Thursday, I attended a talk given by a life coach specializing in helping people increase their energy levels. We all know how precious energy is and I have yet to meet a person who wouldn't increase their energy levels if they could.
The talk started out with the statistic that 30% of our energy comes from physical sources (what we eat, how much and our quality of sleep, and exercise). The other 70% comes from how we are emotionally oriented to our world. The "glass half-full" mentality gives us more perceived energy (ability and willingness to interact with our environment) than those of us that are the "glass half empty" mentality.
The coach spent 40 of the 45 minutes talking about the things we can do to eat better, sleep better, and exercise more -- all of the things we know we should do -- all of the things the magazines lining the grocery store check-out scream at us.
The last 5 minutes of the talk touched on the emotional component of our energy levels. This seems to me to be a HUGE oversight! Not only from a numbers perspective --wouldn't I want to invest more time into the side of the equation that is responsible for the largest percentage of my energy? And don't I know enough about what I should be doing for my physical energy? And working on the emotional side of the equation is open to everyone! Because it is all in your head, it is open to unlimited change -- you are completely in charge of what goes on up there. Sure, it may not be easy -- but there isn't anything stopping you except yourself.
But before I get too ramped up talking about this, let's bring this back to the task at hand -- eating.
We live in a society that is focused on breaking things down to small parts and figuring out what the small parts do in isolation. You cannot tell me that reading the label on your fav Ben and Jerry's container is going to give you an understanding of the texture of the ice cream as it melts in your mouth (assuming you are being mindful and let it melt -- not just gulp it down in an effort to get the next spoonful in -- trust me, I have done both). Reading the label will not give the same emotional satisfaction of feeling the crunch of nuts mixing with the smooth and cold sensation of chocolate chunks -- tasting the flavors increase as your mouth brings the spoonful closer to body temperature. The experience is something completely different than fats, carbs, and proteins.
Why does it make sense to base something so wonderful as the opportunity to eat really flavorful foods on a list of the basic parts? Where is the joy in that? You may (and indeed do) get physical energy (measured in calories) from ice cream. But are you making use of that calorie expenditure to get your 70% emotional energy boost? If you are being mindful (tasting, appreciating smell, color,texture,etc.) you have a better shot at eating a few bites and getting a big boost on the emotional side without having to eat the whole container (and all the attendant calories).
Think about the foods that give you the greatest emotional boost. Are they all sweets? You all know how much I love cookies -- some cookies give me an emotional boost. But so does a beautiful salad, warm gnocchi with red sauce, the beef and tomatoes my mom makes, delicious soups. Just because we are talking about emotional energy boosting foods, it doesn't mean they are only the foods that would make a dietitian squirm.
The point is: every time we eat, we have an opportunity to fuel our physical selves AND we have the ability to fuel our emotional selves! We could get 70% more energy from something we already to if we just tune in a little more.
Seems like it is worth a try!
*** for those of you interested in the emotional energy side of things, I recommend a book called The Emotional Energy Factor -- the secrets high-energy people use to beat emotional fatigue ****
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