Summer is supposed to be a time for enjoying the great outdoors and participating in sports and other active physical pursuits. But the fierce summer heat can be tiring and debilitating, and the discomfort it brings depletes your energy, making you feel sluggish, drowsy, and cranky.
What can you do to recharge and energize your mind and body? Feel cooler and more vitally alive with these easy and effective ways:
• Ice. Can you imagine summer without ice? It would be hell! Iced drinks and chilled food stabilize the body’s hyper temperature. Spritz or splash cool water on your face and skin. Ice packs applied on the forehead, behind the ears and neck refresh and cool. Slices of frozen cucumber on a face towel over the eyes add sparkle to exhausted eyes. In the summer heat, the cold will startle and shock your system into alertness to revive your flagging energy.
• Music. If a military marching band can keep battalions of men going to war feeling alert, invincible and in high conquering spirits, imagine what a little upbeat music can do to perk you up when you’re having those drowsy summer blues. Play your favorite summer tunes to keep you feeling sharp and aware. Turn up the volume of swinging disco music and dance and shake those tensions and lethargy away.
• Laughter. Share your funniest jokes with friends and laugh heartily with loud outbursts of belly laughter. Deep diaphragmatic laughter energizes the heart and increases blood and oxygen flow to the brain and body. Laughter keeps your breathing mechanism in tip-top shape. No wonder laughing is referred to as aerobics for the lungs!
• Quick energy snacks. Nibble on quick energy reliables: nuts like almonds, walnuts, peanuts, cashews, pecans, and pistachios; dried fruits like apples, bananas, mangoes, pineapples, apricots, figs, nectarines, peaches, pears, prunes, and raisins; and edible seeds like watermelon, pumpkin, and sunflower seeds. These snack foods are high in nutrition and have been found to lower the risk of heart disease, cancer, and other major illnesses. If you are hungry, a granola or energy bar can be a nutritious in-between-meals snack. Just make sure to watch the calories, sugar, fats, and salt.
• Aromatherapy. Many great-smelling essential oils wake up and stimulate the mind. You may use scented candles or commercially prepared sprays, or concoct your own aromatic mix. Essential oils of marjoram and chamomile help suppress mental fatigue. Patchouli and coriander seed oils stimulate the olfactory nerves, restoring awareness to the body and senses. Lemon oil helps clear mental congestion. Florals like ylang-ylang and lavender refresh, uplift, and arouse. Spray these energizing scents in the air, on your wrists or on non-staining surfaces and watch your energy bloom!
• Fake a vacation. Can’t actually leave for the mountains or the beach? Take a mental break right at home or at your work desk. Keep photos or posters of your favorite getaway at your work area or download scenes of a tropical paradise from the web onto your computer. Looking at images of vacation spots like a beach or a tropical forest is cooling and uplifting. Recorded sounds of waves and waterfalls provide the same energizing effect.
• Deep breathing. Need a real quick energy boost? Straighten up and take a few deep breaths and feel the surge of power as your lungs get inflated with more than its usual oxygen content. Your body, organs and blood system get a flood of the chi life energy and you will feel a warm tingling flush all over your body. Most of us have forgotten how to properly inhale and exhale with deep, invigorating and cleansing breaths.
• Stretch and yawn. Take time to deliberately stretch your muscles with anaerobic stretching to release built-up muscular stress and reduce muscle fatigue. Do some yoga poses and feel their holistic healing benefits. Yawning quickly expels stale air caught deep within your lung’s air sacs; this cleansing gives you renewed energy and more focused awareness.
• Energizing massage. Get a brisk, circulation-stimulating massage at your favorite spa. Don’t confuse this with a relaxing massage which is bound to ease and put you to sleep. Tell the masseur to use quick, energizing pressure on the vital points in your extremities and back to wake up your body and stimulate blood flow and dispel body toxins.
• Loosen up. By dressing loose, you’ll be more comfortable and your blood will circulate better because you won’t have any restricting belts, tight clothes, and movement-restraining accessories. Kick off your shoes, and let your feet be caressed by the grass and sand. Enjoy the freedom of wearing almost nothing and celebrate your body and physicality.
• Feast your eyes on the sights of summer. Yes, enjoy the colors and savor the visual pleasures of the season. Set your eyes on cool rivers and oceans, blue skies and violet mountains, green meadows and trees, and colorful bursts of flowers and refreshingly green foliage of plants and bushes. Summer comes ablaze with brilliant colors that awaken the spirit and fill the heart with the energy of nature’s awesome beauty and grandeur.
Brushing with menthol flavored toothpaste cools my mouth and when away from home, I chew on spearmint gum to help keep my breath fresh and cool. I enjoy using cooling foot sprays like Dr. Scholl’s and Beauty Formulas’ Instant Foot Cooler (available at Watson’s) to revive my tired, aching feet. Chilling out in an air-conditioned mall is visually as well as mentally stimulating, too.
And these are my favorite mouthwatering waker-uppers: chilled watermelons, diced ripe mango with ice shavings, chilled gelatin (gulaman at sago) with milk, iced young coconut (buko) juice, semi-frozen fruit salad with cheddar cheese cubes, chocolate pinipig crunch icicles, and the quintessential, colorful Philippine halo-halo (Chowking serves the quickest and most flavorful)! Yumm!
Cheers to a fun and energy-filled summer!