How to Maintain your Energy Levels

Very often is very common to feel oppressed by the social demands of modern life. In certain social settings one is expected to behave in a certain way. If a person is not willing or is unable to perform according to the demands, some kind of pressure emerges and the result is stress or depression.

Sometimes, a person may be able to cope with the pressure or stress. He/she may use the stress at his her convenience to succeed at certain endeavor, but if the person is unable to cope with the pressure, then, there is a load which needs to be discarded by some natural chemical means.

• Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers in the brain that send signals between nerve cells known as neurons.
• The brain utilizes neurotransmitters to send signals throughout the body.

¨Hey dude, you´re high, ¨ he pronounced.

¨I´m what? ¨ I inquired.

¨It seem as if you put something in! ¨ He assured.

I was puzzled! Without understanding the exact meaning of his words. This was not the first time I had heard similar remarks about my person.

¨Do you want a dope? ¨ Someone offered me.

¨No thank you! ¨ I replied.

¨Don´t give him anything, he is already high, ¨ another person said.

¨Sure, he is! ¨ the first person added.

I had no idea what they were talking about. I was in my teen-age years and I was learning to cope with persuasive people my own age.

During the course of my life, I have always found it troublesome to comprehend the attitudes of people my same age. That used to cause me social enxiety. I have found it easier to appreciate the sensibility of people who were a bit older than me.

In my younger years, it was not as easy to feel being a foreigner in a social setting, but, over time, sparks of understanding have broaden my personal view of the dangers of letting myself being carried by the trends of the mainstream.

I have adopted more realistic and positive ways to relief the anxiety that produced the interaction with people who make a fuzz of things that seem, so simple to me.

• There are two kinds of neurotransmitters in the brain; inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters.
• Excitatory transmitters are the ones that stimulate the brain.
• Inhibitory neurotransmitters aid at creating balance of mood.
• Inhibitory neurotransmitters may become depleted when excitatory neurotransmitters are overactive in the brain.

¨Jose Juan, what are you doing? ¨my mother used to say.

¨I´m reading, ¨I used to respond.

¨Come on join the family, ¨she ordered.

¨Later, I´m busy, ¨ I used to respond.

It was not that I was doing important things; I was actually trying to deploy the mechanism that would help me ease the stress that was oppressing me at that moment.

With my eyes closed, I used to imagine remote environments, such as the ocean, a forest or the sky; something that could provide me with pleasure. My only longing at those moments was to be able of vanish from the tangibility of the material reality.

• Adequate amounts of serotonin are needed for a balance of mood and stability of character.
• Serotonin regulates the sleep cycle, carbohydrate cravings, digestion and pain control. Low levels of serotonin are related with a weak immune system.
• Stimulant medications and caffeine may cause a depletion of serotonin.

After spending some hours in solitude, my oppressed mind would finally found some relief. That is when I would join the social setting in the house, but it would only take minutes for me to go back to the mindful state I was some hours before.

¨Why doesn´t life go forward with the passage of time? ¨I used to ponder.

¨Why not follow a straight line that sets me out....? ¨

In all kinds of social setting, whenever I felt like I was not receiving pleasure form the things my eyes and ears were perceiving, I would always try to concentrate on those that caused me some kind of pleasure.

It was like a tug of war between the unpleasant environment and the enjoyable images, some real, others kind of unreal, but which in the end, caused more enjoyment inside of me.

I didn´t know then that a set of neurotransmitters were flowing through my body

¨Hey, we´re going to smoke some dope, ¨ someone said.

¨Do you want to join us? ¨* the same person invited.

I have heard exhilarated comments about out of extraordinary situations people would confront either mentally or physically while under the influence of narcotics.

I felt to the temptation and joined my pseudo-friends, for a while. The effects of narcotics did not caused the same effects on me as I was told, but on the contrary, the effects set me at the lowest level of my personal dynamics.

Neurotransmitters can be depleted by lifestyle and abuse, such as alcohol, drugs, cigarette smoking, caffeine, stress, a poor diet, neurotoxins and genetic predisposition.

• Dopamine is both; an excitary and inhibitory neurotransmitter. When the levels of dopamine are iether high or low, it leads to a lack of concentration or focus. this neurotransmitter is also responsible for longing to get things done or motivation.
  
  
• Medications and caffeine stimulate dopamine in the synapse so that staying in focus is enhanced.
  
  
• Too much stimulation of dopamine may lead to its depletion, over time.

The abuse of foreign substances often have negative outcomes in society and individuals, including health and performance.

The intake of drugs damage the brain in a way that fosters compulsive drug abuse. Addicted people often suffer from social issues such as loss of employment, family disintegration, and low performance at school, child abuse and domestic violence.

Drugs contain chemicals that use the brain´s communication system and disrupt it. Certain drugs, such as marijuana and heroin possess a similar chemical structure to neurotransmitters. This similarity permits the narcotics to activate nerve cells, stimulating them to send abnormal messages.

Other drugs, such as methamphetamine and cocaine can stimulate nerve cells to release large amounts of neurotransmitters, principally dopamine, or intervene at the normal recycling of these brain neurotransmitters, causing an abundance of dopamine, which is responsible for some body´s emotions, such as movement, motivation and pleasure.

The overstimulation of this reward system, which in normal conditions responds to natural environmental situations, such as survival, hunger, love, produces ephemeral euphoric effects. This reaction installs a repeating pattern of behavior which makes people abuse from drugs.

The human body possesses its own naturally systems to protect itself from the variations of life. The body naturally reacts against foreign invaders that penetrate the skin to more internal places, such as the stomach or even the brain.

Human beings in the quest for happiness sometimes engage in dangerous interplays by using foreign substances that overwhelm the body. The substances may be of everyday lifestyle use, such as coffee or alcohol; however, they could also be highly toxic substances which may disrupt the correct functioning of the brain causing tremendous damage to it.

By staying in focus and using the system´s natural ways of healing, one can overcome the vicissitudes of life easily