*Note: this is the second in a series of trainings entitled “Office Awesomeness—Stress, Energy and Performance Training for the Nine to Five Superhero“

I really get it.  You don’t want to be a zombie at work.

It’s no fun for you, and it’s generally not the best way to score points with your boss.

And I know, our modern lifestyle often seems insane—working extreme hours, crashing late every night, under-slept, under-hydrated, meals consisting more of “proprietary processed ingredients” than actual whole foods.

I’m not gonna lie—it’s f’ing tough to resist the urge to reach for the 5-Hour Energy shot or whatever other chemical fuel is in grabbing distance.

The typical strategy is “just maintain.” Keep the steady burn through work and treat yourself better when you get home—or when you retire.

Harken to me Hero!  There is another way!

The whole point of the Office Awesomeness training is to steadily introduce simple, free, and immediately available alternatives to the less-than-healthy habits you may have gotten yourself into.

Here’s a simple analogy for building up a reliance on external, chemical boosts of energy: each time you use coffee, energy drinks, candy, carbs, pharmaceuticals and the like to stave off fatigue or give yourself that extra boost, you are withdrawing from your savings account.

Remember, we build up a savings account for emergencies, for big purchases, to rest easy at night, and to build up interest over the long-term. In this analogy, your body’s ability to naturally produce, maintain and increase it’s own clean energy is your savings account.

But caffeine, simple or processed sugars and other “pick-me-up” substances have a high toll on the body and this savings account—especially when used every day.

By substituting a foreign and artificial substance into your body each time you start to get tired, unfocused or in a low mood, you are teaching your body to depend more and more on these outside inputs instead of strengthening your body’s natural ability to do the same thing—and this depletes your savings.

And a day comes when you realize the cup of coffee isn’t simply providing a quick boost, but has completely taken the place of any natural vibrancy you may have once had.

Remember the E-Z chairs from Wall-E and the comical yet sad results? Yea, it’s like that.

Here are few articles exemplifying the intense side-effects and potential dangers of these chemicals taken daily:

2. Breathe, damn you!  Breathe! (two minutes)

Conscious breathing is like a good magician’s trick—it’s so obvious we look right past it.

Right past it to coffee, Red Bull,and Youtube viral videos (475 million views, really?!).

Controlled breathing is used by yogis, singers, musicians, asthmatics, long distance runners and Office Awesomeness heroes (including you)!

3. Chew your water—seriously. (30 seconds)

Now, I know the coloquial phrase “chewing water” means ‘impossible’, but just bear with me.

The practice here is to chew a mouthful of water—plain and simple.

Before you start to give me that incredulous look (yes, that look), hear me out.

There is both an ancient art and modern science to chewing water.

The sages of India, China, Mongolia, Egypt and other ancient cultures maintained that our saliva is richly encoded with our personalized metabolic profile (though they may not have used that exact term).

When you chew water, this living metabolic information mixes with the water (also full of living information) which is then swallowed and dispersed through your digestive system.

These sages taught that doing this practice keeps your body in better overall balance and tuned in to its nutritional and biochemical needs.

Now, if that is too woo-woo for you, here is a modern scientific angle:

First, studies show that 37 percent of people mistake signals of thirst as hunger pangs because the thirst mechanism is so weak. Dehydration symptoms (i.e. feeling weak, dizzy and irritable) mimic those of hunger and add further confusion between the two signals.

If you think you are feeling a hunger pang, especially between meals and at other odd times, reach first for the glass of water than for the trail mix or candy bar. Chances are good that your body was really asking for hydration all along.

This practice will keep you super-hydrated, and it will also cut down on overeating. And generally, when we are snacking at work, we are reaching for salty, sugary, carb-based processed foods anyway.

Imperfect Action

Now, these methods aren’t so much about “getting it right” (I really dislike that mentality). The point instead is to start seeing your environment differently, start listening with more sensitivity to your body, and realizing you have many more positive and healthy choices than you may have thought.

Try each of these out, but don’t get overwhelmed. It is much better to give a full try to only one of these techniques than to try all of them and get flustered.

Really put these techniques and principles to the test, seeing the results that you get—regardless of what I or others say. These results speak most loudly. But, give each technique a fair and thorough try.

And again, these are the techniques that have been passed down through living human history, forming the foundation of simple and free preventative self-care. Own your heritage!