SCENT
This sense is unusual. It needs no real filtering and interpretation process like the others. It is immediate and a scent can take you back so rapidly it feels as if it is tied completely to your emotional state. Never underestimate your snoz!
Spring, summer, fall and winter all bring amazing memories scent-wise.
Springtime: Grass, wet green, blossoms.
Summer: Chlorine, coconut tanning oil, ocean.
Fall: Pumpkin, cinnamon, mushrooms.
Winter: Woodsmoke, icy cold, tea.
I highly suggest CB I Hate Perfume site as they make mixes based on reminiscent memories like grandpa's pipe smoke, suntan lotion, an old library...
Try some light sprays that leave you or your home lingering with something special.
Music can take you to a time in your life when you had hope, excitement or perhaps lots of laughter and fun. I love the 80s music because I was a young adult on my own the first time and felt invincible and powerful. When I need to recall the woman who was determined, some 80s decade music empowers me right away. If I want to remember being carefree, early 70s music.
Give me Eagles to feel like a kid again, carefree, summertime. Give me Beach boys for all the excitement about going to new places and doing things in the sunshine. Give me The Cars to feel confident.
We suggest you listen to different eras of top hits and see how they make you feel inside. Sometimes, it's the cruising songs of your teens, other times it's the childhood hits or the young adult tunes.
EXERCISE
It goes without saying you have to use energy to create energy. How you feel after a workout is the biggest energy boost ever. The rushing, warm, circulating feels last long. You walk differently, you feel less stiff, you look for the next energetic task to hit.
SUNTANNING
No one can suntan better than baby boomers.
We are experts. But, the thing is, not only is the vitamin D critical to your immune system, but when you lie in the sun and it warms your skin and behind your eyelids it's bright orange, you get the greatest blissful renewal. It is my #1 favorite way to tap that youthful energy again. The effects last long.
PLAYING
just exploring the woods.
FASHION/TOYS/OBJECTS
I braid my hair with six braids at night and the next day have crimped hair - something I did in school days so I didn't have to style in the morning. Perhaps you want a macrame purse or a favorite 60s band vintage t-shirt. Motorcycles, pyrex casserole dishes, swatch watches, earth shoes, farrah hair- all other possible youthful energy triggers.
ROAD TRIP ADVENTURES
With work commutes and shuttling kids, many of us forget the excitement of having some car keys and an open road. Remember as a youth anticipating getting your license and the freedom of seeing what's around the next corner?
We often plot a trip to a destination, but along the way we allow ourselves to be distracted, do U-turns to check something out, take an interesting looking street, try a local diner.
The freedom you get on the road is so energizing that Julie and I wrote our book "Kickin' Up Dust! (Getting Lost to Find Ourselves") because we realized every road trip was not only liberating, but when we got home we changed tons of things in our lives. We were renewed with a perspective that was outside our usual daily unstimulating routine.
SUPPLEMENTAL METHODS
I could discuss diet and supplements for energy production, but that is simply energy. Energy means nothing until you give it meaning. Tense stomach muscles and sweaty palms at a job interview could be terror or could be excitement, depending on how you interpret the experience and symptoms.
My best suggestion is to stick with the motivators that emotionally and spiritually make you energetic again because your thoughts become pleasant, your body relaxes its tensions, and your spirit gets ignited.
Go forth and energize!
The key to tapping into your youth energy isn't about reliving the past, as much as tapping into the mind's way of recording and repeating mindlessly.
The things you did when you were young, items you surrounded yourself with, sentimental triggers like sound and scent, can set you back into those automatic patterns of your youth.
For example, the song above, "Silly Love Songs" played on the loud speaker at the pool when I was an adolescent. That single song reminds me of warm sunlight, smell of Coppertone and chlorine, the whistle of the lifeguard, and all the energy involved in a lazy day at the public pool. One song, many automatic responses released and resulting overall energy of lazy, relaxed, sunworshipping, easygoing happiness.
You don't need to become a child, adolescent, teen, or young adult again by dressing the same, only listening to that music, or pining for how fun it was back then.
You simply need to pull the trigger and let the responses occur.
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