Invigorating Energy! (All natural, and approved by God)

Energy!
Watching the World Cup has been a blast. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching the finesse and talent of these players (matched only by their considerable skill at "flopping," which is feigning or over-exaggerating injury to get the referee to call the ball in your favor).

It's especially amazing to watch them run and run and run for hours on end, averaging 6.4 miles per game! And that's not just casual jogging, that's an aggressive sprint/stop type run that's particularly exhausting.

I have had the desire lately to have more energy in my life. More vibrancy and vigor! Most days it feels like I'm barely pulling through. The only think keeping me going is knowing that I can crash into my bed at the end of the day.

*That's pretty sad when your motivation during the day is thinking of when you can next sleep!*

Sleep Tight, Sleep Right
So, as has become my habit when I'm looking for some specific blessing in my life, I turned to the blessings found in the D&C. And sure enough, I found a couple wonderful scriptures to help me with having more energy in my life! Here's the first one. (Sadly enough it's not in my list of C&B! I don't know how I missed it, but when I update the current version I'll be sure to add it, along with a few others I've found since.)

"Retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary;

arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."

(D&C 88:124)

Me. Every morning.

This does not need a lot of explanation. The benefits of sleep as cataloged by health professionals are numerous. But really what could be better than this promise from the Lord?

Go to sleep early and don't sleep in = no weariness and a body and mind that's invigorated!

That's a pretty great promise! I have a problem though. I'm a chronic night owl.

Like most teenagers and young adults I have a propensity to stay up till the wee hours of the morning, catch a few hours of sleep, and then drag my sluggish excuse of a body to work the next morning. Only to repeat the process every weekday, growing more and more lethargic and "out of it" as the week goes on. But then the luscious weekend hits. *sigh*

Staying up even later than usual, sleeping in till past lunch time, this is the weekend schedule of many people. Too many people.

The Lord promises us that if we go to sleep early and get up early then we'll be invigorated both in body and mind. The opposite must also be true then. Going to bed late and then sleeping in to "get enough" sleep will leaving us feeling considerably less than invigorated, and very weary! 

Too much sleep can leave us just as "weary" as not enough sleep. So be careful about sleeping in. It's certainly nice to catch an extra hour or so some mornings, and our body needs it! But moderation in all things is the key.

Everyone is different, I find my perfect sleep time to be from 10:30pm to 7:00am. That's optimal for me. But sleep cycles are different for everyone. Find what works for you and stick with it! Speaking of "sleep cycles" let's talk about naps. Cause most of us are doing it wrong.

The Perfect Nap
Naps are also very nice and can come at very timely moments during the day. Our bodies have sleep cycles though. I'll try to sum up the basics of a sleep cycle. In essence, while we sleep we have times where we are in "deep sleep" and times when we are in our "lighter" phases of sleep. If we are woken up when we are in deep sleep we will feel extremely sluggish and it will take us up to 30 minutes to fully "wake up" and be back to full capacity. If we wake up while in "light sleep" we will wake feeling energized and attentive almost immediately.

Click here to see full image.

So guess how long the "perfect nap" should be. 10-20 minutes. That's it! You will make a complete rotation from light sleep to deep sleep and back to light sleep sometime within 20 minutes. Now guess the next best length of a nap. One and a half hours. Did you catch that? So after that first 20 minutes the next time our bodies naturally cycle to deep sleep and back to light sleep takes that full 1.5 hours.

Let me interpret this information just a little for you. If you take a nap lasting 30-45 minutes then there's a good chance you'll wake up feeling more tired than you did when before your nap! If you need a quick "power nap" then set an alarm for 23 minutes (at least that's what I do cause it takes me around 3-5 minutes to fall asleep). When the alarm goes off then you'll wake feeling refreshed and restored!

If you're having serious trouble with feeling exhausted on a particular day then set an alarm for an hour and a half (if you have the time if course) and this "extended power nap" will give you the stamina to work hard and efficiently for the rest of the day.

"Retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary;

arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated."

(D&C 88:124)

It'll take time to get into a good sleep schedule, especially if you don't keep a good sleep schedule now! Work up to it. You can't be going to bed at 1:00am every night then suddenly switch to 9:30pm and expect everything to go smoothly. Just little steps at a time. Be smart, turn off cell phones and put computers away, don't fall asleep watching a movie. You may be accustomed to that, but I promise you that your sleep quality will improve if you don't.

Oh yeah, and eat well too.
Time for the second scripture! I bet you can guess what it is. It concerns the Word of Wisdom.

And all saints who remember to keep and do these sayings, walking in obedience to the commandments, shall receive health in their navel and marrow to their bones;

 And shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures;

 And shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.

 And I, the Lord, give unto them a promise, that the destroying angel 

shall pass by them, as the children of Israel, and not slay them. Amen.

(D&C 89:18-21)

I bet you didn't read all of that. Let me sum up the blessings of the Word of Wisdom for you.

- Health in your navel and marrow to your bones.
- You shall find wisdom and great treasures of knowledge, even hidden treasures.
- You shall run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint.
- The destroying angel shall pass by you, and not slay you.

Those are some very applicable and "mortal" blessings for us that we can count on here on earth. I'd love to share some more detailed thoughts on the Word of Wisdom someday. But I'll just share a few thoughts in bullet points for your own study.

- There are more verses telling us what we should eat and drink than there are telling us what shouldn't. I think that tells us where God's emphasis is. Is that where our emphasis is?


- The list of "do's" and "do not's" is relatively short and doesn't come close to naming all of the harmful substances or helpful substances available in this modern age. Why?

- Some sins are more serious than others. Is breaking the Word of Wisdom more serious or less serious than breaking the law of chastity? In raising our children which commandment gets emphasized more? (I'm not saying the emphasis on the Word of Wisdom is wrong in any way, but lets make sure the rising generation gets just as much emphasis on the Law of Chastity. Just because it's a little/lot more awkward to talk about doesn't mean we should avoid it. It does constitute, after all, the more serious sins.)

Those are just a few thoughts about the Word of Wisdom, but let's look at the blessings shall we?

Blessings of The Word of Wisdom: Health, Knowledge, Stamina, Life

Health in your navel and marrow to your bones. Navel basically makes reference to your belly-button. Oh yay! How exciting... Okay, there's not a lot of excitement connected to your belly button. Everyone has one and no one knows what to do with it after birth. But lets role with that.

Many people just associate "navel" with our organs in general, which I think is true and very applicable! However, I think we can go deeper than that.

I know, I know. You can't actually see his bellybutton.
He was just too cute to pass up.

 The bellybutton we all possess is a scar, a reminder of our complete and utter dependence on our mothers. It is through that "navel" that our bodies obtained every particle of nutrients for the first 9 months or so of our lives. Blood, nutrients, oxygen and other essentials were passed from the mothers body to ours.

I find the "navel" symbolic on many levels. One is our complete dependence on God in the pre-mortal life. We lived with Him and we learned from Him. Satin and his followers separated themselves from God "prematurely" and rebelliously. They didn't want to follow His plan for us. They, like a fetus separated from its mother, will no longer grow spiritually. We, on the other hand, followed Gods plan. Currently we are separated from Him in this mortal life. Our umbilical cord has been severed in a way and we must find ways to grow and sustain ourselves both physically and spiritually in this world, all while being buffeted by temptations and trials of every kind.

"Health in the navel" could then mean that we receive all of the nutrients that we stand in need of, both physically and spiritually, to maximize our growth towards our potential. Not that we will have perfect health, but that we will have everything which we stand in need of. Physically and spiritually.

Bone marrow is contained on the inside of the larger bones of your body and basically creates all the individual components of blood. "Bone marrow contains cells that produce white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets." (Google) In the Bible Dictionary it has a very interesting definition of blood. "Regarded by the ancient Israelites and many cultures today as the seat of life or vital energy of all flesh. The atoning power of a sacrifice was in the blood because the blood was regarded as essential to life." (emphasis added)

Did you catch that? Blood is regarded as "the seat of life or vital energy of all flesh." Perhaps marrow to your bones can mean simply that you will have energy and vibrancy! That's exactly what I want! (And who doesn't really?)

Knowledge: I wrote another blog post on finding hidden treasures of knowledge. You're welcome to read that post for my thoughts on finding "hidden" knowledge. I have a few more thoughts, but I don't want to wax too long-winded in this post. (It's gotten pretty long already!)

Stamina
Link the promise of "run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint" to Mosiah 4:27 "And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

This changes "run and not be weary, and shall walk and not faint" from being simply a physical
blessing (which it most certainly is!) to a promise of help to endure the trials of life.

I know sometimes I feel like I'm "running" in my life. I have a thousand things to do and a thousand more to do afterwards. This promises me that I will not be weary. Maybe physically weary from a taxing day, but that I will be lifted up spiritually and emotionally during those busy times.

And then there are other times. Times when I feel like I can barely keep "walking" in my life. Times in which I am depressed or disheartened, heartbroken or distraught; burdened by life. Those are times in which I want to "faint." When I want to give up. When I want nothing more than to crumble down and sink into oblivion. But there, like a ray of hope, is the promise from God: "walk, and not faint." It doesn't say walk and life will be a breeze. But it does promise that I will be able to walk! To keep moving forward! To lift up my head and say that my God is with me and I will not faint.

Life
Eventually we will all be "taken home to that God who gave them life" (Alma 40:11). The promise that "the destroying angel shall pass by you, and not slay you" is an interesting one. I would be open to hearing anyone's interpretation of that particular passage, but here are my thoughts. When the destroying angel is mentioned in scripture it is as a direct result of sin. The people refuse to repent and so God sends the destroying angel to wreak havoc until they are humble enough to repent and turn back to God. The righteous, however, are spared the destruction that is dished out on the rest of the people.

We all know that in the last days that there are many plagues, tempests, wars, etc. that will arise. My personal thought is that by following the Word of Wisdom we will be spared from some specific types of destruction that will come upon all people in these last days.

We still live in the world and so we will be exposed to many things that we would rather not be exposed to. Remember that the Israelites were not affected by the first three plagues, but then they were exposed to the 4th through the 9th plagues; they weren't protected from everything. The last plague though, there was a specific requirement given. Even the most righteous of Israel had to mark their doorways in a specific way with specific blood to have the destroying angel pass by them.

This, for us, is the Word of Wisdom. This is how we "mark our doorway" for the Lord. I don't know when, or how this destroying angel is poised to strike in these last days (in scripture he sometimes he comes overnight and sometimes over a much longer period of time), but he will come, and by obeying the Word of Wisdom we will be passed over.

Conclusion
Well, we've talked about everything from getting adequate sleep to the destroying angel. In recap, by getting quality sleep and obeying the Word of Wisdom: we will be invigorated and healthy in body and in spirit, we will be lifted up to endure the trials of life, we will find knowledge hidden from the world, and our lives will be spared. There's a lot of good stuff there.

As always, there are lots of changes we all need to make. But I would suggest to not try to change everything in your life all at once. It's a big step to change already formed habits, and you're much more likely to succeed making a plan and taking it in bite-sized chunks.

Koht en ketiket rehmwail. (God be with you all.)

Keep pushing on.

Andrew


PS. Sorry it's been so long since my last post. I'm trying to do at least one a week, but sometimes time gets away from me. I'm really excited about my next post though, so hopefully it doesn't take me as long to write!