I have had almost an entire week with my body battery in the 90s and I need to figure out what I’m doing right.
Overall it feels like the best thing I’ve done is quit alcohol. But that has also had its complications, such as Restless Leg Syndrome. But this week my RLS has settled down and I’m sleeping pretty well now.
The second thing that I think I’ve been doing right is eating dinner early. As long as I have dinner at least five hours before I go to sleep, I seem to sleep better and my glymphatic system is able to raise my heart rate variability. This seems to result in higher recovery rates for me. My body battery seems to charge faster and I have less sleep at night.
The third thing that seems to be going well is reducing my caffeine intake. Caffeine appeared to be giving me anxiety during the day even though it was so low I could barely feel it. But my heart rate variability scores were lower and my breathing rate was higher. So that appeared to be a very slow, subtle drain on my energy. But every little bit adds up.
Fourth, I have been exercising every day. Sometimes it isn’t for long and often I don’t really push myself, but I am trying to create a healthy habit. When I do push myself, especially doing sprints when I run, it seems to result in lower stress for the day, higher HRV at night, and a better body battery score in the morning. I’m still not entirely clear on how exercise improves my energy, but it must have something to do with stress relief, heart resilience, and the happy chemicals it releases. I don’t particularly enjoy exercising every day, especially when it is so cold out, but I do enjoy the benefits.
So that’s it for me right now. I am thrilled to be posting such high energy scores this week. It feels like I am coming over the top of a mountain and looking down into a valley of joy. I think habits are like that. They kind of remind me of a snowball that you’re pushing up a mountain. You have to overcome all the bad habits you have on one side of the mountain as you’re building up your snowball. It gets really tough near the top especially when it’s so cold and lonely. But once you get over the top, all the good habits you have started to accumulate can build up also, and the going gets easier. Once you build up your momentum and you have accumulated good habits and you’ve gotten rid of all the bad habits, things really start going fast into that valley of joy.
So here is to entering that valley of joy.
