We’ve all heard the expression, “mentally drained.” The truth is, however, that mental work alone can’t make you tired. Sounds absurd, but it’s true. In a study, scientists tried to find out how long the human brain could labor without reaching “a diminished capacity for work,” the scientific definition of fatigue. To their amazement, the scientists discovered that blood passing through the brain, when it is active, shows no fatigue at all! If you took blood from the veins of a day laborer while he was working, you would find it full of “fatigue toxins” and fatigue products. But if you took a drop of blood from the brain of an Albert Einstein, it would show no fatigue toxins whatever at the end of the day.
So what makes you tired?
Psychiatrists declare that most of our fatigue derives from our mental and emotional attitudes including resentment, a feeling of not being appreciated, a feeling of futility, hurry, anxiety, and worry. Those are the emotional factors that exhaust the sitting worker, make him susceptible to colds, reduce his output, and send him home with a nervous headache. Remember that a tense muscle is a working muscle. Ease up! Save that energy for important duties.
The answer to nervous fatigue, of course, is to learn to relax while you are doing your work! It may not be easy, and you may have to reverse the habits of a lifetime, but it is worth the effort, and may revolutionize your life.
How do you relax? Do you start with your mind, or do you start with your nerves? Actually, you don’t start with either — You always begin to relax with your muscles.
Give it a try…right now: To show how it’s done, let’s start with the eyes. After reading this paragraph, lean back, close your eyes, and actually say to your eyes, “Let go. Let go. Stop straining. Stop frowning. Let go. Let go.” Repeat that over and over for a minute while concentrating on relaxing your eyes, and then open them up. You will feel like some unseen hand had wiped away the tension! Do the same thing with your jaw, with the muscles of the face, with the neck, with the shoulders, the whole of the body. Go ahead…give it a try now.
You can go through this relaxing process at any odd moment of the day, almost anywhere you are. And as you feel the energy flow out of your muscles, remember—relaxation is the absence of all tension and effort.
Welcome to the world of relaxing while doing your work!
This post is brought to you by the good folks at Dale Carnegie Training of Michigan, providers of professional development and management development courses and information in Michigan. We would love to connect with you on Facebook!
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