The Body Articles are really a standalone addition, but, since you can’t have just, “Mind and Spirit” without “Body,” the last section was swiftly added. As you can imagine, these self-growth articles focus on keeping your body in tip-top form.

Fatigue - An Introduction

Gosh, if there's one thing I know all-to-well, it's the feeling of fatigue. Though, I'm not talking about feeling tired at the end of the day, that's natural. During the day, you exert yourself doing activities and whatnot during the day, so, obviously, feeling tired at the end is a good indicator that you're living quite normally. Yet, having that subtle feeling of drowsiness THROUGHOUT the entire day, from waking up to going back to sleep, for MANY days, is an indicator that something about your day to day life is unbalanced. I work the night shift, so, my sleep schedule is stupid... as a result, I am always tired from waking up to sleeping again. :(

Causes of Fatigue

It's vital to maintain a healthy sleep schedule, this not only has benefits for overcoming fatigue, but many other areas as well, such as headaches. The typical norm is to sleep at night for at least 7 hours, but no more than 10 hours. Of course, it doesn't really matter when you go to sleep, just as long as you maintain that schedule for a set amount of hours, the healthiest being 7-9. I'll also throw this fact out there, but, a study was done on three groups. One group who slept for less than 6 hours a day, one group who slept for 7-9 hours a day and one group who slept for 10+ hours a day. In the order of which group lived the longest without much complication were the group that slept 7-9 hours, followed by those who slept 10+ and far behind were those who slept less than 6 hours.

"Exercise!? Again!?" It seems that whenever we talk about ways to overcome headaches, fatigue and depression (etc)... exercise is always linked. For %'s sake, I've read about a study at the University of Georgia that conducted an experiment; they concluded that those who lead sedentary lifestyles with fatigue symptoms can, in fact, increase their energy levels by 20% and decrease their fatigue by 65% by doing regular, low-intensity exercise. Those are some pretty nice numbers... I personally suggest you get DDR to fill your "Low Intensity" exercise. DDR is amazingly fun and addicting, give it a shot.

You probably didn't expect this one, eh? To put it simply, certain bright colors have been proven to cause negative effects ranging from eye fatigue to headaches. In summation more light is reflected from bright colors causing the eye to work harder causing eye fatigue, so, colors such as bright yellow and red should be avoided if fatigue tugs at you. Stop staring at the sun, in other words. Fun facts, babies cry more easily in bright yellow rooms. It's also been recorded that couples fight more often in bright yellow kitchens.

I could very well make an entire article discussing exercising and diets. <S>Maybe later though. :)</S> Did it. Aw yeah!

So, how often do you look at the nutritional labels on foods? Based on what you're putting into your body has a dramatic effect on your well-being. In short, eating too many simple carbohydrates may cause fatigue. Carbohydrates are your body's main source for energy. Actually, let's discuss this further... there are two types of carbohydrates, simple and complex. It's important to maintain a healthy balance, but, in general, one should always go with complex carbs.

Carbohydrates that are easily and quickly digested and absorbed by the body; this is due to the simple chemical makeup of the carb. Because your body absorbs these so quickly and easily, think of simple carbohydrates as a concentrated source of energy. If you are not engaging in any type of physical activity that requires energy, the energy from the simple carbohydrates gets converted into body fat and you get tired because all the energy from that rush is now expired, thus, you are hungry again. Obesity isn't really the result of eating more calories than you use in a day, no, it has more to do with eating a great deal of simple carbs and not doing anything thereafter.

Simple carbs are mainly white foods such as plain biscuits, white bread (where the healthy grains have been removed/altered) and sugary foods from the checkout area of grocery stores. Of course, natural sugar that comes from plants and fruits is the exception. Refined/Processed sugar is the one to avoid, like that bag to the right.

These are the carbs to go with. To put it simply, these types of carbohydrates are broken down and absorbed much more slowly than that of simple carbs; this is due to their "complex" structure. As a result of this slow digestion, the energy you obtain from ingesting complex carbs will last for a much longer period of time as opposed to simple carbs where the energy is abundant and immediate, where the leftover energies are converted into fat.

Complex carbs are basically foods where the grains are still intact. Such foods are whole wheat (keyword) bread, oatmeal, bran, brown rice, potatoes and most pastas. (Etc)

Here's an awesome tip. When you're shopping for food, compare the, "Total Carbs" to the "Sugar"... the closer the "Sugar" gram count is to the amount of "Total Carbs" gram count will give you a good idea as to how health/unhealthy that food is. It's basically a way to tell if something is composed mainly of simple (sugar gram number is closer to the total carbs number) or complex (sugar count is further from the total carbs count) carbohydrates.

Dehydration has many side-effects; among them is fatigue.

Remember, 8 glasses a day. One gallon being preferable.

Tobacco is linked to many ailments with the accompanying side-effect of fatigue. It would be best to see a physician.

"All work and no play..." blah blah blah.

As mentioned previously, leading a stressful existence leads to many psychological effects on our minds, among those is, you've guessed it, fatigue. However, I don't just mean, events that are out of your control... what I mean is, take some time to enjoy yourself. Let your mind have a rest from the hustle bustle demands of life by going out with friends or going on that amusement part ride that costs about $20 where you sit in a ball, optional friend, and it's slingshot'd into the air. You get it.

• Prolonged exposure to electronic devices has a drastic, negative effect on our sleep cycle. This is because of the electromagnetic field they give off. In short, try to keep all electronic thingamajigs away from your designated place of rest.
• Consume more B Complex Vitamins. (B1, B6 and B12)
• Be wary of focusing on contrasting colors in conjunction such as black/white, red/blue etc. This may cause eye fatigue.
• Wear Comfortable Clothing