatigue.

Research showing that diets with a high glycaemic load high in sugar are linked to mood disturbance and depression [4]. There's clear and strong research lining natural light and energy levels. There's a couple of reasons for this — the first one is vitamin D.

We know that sun exposure triggers vitamin D production. Still, it requires brainpower. If you consistently feel low on brainpower, try adding some of the following foods to your meals each day:.

Regularly eating a balanced diet can help you meet your nutritional needs. This can go a long way toward maintaining your mental energy, instead of simply providing a short-term boost.

Still, a quick snack can often provide a mental pick-me-up. A healthcare professional or dietitian can offer more guidance on creating a meal plan that fits your dietary needs.

Your brain also needs water to function, so staying hydrated could have a noticeable impact on mental energy. According to research exploring the effects of caffeine on cognitive, physical, and workplace performance, between about 40 and milligrams of caffeine can help improve:.

Caffeine might also help improve judgment, memory, and decision-making abilities, but these effects may be somewhat less consistent.

How much caffeine is in your favorite beverage? It varies, depending on brewing strength and other factors.

According to a review :. Get the details on caffeine content in other drinks and foods. According to the American Psychological Association APA , evidence consistently suggests that exercise benefits your mind as well as your body.

Beyond helping promote physical health, regular exercise can do a lot to improve:. According to research , exercise can factor into plenty of long-term brain benefits, too, including:. Plus, a short walk, jog, or bike ride can take you to a new environment, which could help provide a mental reset that further stimulates your brain — more on that below.

Learn the benefits of yin yoga for a mind and body reset. Certain supplements might also help increase mental energy and lead to improvements in memory, thinking, and attention. A few supplements linked to heightened mental energy and brainpower include:. Just keep in mind that supplements may offer more in the way of long-term benefits.

Adding a regular meditation practice to your day could make it easier to mentally recharge and refocus — which can, in turn, help renew energy in the mind and body.

The potential benefits of meditation can include:. New to meditation? These tips can help you get started. Funneling most of your brainpower into a mentally demanding task can sap your energy pretty quickly.

Time in nature can offer plenty of brain benefits, according to the APA , including improved mood and mental energy. Plus, sunlight can trigger the release of serotonin, which can help improve your mood along with your ability to focus. Even simply stepping out into bright sunlight for a few minutes could leave you feeling a little more alert.

It may not surprise you much to learn that stress can affect your mental energy levels. Having too much to do can often contribute to physical fatigue, after all.

Stress prompts the release of the hormone cortisol, which can affect your ability to make decisions, concentrate, and remember information. Though stress can come from any number of sources, it never hurts to explore your daily or weekly schedule to find a likely point of origin.

You might not be able to ignore every task, of course. But consider setting aside some less urgent responsibilities. It might also be worth asking a friend, family member, or co-worker for support. Easier said than done, of course. So how can we practice flexible thinking?

The key is asking ourselves challenging questions when we notice negativity taking hold of our thoughts. But what does that look like exactly?

Our immediate reaction might be that of hurt. Next, we question our ability to add value to the project — the well-known imposter syndrome. Did we do or say something to offend?

We jump to conclusions and get lost in all-or-nothing thinking. When those things occur, we become stuck in unhelpful thinking, and the negative cycle continues: What we think turns into what we feel. This translates into our behavior.

Because we feel worried and on edge, we become short-tempered and impatient. We're stuck in a fight-or-flight response, so after the meeting, we phrase an email reply to our assistant more strongly than we usually would have. The anxiety and worry drain our energy, and we feel too preoccupied and less motivated to continue to work throughout the day.

This escalated quickly! So how can we keep ourselves from going down the well-trodden path of negativity and rewire our brains to react more positively next time? These questions alone can interrupt the automated cycle of thinking-feeling-behaving. Taking a moment to reflect and see what really happened reframes the situation's outcome.

We might remember that our colleague is struggling to balance work with homeschooling their children. Their reaction, therefore, might not be about our idea!

Perhaps the reaction came from the stress of unsuccessfully trying to explain a math problem to their kids earlier that day. This puts us at ease. We make a note to revisit the pitch, and we check in with our colleague to see how they feel.

We are not anxious or worried, and we have more mental energy to work on other tasks more effectively. Later, instead of lashing out at our assistant, we give productive and kindly-phrased feedback. A simple tool to implement flexible thinking into our everyday lives is the SUN model:.

What we can change is the way we look at them. Interpreting a situation differently and consciously counteracting our biases affects both our behavior what we do and how we feel our emotions.

Between the stimulus and our response, we have the ability to choose what our response looks like. Because we make a different, deliberate choice, we do not waste energy on negativity. Instead, we retrain our brains to pave the way for a more positive outlook on life. Do this often enough, and the well-trodden neural paths in our brains become those of positivity and not negativity.

Next time you catch yourself getting stuck in negativity, try flexible thinking, and challenge your biases! When we first moved to remote working, video conferencing apps like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and WebEx seemed like the perfect solution to all our communication issues.

At the start of the pandemic, we even used them extensively after working hours. Remember Zoom quiz nights in the early lockdowns? As the months turned into years, our excitement about these virtual meetups with friends and family declined. We might even experience a slight sense of dread just reading about yet another Zoom call.

While we can decrease the number of virtual meetups in our spare time, online meetings are still a necessity when working remotely. Now, it is only with reluctance that we go through a workday of videoconferencing.

Afterward, we might feel more fatigued and drained than after a full day of meetings in the office. But why do we feel exhausted after a day of online meetings? And what effect does that have on our relationships with others? Scientists have started to unpack the effects of Zoom fatigue on our physical and mental health.

Research from Jeremy Bailenson , head of the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, argues that Zoom fatigue comes from an overload of nonverbal cues that are slightly delayed, inhibiting our brains to assign meaning to them.

As a result, our cognitive system gets overwhelmed and becomes tired more quickly than usual. Our high energy slips through our fingers while we stare at our screens, our brains working in overdrive to keep up with the unnatural stimuli that we are exposed to.

Another negative side effect caused by the energy drain we experience from Zoom fatigue is that our communication style changes. When online communication interrupts human interaction, these numbers drop even lower.

Online communication is a communication form based on limitations. We are missing social interaction, are limited to our audio-visual senses and miss out on crucial body language cues because we only see the upper half of our colleagues.

Ensure a positive work environment within these limitations by placing special emphasis on building and maintaining positive workplace relationships.

So how can we increase positivity in relationships in a virtual world? According to renowned psychotherapist John Gottman , for any relationship to be perceived as positive, at least five positive interactions are necessary to offset one negative.

Sound familiar? We can reach similar conclusions for professional relationships in the workplace. One way to increase positive interactions is by using Active Constructive Responding. Active Constructive Responding is a technique in positive psychology that provides guidance on how to react when someone shares positive news with us.

Ideally, this reaction is a positive one, involving genuine interest and enthusiasm. Ask questions that enable your counterpart to relive the positive experience by sharing it with you.

Tell me how you found out! Active Constructive Responding ACR involves what we say and what our body language displays. When someone shares positive news with us, make sure you share their enthusiasm and ask questions, but also remember to communicate your excitement nonverbally.

Smile to convey joy, and have an open body language. Avoid turning your body away or crossing your arms. Positive nonverbal signals will make your partner feel acknowledged, supported and appreciated. Body language is an even more important factor in virtual communication, as it is often interrupted by the framing of our camera.

In a study conducted by University College London that introduced hand signals as body language in video calls, the test group practicing the signals reported significantly higher ratings for group interactions and a stronger sense of group affiliation. ACR is thus highly effective in facilitating positive relationships in both in-person and virtual communication.

Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests ACR increases important factors like relationship satisfaction, trust and stability — all of which are crucial for successful relationships at work and beyond.

Zoom, Microsoft Teams, WebEx and other software were intended to ensure continued communication throughout the isolation of the pandemic, but they drain our energy even more than a normal long workday does.

Instead, focus on positive ways to keep communication open and productive. In the quote commonly attributed to Carl W. By practicing ACR, we bond with our colleagues on a deeper level. What is mindfulness? Being mindful means to bring the body and the mind together in the now.

Practicing mindfulness helps us anchor ourselves by actively directing our thoughts, instead of letting our mind run wild. After all, the nature of the mind is to produce them! Mindfulness is more about bringing ourselves back to the present, when we get distracted or overwhelmed by our thoughts and feelings.

The neuroscientific evidence is convincing: Practicing mindfulness changes the frequency of our brain waves and, as a result, activates different parts of our brain. According to research led by Britta K.

Hölzel, mindfulness reduces stress and anxiety by decreasing activity of our amygdala, thus actively preventing amygdala hijacks and the release of stress hormones such as cortisol.

It improves our ability to concentrate without getting distracted, and our relationships with others. Because we free up mental space when we focus on the present, mindfulness also has the potential to enhance our creativity.

All these changes can be physically traced in different regions of the brain. Research led by Philippe Goldin found that when practicing mindfulness, the hippocampus, responsible for memory and regulating our amygdala, is considerably more active. Research published in Psychological Medicine found similar results in the prefrontal cortex, the region of the brain associated with impulse control.

So how is this helpful? Working remotely, our workspace invades our homes and our private spaces. Setting boundaries and creating separate spaces is more challenging when our kitchen table becomes our work desk or when we can see our workstation from our bed.

Recharging becomes more difficult, as work is almost omnipresent. The lines between work and free time blur to the point that we might find it hard to switch off completely.

In a world of remote and hybrid working, mindfulness can help us create mental boundaries when we cannot have physical ones.

Mindfulness is already effective after only one minute session. When we include it in our daily routine or at least three times a week , it can even change the physical shape of our brain neuroplasticity after only eight weeks , according to Headspace.

A mindfulness practice usually involves a focus on the body and senses — and, more specifically, on our breathing. Our VBAK model provides a good overview:. The following mindfulness practices show how to put the VBAK model into practice and implement mindful moments in your work life.