Don't worry, be peppy: tired all the time? Most likely it's due to mental and emotional habits. Here are three strategies to stop the brain drain and achieve lasting vitality

Natural Health, Feb, 2005 by Sara Bowen Shea

IF YOUR get-up-and-go got up and left, you're not alone. "The single biggest complaint in my practice is fatigue--a dissipation of energy that was once available," says Mark A. Hyman, M.D., co-medical director of Canyon Ranch, a health resort in Lenox, Mass., affiliated with Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital. While a patient's low energy can be the result of an undiagnosed medical condition, Hyman sees firsthand the impact of the typical American lifestyle, which includes too little sleep, too much junk food, and not enough exercise.

Even if your body runs like a finely tuned engine, matters of the mind and spirit can drain away your energy. Letting your brain spin out on work deadlines, the threat of terrorism, or why a certain someone can never hang up his wet towel can be exhausting. Negative emotions like anger, jealousy, or regret can zap energy resources just as much as--if not more than--a Krispy Kreme hangover or a night spent tossing and turning.

"Emotions have a tremendous life force," says Los Angeles psychiatrist Judith Orloff, M.D., author of Positive Energy. "Positive emotions like hope and joy increase energy, while negative ones like fear and worry tap you of energy."

Boredom and lack of stimulation are also energy zappers. "Feeling drained isn't always a symptom of doing too much--it can be that what you're doing is not imbued with meaning," says Judith Wright, founder of the Wright Institute for Lifelong Learning in Chicago and author of There Must Be More Than This. Vegging out in front of the TV may seem like the most relaxing pastime there is, but it's actually a brain-numbing activity that can leave you unfulfilled and listless.

Happily, there are very real ways to start feeling more awake and to tap into a new reservoir of health and vigor.

(#1) Calm Your Racing Mind

In our 24-hour society, many of us feel like our brains are stuck in a feedback loop. The problem can seem particularly overwhelming when we're trying to get to sleep: The body has finally slowed down for a much-needed rest, yet the brain won't take a break.

To stop the cycle, tell yourself that nighttime is not worry time. "Lying in bed is not the time to problem solve," says Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., an internist in Annapolis, Md., and author of From Fatigued to Fantastic. "One option is to get out of bed and write down everything that is on your mind, because otherwise it just keeps swirling around. Then pick a later time to solve your concerns."

If you prefer to stay put, try a technique borrowed from meditation. "Don't fight the chatter; don't make war on it," says Jeff Brantley, M.D., founder and director of the mindfulness-based stress-reduction program at Duke University's Center for Integrative Medicine in Durham, N.C. "You don't want to get caught up in trying to stop or erase your thoughts, because the harder you try, the harder it is. Relax, allow your thoughts to happen, and just observe them." Brantley suggests that you accept and acknowledge your racing mind--try saying to yourself, "The chattering mind is still here"--to get the distance and perspective you need to disengage with your thoughts and let your mind come to rest.

Another way to focus your attention is to practice mindful breathing. When you find yourself moving away from the present moment, concentrate on your breath: Inhale deeply, then slowly release. Try counting each breath, or pick a word like life or love and utter it in your mind with each breath for about 15 seconds. Recognize that each breath is a new experience, says Brantley, just as the conversations and occurrences around you are new each day.

A talkative mind can also keep you from being present in your daffy life, whether it's at your desk, at your son's baseball game, or out on a date. Being distracted by thoughts about the past and future wastes energy and diminishes enjoyment. All you have is the here and now, so practice living in it.

(#2) Defuse Negative Emotions

Anger, fear, worry, and regret don't just feel draining--they are draining. Chronic negative emotions affect levels of important brain chemicals that in turn deepen negative moods and deplete energy levels. "There is absolute physiological proof showing that mood changes the delicate balance in the neurotransmitters," states San Francisco psychologist Matthew McKay, Ph.D., co-author of When Anger Hurts and The Self-Esteem Companion. "The result is a huge impact, not just on mood but on the experience of energy."

Anger, for example, provides a temporary boost through the release of adrenaline, but it ultimately leaves you depleted. "It wrings your body out with a brief spurt of energy," says McKay.

Similarly, everyone falls prey to fear, but some people get eaten alive by it. In her book Positive Energy, Orloff developed a seven-point plan to de-energize fear.

1. Name your fears so they can't ambush you.

2. Listen to your intuition to distinguish rational fears--which can energize you to deal with them--from irrational ones.

3. Say a prayer that your fear will be lifted. You can "pray" to whomever you want: God, a departed family member, or your guardian angel.