Feeling a little lack-lustre lately...a bit jaded--lost your sparkle? Can't remember what it's like to be bursting with energy, vitality, and joie de vivre?

I've been feeling this way lately, I know where I'm going wrong, and it's time I got myself sorted. Want to join me on a journey of self-discovery? Find out just how good you really can feel? The place to begin is simple. Start back at the basics--it really is S-O S-I-M-P-L-E...

Sunlight is vital to enable your body to produce vitamin D, and vitamin D is crucial to your health. It promotes a strong skeleton, heart, and muscles, and improves immunity, helping to protect you from cancer. Vitamin D optimizes your body's utilization of sugar and helps maintain insulin balance--key to sustaining your energy levels. Try to get out in sunlight for 20 minutes every day, without sunscreen or sunglasses. UV light, registered through your eyes, also promotes serotonin release (which lifts your mood and regulates your appetite) and melatonin production--a potent antioxidant needed for quality sleep, mood stability, adrenal health, and immunity--all imperative to restoring your vitality.

Oxygen (can't live without it!): the great energizer and detoxifier; the more oxygen in your body, the more energy you create. Air your home, car, and workplace daily. Plant trees around your home, and keep houseplants indoors. Practice deep breathing, yoga, Pilates, or Tai Chi, and partake in regular aerobic exercise (any activity that gets your heart pumping for more than ten minutes) to boost oxygen levels. Increase blood (therefore oxygen) circulation by adding cayenne pepper, chillies, curry, onion, garlic, and ginger to your diet. Ensure a good intake of essential fatty acids (oily fish, nuts, and seeds, and leafy veggies), to improve the ability of your blood to carry oxygen. Increased oxygenation provides increased stamina. Junk food, sugar, and food additives deplete oxygen levels, and smoking robs you of 50% of the oxygen your body needs. Fear, worry, and anxiety all interfere with free breathing, thereby reducing your oxygen uptake, too.

Sleep is fundamental to life. Sufficient sound sleep will see you waking refreshed, restored, and revitalized. Sleep is not only a time for your body to rest and rebuild, but also for your brain to process information received, and lessons learned that day (often as dreams). Keep your bedroom as dark as possible (wear a sleeping mask if it's not pitch black) and try to keep to a regular bedtime. Irregular sleep patterns negatively impact your quality of sleep, which in turn affects your well-being, immunity, physical and mental performance, and mood. Alcohol and smoking reduce REM, and the deeper, restorative stages of sleep. Caffeine before bed will also disrupt your sleep quality and may just keep you awake altogether! New research shows that lack of sleep disrupts hormones that regulate appetite--sleep deprivation leads to increased hunger (which can contribute to obesity). Always try to get to sleep before 11pm and aim at 8-9 hours. I know, it's one-third of your life spent asleep, but this profoundly affects the other two-thirds of your life! You’ll feel fantastic for it.

Next: Insulin stability and increased and improved nourishment. Blood-sugar level highs and lows cause unstable insulin levels, which drain your energy, leading to fatigue, brain fog, and hunger. Cut out all that processed crap and eat only real food and raw food. Keep your insulin levels stable by slowing the glycemic response (the speed sugars are liberated from foods) and learn about the glycemic index (GI) of food. Never skip meals, and eat smaller meals more often--the slower and more regularly you eat (i.e. every three hours), the slower the glycemic response. Eat fiber, protein, and essential fats with each meal--the rougher the texture, the slower the response (i.e. a baked potato has a lower glycemic index [GI] than a mashed potato). Raw foods have a slower response than cooked. Have one low GI food with every meal to balance the effect of high GI foods. Reduce alcohol, sugar, sodas, white flour products, caffeine, and dairy products, and avoid MSG (flavor enhancer 621), aspartame (and diet drinks and foods), and trans fats, which all cause unstable insulin levels, and consequently reduce your vitality. Water is the elixir of life--drink eight glasses of pure, filtered water every day. Dehydration zaps your energy and causes lethargy. Fluid is needed to transport nutrients and oxygen to your body's cells. Hydrating fluids also come from foods with a high water content, such as fruit and vegetables, and from herbal teas and juices. Eat more fiber and nutrient-rich foods such as fresh fruit and veggies, nuts and seeds, legumes (beans, peas, etc.), and whole grains (especially, oats, oat bran, barley, and brown rice). Lessen your red meat consumption and eat more fish (especially oily fish such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, and herring). Increase your antioxidants---include as many natural colors in your meals as you can; make your plate a rainbow! Berries, grapes, broccoli, beans, carrots, kale, spinach, tomatoes, capsicum--they'll all help you get your spark back. Top antioxidant nuts and spices are pecans, walnuts, and hazelnuts, cinnamon, cloves, and oregano. Add herbs to your meals too, to give you more verve. Keep high-energy snacks, such as nuts, seeds, and dried or fresh fruit on hand so you won't be tempted to snack on empty, energy-draining junk food. Eat organic foods where possible--the fewer chemicals you ingest, the more vitality you will have! Take a daily multivitamin and mineral complex to boost your nutrient and energy levels.

Meditation, massage, martial arts, music, and medicine (herbal, of course) are recommended relaxation methods for stress reduction. Increased relaxation will raise your vitality and help you regain your love of life (conversely, if you're lethargic and tired because you're stuck in a rut, add some challenge to your life to energize yourself!). Be aware that adrenaline raises blood-sugar levels, so keeping stress to a minimum will promote insulin stability. Meditation exercises increase oxygenation (which boosts energy levels), and improve sleep quality. Visualization can help, too (if you're feeling flat, try this ancient yoga technique: close your eyes and picture a vibrant, energizing light shining down from the heavens and making its way through your head and into your body, down to the tips of your toes. Or else stand up straight and imagine drawing every conceivable color up from the ground, through the soles of your feet, flowing throughout your body and out through the top of your head to the sky. Channeling light and color lifts your vitality). Massage, with therapeutic-grade essential oils, will provide exquisite relaxation, and the oils give an extremely high-energy frequency. Martial arts such as Qi Gong enhance immunity and promote increased energy. Improved posture and oxygenation, such as gained from Tai Chi, will improve the flow of chi (energy) throughout your body, revitalizing every cell. Acupuncture, acupressure, and reflexology also enhance chi, your life force. Music can promote relaxation or excitement, depending on the style you choose. Either way, be it chilling out, or dancing 'til you drop, stress reduction will be achieved! Singing out loud elicits emotions and raises vitality. Address emotional trauma with a practice such as EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique)--the emotional baggage that we carry around weighs us down and diminishes our joy in life. Drop the baggage now! Herbal medicine can enhance relaxation--a simple chamomile or peppermint tea may help you sleep well, liquorice tea can boost your energy levels, lemon balm can relax you and lift your spirits, and passionflower, lime blossom, skullcap, and oat seed will all help to induce peace of mind. Flower essences such as Bach Flowers Rescue Remedy are very supportive too.

Positive thoughts and attitudes create more sparkle. They alter your chemistry, generating alkalizing chemicals which boost your health and sense of well-being. Emotions such as resentment, jealousy, and anger create chemical responses in your body which are acidifying, toxic, and undermine your health. Surround yourself with energizing positive people and avoid people who zap your energy and bring you down. Negativity is draining and contagious! Gratitude yields energy. Be thankful, every day, for the gifts life has given you.

Love and laughter--spend time with someone you love, be it your lover, pet, friend, or grandma; giving and receiving love are fundamental human needs which can sometimes be overlooked in our busy lives. Even a loving phone call or email will lift your spirits. A plant in your workplace will increase your energy--not only with extra oxygen--because just having other life around you enhances your vitality. And have a laugh or three whenever you can. Watch a funny DVD, go see a comedian, tell some funny stories yourself--look for humor in your everyday life... Laughing reduces your level of stress hormones, boosts your immune system, and lowers blood pressure. Those who love and laugh out loud live longest!

Exercise is energizing and essential to a healthy lifestyle. It stimulates your circulation and oxygenation and improves elimination. It elevates your mood, increasing endorphins and enkephalins, which make you feel good. Exercise stabilizes blood-sugar levels, increases your immunity, and aids weight loss. Try to have at least 30 minutes of exercise a day--do something that raises your heart rate and increases your breathing, even if it's just a brisk walk. Regular stretching improves blood circulation and increases energy levels, so even when you're office bound you can still find ways to revitalize yourself!

It's a beautiful day--I'm off for a long beach walk and swim with my man and dog. I've packed a water bottle, a nutritious picnic lunch, and our favorite CDs to listen to in the car on the way. Our dog loves life to the max and gets so excited by the ocean--he always makes us laugh! I know we'll have a great day, hanging out together. Then it's home for a damned good sleep. Ahh, it's so simple, really...

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