THE SECRET OF SUCCESS IS SYNERGY!!!!

Synergy is ...Lively which means "active, spirited, and energetic." Lively is an adjective derived from the noun "life," and it basically means "full of life." A lively party is exciting and entertaining. A lively person has an energetic personality, is always on alert, and prefers being active as opposed to just hanging around.

HOW COULD I BE A LIVELY -ENERGETIC PERSON

In the natural world, synergistic phenomena are ubiquitous, ranging from physics (for example, the different combinations of quarks that produce protons and neutrons) to chemistry (a popular example is water, a compound of hydrogen and oxygen), to the cooperative interactions among the genes in genomes, the division of labor in bacterial colonies, the synergies of scale in multi-cellular organisms, as well as the many different kinds of synergies produced by socially-organized groups, from honeybee colonies to wolf packs and human societies: compare stigmergy, a mechanism of indirect coordination between agents or actions that results in the self-assembly of complex systems. Even the tools and technologies that are widespread in the natural world represent important sources of synergistic effects. The tools that enabled early hominins to become systematic big-game hunters is a primordial human example.

In the context of organizational behavior, following the view that a cohesive group is more than the sum of its parts, synergy is the ability of a group to outperform even its best individual member. These conclusions are derived from the studies conducted by Jay Hall on a number of laboratory-based group ranking and prediction tasks. He found that effective groups actively looked for the points in which they disagreed and in consequence encouraged conflicts amongst the participants in the early stages of the discussion. In contrast, the ineffective groups felt a need to establish a common view quickly, used simple decision making methods such as averaging, and focused on completing the task rather than on finding solutions they could agree on, In a technical context, its meaning is a construct or collection of different elements working together to produce results not obtainable by any of the elements alone. The elements, or parts, can include people, hardware, software, facilities, policies, documents: all things required to produce system-level results. The value added by the system as a whole, beyond that contributed independently by the parts, is created primarily by the relationship among the parts, that is, how they are interconnected. In essence, a system constitutes a set of interrelated components working together with a common objective: fulfilling some designated need.

If used in a business application, synergy means that teamwork will produce an overall better result than if each person within the group were working toward the same goal individually. However, the concept of group cohesion needs to be considered. Group cohesion is that property that is inferred from the number and strength of mutual positive attitudes among members of the group. As the group becomes more cohesive, its functioning is affected in a number of ways. First, the interactions and communication between members increase. Common goals, interests and small size all contribute to this. In addition, group member satisfaction increases as the group provides friendship and support against outside threats.

There are negative aspects of group cohesion that have an effect on group decision-making and hence on group effectiveness. There are two issues arising. The risky shift phenomenon is the tendency of a group to make decisions that are riskier than those that the group would have recommended individually. Group Polarization is when individuals in a group begin by taking a moderate stance on an issue regarding a common value and, after having discussed it, end up taking a more extreme stance.

A second, potential negative consequence of group cohesion is group think. Group think is a mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in cohesive group, when the members' striving for unanimity overrides their motivation to appraise realistically the alternative courses of action. Studying the events of several American policy "disasters" such as the failure to anticipate the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor (1941) and the Bay of Pigs Invasion fiasco (1961), Irving Janis argued that they were due to the cohesive nature of the committees that made the relevant decisions.

That decisions made by committees lead to failure in a simple system is noted by Dr. Chris Elliot. His case study looked at IEEE-488, an international standard set by the leading US standards body; it led to a failure of small automation systems using the IEEE-488 standard (which codified a proprietary communications standard HP-IB). But the external devices used for communication were made by two different companies, and the incompatibility between the external devices led to a financial loss for the company. He argues that systems will be safe only if they are designed, not if they emerge by chance.

The idea of a systemic approach is endorsed by the United Kingdom Health and Safety Executive. The successful performance of the health and safety management depends upon the analyzing the causes of incidents and accidents and learning correct lessons from them. The idea is that all events (not just those causing injuries) represent failures in control, and present an opportunity for learning and improvement. UK Health and Safety Executive, Successful health and safety management (1997): this book describes the principles and management practices, which provide the basis of effective health and safety management. It sets out the issues that need to be addressed, and can be used for developing improvement programs, self-audit, or self-assessment. Its message is that organizations must manage health and safety with the same degree of expertise and to the same standards as other core business activities, if they are to effectively control risks and prevent harm to people.

Synergy In The Workplace: Keeping Everyone on the Same Page

When I use the phrase “synergy in the workplace”, a few things may have run through your head. I’m willing to bet that at least a few of you believe that I’m referring to some new-age, mystical thing. Perhaps you imagined several suited people in an office taking breaks from the work to sit on the floor and practise yoga. To improve their “synergy”, whatever that means. Sounds like energy, right? Is it just a mystical or spiritual form of that?

You’ve probably guessed by now that that’s not what I mean at all. So what is synergy, exactly? Synergy is the word used to describe the phenomena in which two or more things interact to become greater than the sum of their parts. It’s a “two plus two equals five” kind of deal, if you can forget all the terrifying 1984 implications of that particular saying.

Lindsay and Kim, wizards of business synergy

In terms of business, let’s say we have one worker. We’ll call them something nice and gender-neutral. Lindsay. Lindsay can do quite a lot of work on their own. Let’s say the business is game development. Lindsay is a great coder with a little bit of art knowledge. After a nine-hour day, Lindsay has finished two levels of the video game they’re working on. Now let’s introduce Kim. Kim is an absolute wizard when it comes to graphics and art. They can even code a little. In a nine-hour day, they can complete one and a half levels.

Now let’s put the two together. Everyday math would tell us that they will finish three and a half levels in a shared space of nine hours. But we’re not in the realm of boring, regular math. We’re talking about synergy. What happens here is that the two are able to interact and share resources in a specific and special way. They can actually complete five levels together in those nine hours. And they probably didn’t do any new-age yoga stuff at all. See what I mean by “greater than the sum of their parts”? That is what synergy is.

How do I get me some of that synergy?

Ah, so I’ve sold you on this whole synergy thing, right? The problem with workplace synergy is that you can’t just trigger it using great technology and strong communication. Understand that now. You can’t exactly buy good synergy. What you need as a good starting point is what pretty much any business needs to maximise efficiency. And that’s employees who work well together.

The Blue Diamond Gallery

This isn’t just as simple as not hiring the guy who insulted everyone during his interview and was quite clearly not going to be great to work with. What is needed from you is a close inspection of how your employees work together. And I’m not just talking about their friendly communication. You can’t just look over at a pair or a group, see them giggling and smiling and assume everything is okay. In fact, that could even be a sign that things aren’t going perfectly. You need to review the actual work these employees are producing together. Sure, they may be able enjoy a joke together. But can the two actually produce more when working together than they can when they’re working separately?

Of course, when you look at it like this, you can see what a tremendous task it is to maximise office synergy. This would require you to observe the interactions between everyone. Every single possible employee combination would have to have researched in order to come up with the most efficient work plan. This is going to take a long time. This is why you need to keep an eye on these things as early as possible. If you’re starting up a business, you’re in luck here. Starting with a relatively small number of employees, you can see all the combinations of people and see who exactly works together best. Over a long period, you’ll know exactly who to pair up with who.

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What is the opposite of synergy? It’s called dyssynergy, or dyssynergia. Just look at those words. They’re not even nice to say. In fact, the term is used more appropriately in medicine, when two parts of your body don’t work together, causing problems for the entire body. Surely you don’t want dyssynergia in your workplace? (I almost called this article How to get avoid dyssynergia in the workplace, but who the heck would have clicked on that?) If there’s an employee who is impossible to work with, then they’re a bad apple. And you need to get rid of bad apples. If you do decide to let them go, don’t say they’re “disrupting the office synergy”, though. Just tell them straight up that they’re not great to work with.

Can I boost synergy with fancy technology?

I did say earlier that technology can only go so far in assisting business synergy. But you do need to have the right technology in your office in order to get these combined workforces to collaborate efficiently.

Pixabay

One of the big modern crazes when it comes to business tech is cloud computing. Most companies these days are working with it. The benefits of having everyone work in the cloud and numerous and tremendous. Let’s go way back to the days before cloud computing. Let’s say there’s a document that several people in your office need to work on simultaneously. Back in the day, this was a massive hassle. Chances are you couldn’t all edit it or even access it at the same time. You had to keep separate local files. Then you’d end up with several version of the same document. Then someone would have to bring them all together and edit it together into something coherent. But with modern cloud computing, sharing and editing these documents collaboratively is easy. People can even access files in the cloud from mobile devices if need be. If you want everyone on the same path with potent business synergy coursing through their veins, you’ll need cloud storage. You can browse around CMIT Solutions for these services.

You’re also going to need a way for people to communicate efficiently. Are your employees still having to travel around the office in order to speak to other employees? I’m assuming not; you most likely have email. But email doesn’t quite cut it these days. Instant messaging is an absolute must in the modern office. You don’t even need a specialised business solution for this. Everyone in your office can sign up for Skype and install it. By setting up one-on-one chats as well as group chats, you can make sure the right information is always going to the right people. After all, communication is still key if you want your office to be as productive as possible. Why else would I have suggested getting rid of the bad apples earlier? Skype will also allow video calling if people have to work remotely and you have to set up a formal meeting.

The best page is the same page

Of course, none of this is going to mean much if your employees aren’t all on the same page. I’ve been in several offices in which pretty much all the practises I’ve outlined above were in place. But still there were instances in which employees weren’t working quite in sync with one another. This was largely less to do with the employees themselves and their ability to work together. It was, in fact, more to do with how the employers communicated information to them.

Wikimedia

An employer, or the manager of a particular team, should have a solid plan in mind. How much of this plan has been outlined to the rest of the team? Do the team know what the long-term goals are as well as the short-term ones? You need to remember that the long-term goals will affect the short-term goals and vice versa. This is why I would suggest making sure that as many employees as possible are actively involved the planning process itself.

Once your team have collaborated on a strong plan, you need to keep the subsequent workflow transparent. If need be, everyone should know what another employee is working on and how it may affect their work. Even if two employees work in different departments, one not completing a particular task on time could block the work of the other. The best way to go about this is to be transparent with project management. Management software like Trello can keep all the tasks that are relevant to the project visible and interactive. An employee can see exactly what tasks relate to the task they’re currently doing and what implications that holds for their on workflow.

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• Frequent team meetings are also imperative. In fact, there are entire business methodologies that dictate the need for all of these things. If you work in software development, for example, the Agile methodology is all about making sure everyone is on the same page. With ten-minute team meetings every morning and transparent workflows, the key is to boost synergy. And when synergy is boosted, so is productivity.

The term synergy was refined by R. Buckminster Fuller, who analyzed some of its implications more fully and coined the term synergetics.

• A dynamic state in which combined action is favored over the difference of individual component actions.
• Behavior of whole systems unprejudiced by the behavior of their parts taken separately, known as emergent behavior.
• The cooperative action of two or more stimuli (or drugs), resulting in a different or greater response than that of the individual stimuli.

Biological sciences

Synergy of various kinds has been advanced by Peter Corning as a causal agency that can explain the progressive evolution of complexity in living systems over the course of time. According to the Synergism Hypothesis, synergistic effects have been the drivers of cooperative relationships of all kinds and at all levels in living systems. The thesis, in a nutshell, is that synergistic effects have often provided functional advantages (economic benefits) in relation to survival and reproduction that have been favored by natural selection. The cooperating parts, elements, or individuals become, in effect, functional “units” of selection in evolutionary change. Similarly, environmental systems may react in a non-linear way to perturbations, such as climate change, so that the outcome may be greater than the sum of the individual component alterations. Synergistic responses are a complicating factor in environmental modeling.

Pest synergy

Pest synergy would occur in a biological host organism population, where, for example, the introduction of parasite A may cause 10% fatalities, and parasite B may also cause 10% loss. When both parasites are present, the losses would normally be expected to total less than 20%, yet, in some cases, losses are significantly greater. In such cases, it is said that the parasites in combination have a synergistic effect.

Drug synergy

Drug synergy occurs when drugs can interact in ways that enhance or magnify one or more effects, or side-effects, of those drugs. This is sometimes exploited in combination preparations, such as codeine mixed with acetaminophen or ibuprofen to enhance the action of codeine as a pain reliever. Some drug users frequently utilize 5-HTP, a serotonin precursor often used as an antidepressant, prior to and after ingestion of MDMA. It is said to increase the "high" and decreases the "comedown" stages of MDMA use, although most anecdotal evidence has pointed to 5-HTP significantly altering the effect of MDMA when used at the same time, as well as potentiating the side effects associated with serotonin syndrome.

Negative effects of synergy are a form of contraindication. For example, a combination of depressant drugs that affect the central nervous system (CNS), such as alcohol and Valium, can cause a greater reaction than simply the sum of the individual effects of each drug if they were used separately. In this particular case, the most serious consequence of drug synergy is exaggerated respiratory depression, which can be fatal if left untreated. Mixing drugs can produce potentially fatal reactions within the brain, such as serotonin syndrome, due to synergistic reactions changing chemical and receptor activity. In the case of Monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI) medications, mainly used as last-straw antidepressants, mixing certain foods and drugs may cause hypertension or hyperserotonemia.

Drug synergy can occur both in biological activity and because of pharmacokinetics. Shared metabolic enzymes can cause drugs to remain in the bloodstream much longer in higher concentrations than if individually taken.

A paper presenting a community computational challenge to predict synergy outlines the difficulty of predicting synergy based on high-throughput data.The Food and Drug Administration published a guideline for the pharmaceutical industry stressing the need to understand combination effects and synergy.

Toxicological synergy

Toxicological synergy is of concern to the public and regulatory agencies because chemicals individually considered safe might pose unacceptable health or ecological risk in combination. Articles in scientific and lay journals include many definitions of chemical or toxicological synergy, often vague or in conflict with each other. Because toxic interactions are defined relative to the expectation under "no interaction", a determination of synergy (or antagonism) depends on what is meant by "no interaction" The United States Environmental Protection Agency has one of the more detailed and precise definitions of toxic interaction, designed to facilitate risk assessment. In their guidance documents, the no-interaction default assumption is dose addition, so synergy means a mixture response that exceeds that predicted from dose addition. The EPA emphasizes that synergy does not always make a mixture dangerous, nor does antagonism always make the mixture safe; each depends on the predicted risk under dose addition.

For example, a consequence of pesticide use is the risk of health effects. During the registration of pesticides in the United States exhaustive tests are performed to discern health effects on humans at various exposure levels. A regulatory upper limit of presence in foods is then placed on this pesticide. As long as residues in the food stay below this regulatory level, health effects are deemed highly unlikely and the food is considered safe to consume.

However, in normal agricultural practice, it is rare to use only a single pesticide. During the production of a crop, several different materials may be used. Each of them has had determined a regulatory level at which they would be considered individually safe. In many cases, a commercial pesticide is itself a combination of several chemical agents, and thus the safe levels actually represent levels of the mixture. In contrast, a combination created by the end user, such as a farmer, has rarely been tested in that combination. The potential for synergy is then unknown or estimated from data on similar combinations. This lack of information also applies to many of the chemical combinations to which humans are exposed, including residues in food, indoor air contaminants, and occupational exposures to chemicals. Some groups think that the rising rates of cancer, asthma, and other health problems may be caused by these combination exposures; others have alternative explanations.

Human synergy

Human synergy relates to human interaction and teamwork. For example, say person A alone is too short to reach an apple on a tree and person B is too short as well. Once person B sits on the shoulders of person A, they are tall enough to reach the apple. In this example, the product of their synergy would be one apple. Another case would be two politicians. If each is able to gather one million votes on their own, but together they were able to appeal to 2.5 million voters, their synergy would have produced 500,000 more votes than had they each worked independently. A song is also a good example of human synergy, taking more than one musical part and putting them together to create a song that has a much more dramatic effect than each of the parts when played individually.

A third form of human synergy is when one person is able to complete two separate tasks by doing one action, for example, if a person were asked by a teacher and his boss at work to write an essay on how he could improve his work. A more visual example of this synergy is a drummer using four separate rhythms to create one drum beat.

Synergy usually arises when two persons with different complementary skills cooperate. In business, cooperation of people with organizational and technical skills happens very often. In general, the most common reason why people cooperate is that it brings a synergy. On the other hand, people tend to specialize just to be able to form groups with high synergy (see also division of labor and teamwork).

Example: Two teams in System Administration working together to combine technical and organizational skills in order to better the client experience, thus creating synergy. Counter-examples can be found in books like The Mythical Man-Month, in which the addition of additional team members is shown to have negative effects on productivity.

Organismic computing is an approach to improving group efficacy by increasing synergy in human groups via technological means.

When synergy occurs in the work place, the individuals involved get to work in a positive and supportive working environment. When individuals get to work in environments such as these, the company reaps the benefits. The authors of Creating the Best Workplace on Earth Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones, state that "highly engaged employees are, on average, 50% more likely to exceed expectations that the least-engaged workers. And companies with highly engaged people outperform firms with the most disengaged folks- by 54% in employee retention, by 89% in customer satisfaction, and by fourfold in revenue growth (Goffee & Jones, pg. 100)." Also, those that are able to be open about their views on the company, and have confidence that they will be heard, are likely to be a more organized employee who helps his/ her fellow team members succeed.

Corporate synergy

Corporate synergy occurs when corporations interact congruently. A corporate synergy refers to a financial benefit that a corporation expects to realize when it merges with or acquires another corporation. This type of synergy is a nearly ubiquitous feature of a corporate acquisition and is a negotiating point between the buyer and seller that impacts the final price both parties agree to. There are distinct types of corporate synergies, as follows.

Marketing

A marketing synergy refers to the use of information campaigns, studies, and scientific discovery or experimentation for research or development. This promotes the sale of products for varied use or off-market sales as well as development of marketing tools and in several cases exaggeration of effects. It is also often a meaningless buzzword used by corporate leaders

Revenue

A revenue synergy refers to the opportunity of a combined corporate entity to generate more revenue than its two predecessor stand-alone companies would be able to generate. For example, if company A sells product X through its sales force, company B sells product Y, and company A decides to buy company B then the new company could use each sales person to sell products X and Y, thereby increasing the revenue that each sales person generates for the company.

In media revenue, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate, e.g. films, soundtracks, or video games.

Financial

Financial synergy gained by the combined firm is a result of number of benefits which flow to the entity as a consequence of acquisition and merger. These benefits may be:

Cash slack

This is when a firm having number of cash extensive projects acquires a firm which is cash-rich, thus enabling the new combined firm to enjoy the profits from investing the cash of one firm in the projects of the other.

Debt capacity

If two firms have no or little capacity to carry debt before individually, it is possible for them to join and gain the capacity to carry the debt through decreased gearing (leverage). This creates value for the firm, as debt is thought to be a cheaper source of finance.

Tax benefits

It is possible for one firm to have unused tax benefits which might be offset against the profits of another after combination, thus resulting in less tax being paid. However this greatly depends on the tax law of the country.

Management

Synergy in management and in relation to teamwork refers to the combined effort of individuals as participants of the team. The condition that exists when the organization's parts interact to produce a joint effect that is greater than the sum of the parts acting alone. Positive or negative synergies can exist. In these cases, positive synergy has positive effects such as improved efficiency in operations, greater exploitation of opportunities, and improved utilization of resources. Negative synergy on the other hand has negative effects such as: reduced efficiency of operations, decrease in quality, underutilization of resources and disequilibrium with the external environment.

Cost

A cost synergy refers to the opportunity of a combined corporate entity to reduce or eliminate expenses associated with running a business. Cost synergies are realized by eliminating positions that are viewed as duplicate within the merged entity.Examples include the headquarters office of one of the predecessor companies, certain executives, the human resources department, or other employees of the predecessor companies. This is related to the economic concept of economies of scale.

Synergistic action in economy

The synergistic action of the economic players lies within the economic phenomenon's profundity. The synergistic action gives different dimensions to competitiveness, strategy and network identity becoming an unconventional "weapon" which belongs to those who exploit the economic systems’ potential in depth.

Synergistic determinants

The synergistic gravity equation (SYNGEq), according to its complex “title”, represents a synthesis of the endogenous and exogenous factors which determine the private and non-private economic decision makers to call to actions of synergistic exploitation of the economic network in which they operate. That is to say, SYNGEq constitutes a big picture of the factors/motivations which determine the entrepreneurs to contour an active synergistic network. SYNGEq includes both factors which character is changing over time (such as the competitive conditions), as well as classics factors, such as the imperative of the access to resources of the collaboration and the quick answers. The synergistic gravity equation (SINGEq) comes to be represented by the formula:

                  ∑SYN.Act =∑R-*I(CRed+COOP++AUnimit.)*V(Cust.+Info.)*cc [31]     

where: ∑SYN.Act = the sum of the synergistic actions adopted (by the economic actor) ∑ R- = the amount of unpurchased but necessary resources ICRed = the imperative for cost reductions ICOOP+ = the imperative for deep cooperation (functional interdependence) IAUnimit. = the imperative for purchasing unimitable competitive advantages (for the economic actor) VCust = the necessity of customer value in purchasing future profits and competitive advantages VInfo = the necessity of informational value in purchasing future profits and competitive advantages cc = the specific competitive conditions in which the economic actor operates

Synergistic networks and systems

The synergistic network represents an integrated part of the economic system which, through the coordination and control functions (of the undertaken economic actions), agrees synergies. The networks which promote synergistic actions can be divided in horizontal synergistic networks and vertical synergistic networks.

Synergy effects

The synergy effects are difficult (even impossible) to imitate by competitors and difficult to reproduce by their authors because these effects depend on the combination of factors with time-varying characteristics. The synergy effects are often called "synergistic benefits", representing the direct and implied result of the developed/adopted synergistic actions.

Computers

Synergy can also be defined as the combination of human strengths and computer strengths, such as advanced chess. Computers can process data much more quickly than humans, but lack the ability to respond meaningfully to arbitrary stimuli.

Synergy in literature

Etymologically, the "synergy" term was first used around 1600, deriving from the Greek word “synergos”, which means “to work together” or “to cooperate”. If during this period the synergy concept was mainly used in the theological field (describing “the cooperation of human effort with divine will”), in the 19th and 20th centuries, "synergy" was promoted in physics and biochemistry, being implemented in the study of the open economic systems only in the 1960 and 1970s.

In 1938, J. R. R. Tolkien wrote an essay titled "On Fairy Stores", delivered at an Andrew Lang Lecture, and reprinted in his book, "The Tolkien Reader", published in 1966. In it, he made two references to synergy, although he did not use that term. He wrote:

Faerie cannot be caught in a net of words; for it is one of its qualities to be indescribable, though not imperceptible. It has many ingredients, but analysis will not necessarily discover the secret of the whole.

And more succinctly, in a footnote, about the "part of producing the web of an intricate story", he wrote:

It is indeed easier to unravel a single thread — an incident, a name, a motive — than to trace the history of any picture defined by many threads. For with the picture in the tapestry a new element has come in: the picture is greater than, and not explained by, the sum of the component threads.

Synergy in the media

The informational synergies which can be applied also in media involve a compression of transmission, access and use of information’s time, the flows, circuits and means of handling information being based on a complementary, integrated, transparent and coordinated use of knowledge.

In media economics, synergy is the promotion and sale of a product (and all its versions) throughout the various subsidiaries of a media conglomerate, e.g. films, soundtracks or video games. Walt Disney pioneered synergistic marketing techniques in the 1930s by granting dozens of firms the right to use his Mickey Mouse character in products and ads, and continued to market Disney media through licensing arrangements. These products can help advertise the film itself and thus help to increase the film's sales. For example, the Spider-Man films had toys of webshooters and figures of the characters made, as well as posters and games. The NBC sitcom 30 Rock often shows the power of synergy, while also poking fun at the use of the term in the corporate world. There are also different forms of synergy in popular card games like Yu-Gi-Oh!, Cardfight!! Vanguard, and Future Card Buddyfight.

In video game media a Synergist role is adapted in games, such as Square Enix's Final Fantasy XIII series to allow a character to buff up themselves or their party. In short, Synergists add resiliencies to certain attacks, lessen status ailments that are inflicted on a character, or oftentimes blocking most attacks altogether.

Information theory

When multiple sources of information taken together provide more information than the sum of the information provided by each source alone, there is said to be a synergy in the sources. This in contrast to the case in which the sources provide less information, in which case there is said to be a redundancy in the sources.

If there is one thing everyone would like more of, it’s energy. Not the edgy stimulated kind that comes from energy drinks and chocolate either.

It’s the natural, free flowing energy that is there consistently all day long that you are seeking.

The kind that supports you to do, be and experience everything you wish to and wake up the next day feeling fresh and ready for the gloriousness of life!

Is this what your energy is like…or does it sound like a distant dream?

Even if you feel like you have enough energy, it’s worthwhile looking at what you “use” to keep yourself going.

Are you drinking caffeinated tea (including green tea), coffee, alcohol and energy drinks? Are you eating sugar, processed food and chocolate? Do you smoke, take drugs or use any other form of stimulation to get you through your day?

Take away the stimulants for a week and see how your body feels. You might feel great…or you might be in for quite the shock at how low your energy is and how exhausted your adrenals are.

Here are eight ways to keep my energy high naturally to share with you. These will give you a tremendous boost to your health and energy, even if you are still using some stimulants.

As your natural energy reserve increases, the desire for stimulation from false and addictive sources will likely decrease and you can experience greater health and energy…without the erratic highs and lows.

1. Hydrate with pure water, ideally spring water. Without sufficient hydration from pure water, you simply cannot expect to feel energised and light. Water is a primary driving force of energy production inside the cells , so even the slightest water loss causes a big drop in energy. Choose the best source of water you can find. Spring water from the source is best (check out my friend Daniel Vitalis’ website findaspring.com), but any form of well purified water, ideally with minerals, will help to hydrate your body.

2. Drink fresh pressed green vegetable juice daily. I have shared the benefits of daily vegetable juice on this blog repeatedly, but I will mention it again because it makes such a huge difference to your energy level. Drinking fresh green vegetable juice hydrates, nourishes and alkalises your cells quickly and thoroughly and it quickly becomes a natural addiction for the feeling of lightness, vitality and energy it provides!

3. Use tonic herbs to boost your energy. I love making tonic herb teas and elixirs (or Alchemy ice-cream) with herbs that balance my body, build my Jing, Qi and Shen, add to my natural energy and provide deep blood and organ support. A favourite for building natural energy without false stimulation is ginseng. It boosts physical and mental energy, increases ability to handle stress, improves metabolism and heightens immune function.

4. Remove or decrease false stimulants in your diet and lifestyle that steal your energy reserves. Start reducing or removing the chocolate, coffee, tea, processed sugars, refined carbohydrates and other stimulants in your diet. First add in the fresh juice, water and tonic herbs for boosting energy and then decrease these at the same time. Your natural energy will become stronger as your body re-balances without these substances.

5. Get into regular colon cleansing. Colon cleansing via enemas or professionally administered colonics will remove excess waste and toxicity from the body, allowing energy to flow more freely through the body and a beautiful lightness. If you are sceptical, simply try it out and see for yourself.

6. Breathe deeply in fresh air daily. Breathing deeply outside where you can take in beautiful fresh oxygen and breathe out toxins will deeply energise your body. Take five minutes outside every day to simply breathe and bask in the glory of nature.

7. Move your body daily. Getting regular movement will dramatically increase your natural energy flow. Sluggishness, heaviness and stagnation will begin to shift, you will increase your oxygen intake and get endorphins flowing. Your energy will be much higher within days of beginning to move regularly. It doesn’t have to be a one hour power sweat session either – simply going for a good paced walk or doing a series of your favourite yoga poses will boost your vitality quickly.

8. De-stress by staying present. If you are focusing on the past or worrying about the future instead of dealing only with what you are experiencing in the current moment, it is likely your stress level will be much higher. Stress instantly depletes your energy…in a BIG way. Continually remind yourself to come back to the present moment. The whirlwind of thoughts creating stress and fatigue will decrease, your focus will increase and you will find your energy quickly rebuilding!