My Experiments in the Practice of Everyday Life

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Tag Archives: "energy"



Secret of Adulthood: Burn Energy To Create Energy

Further Secrets of Adulthood:   I’m surprised by how true this Secret of Adulthood proves to be. Research shows that when people move faster, their metabolism speeds up. Also, because the way we act influences the way we feel (to an almost uncanny degree), acting with energy will make you feel more energetic. Standing up while talking on the phone, …


Do You Agree with These Four Levels of Mental Energy?

I love coming up with different schemes–and here’s a new one. I was thinking about the mental energy required by the different tasks of my life, and it struck me that this energy could be divided into four categories, in descending order of mental demand: 1. Contemplative energy—planning, deciding, creating, inhibiting (holding myself back from saying, doing, or thinking something), …


Epiphany: It Takes a Lot of Energy To Decide To Go To Bed.

I can’t believe it took me so long to realize this. I’d always assumed that feeling tired would push me to go to bed. Makes sense, right? I’m tired, so I want to go to bed. Nope! It’s a Secret of Adulthood: Going to bed takes a real burst of psychic and physical energy. When I’m tired, I find it …


7 Ways To Be Happier at Home.

Every Wednesday is Tip Day. This Wednesday: 7 ways to be happier at home. In my new one-minute video book trailer, I list “Ten ways to be happier at home.” Some of those suggestions are serious, and some are goofy (to my surprise, my suggestion regarding purple has turned out to be fairly controversial).  Here’s another list of ways to …


Find It Hard To Wake Up in the Morning? Try Stretching.

Every morning, first thing, to help myself wake up (it is 6:00 a.m., after all), I spend a minute or so stretching. This isn’t a rigorous or carefully designed set of stretches — more the kind of desultory stretches that we did in my seventh-grade P.E. class before running laps around the gym. I touch my toes, I do some …