Efficiency vs. Energy

The effect of maximizing efficiency for mental health.

INTRO

It seems like everyone these days is looking for more energy. In every store you can find drinks, supplements, candies, and even sometimes smoothies that are advertising more energy. Why is it that marketers are constantly advertising the word “energy”? Is energy in high demand? Is more energy what people need? What effect is having more energy having on people and our society at whole. Even though “energy” is widely marketed and very popular, you will find that nowhere in the Nootripure articles, marketing, or other literature mentions the word “energy”, and here is why.

Why have more energy?

Let’s first address why it is that people are looking for more energy. For our car, more fuel means more energy, so if we step on the gas pedal, the car puts more fuel in the engine and we go faster. This is fun and generally doesn’t cause any harm. But are humans designed in the same way as an automobile?
Unfortunately not. Any drug, such as a stimulant like caffeine (the sole and main ingredient in every energy product) can only reallocate physiological resources. The liver has many functions such as fighting off viruses, cleansing the body of toxins and heavy metals, digesting fat, and about 1000 other things including pulsing electricity through the body. Caffeine tells the liver to focus solely on sending electricity through the body (to the other organs and tissues) giving one a sense that they have a better working body. However, there are two issues with this. The first is that the liver stops working on the other 1000 functions including its vital immune system functions, leaving the body defenseless and unbalanced. Secondly, the rest of the body can only handle so much electricity at once. The human body is already optimized to send the correct amount of electricity, at the right time, to the right organs. Any more will become harmful and damaging to the organs and brain. If you can imagine for a second that an energy drink poured into the mouth of a human is about the equivalent of a the same drink spilling on a laptop while it is plugged in, sending off sparks and smoke until it turns off permanently. This isn’t good.

Where the feeling of energy comes from

Caffeine is originally a chemical defense mechanism (pesticide) that is naturally produced by plants to kill any animal that tries to eat the plant. Fortunately, humans are pretty big creatures, so a little bit doesn’t affect our health too much. A little bit will only stress the body instead of kill it. The stress from increasing cellular output activates the sympathetic nervous system, putting our mind into a “fight or flight” state. This system prioritizes the functionality of the electrical output of the liver, the respiration of the lungs, the forcefulness of the muscles, the pumping action of the heart, along with the acute cognitive processing of the brain. These were all designed based on millions of years of evolution while primates needed to fight their way out of death threatening situations like running from a tiger. Previously, this was a function performed rarely, only when chasing an animal, in a fight, or running away from danger. Now we use this function of our body just to wake up in the morning. So yes, it’s cool that our body can deliver “more energy”, but it also causes a lot of stress that unbalances the organs and eventually deteriorates the mind.

So what could we do better?

So what can a person who seeks mental clarity and better mental health do? If our goal is to move through an obstacle race for example, then we have two options as to how to accomplish the race faster. Either we can train our muscles to be stronger and force our way through, or we can become more efficient by better strategizing, using less energy, and optimizing the body to move efficiently. Based on the research, when it comes to mental health, both of these will get the job done, but one of these will destroy the mind, the other will make the mind more powerful. Can you guess which is which?

So how do we optimize our efficiency?

Here is the answer. Moving and thinking with efficiency is when your body is heavy, and your mind is relaxed. The body becomes light and easy to move simply because it is no longer receiving input from the muscles, meaning it has become numbed, or dumbed down. What it once had awareness for, the mind is no longer aware. Therefore, with the most awareness, the mind will be able to accurately detect every imperfection in your muscles and body. With more awareness, it will be able to better allocate resources and move strategically. So our ability to be more efficient comes from being more aware, and any energy drinks work by lowering the mind’s awareness of the body.

Finding balance with proper use

So then why do the Nootripure products contain caffeine if it is so bad? Well, caffeine isn’t bad. It is just a drug, with a particular function, neither good nor bad. In fact it has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for many thousands of years to help people with a variety of illnesses. But the key to using it as a tool to improve and heal the body rather than another drug to be abused is dependant on the circumstance and whether the drug is physiologically balanced or not. The side effects (effects that destroy the body and mind) of caffeine can be mitigated. The way we do it with the Nootripure products is to include magnesium to help keep the muscles from becoming damaged, L-theanine to keep the caffeine from over stimulating the neuroreceptors, and ashwagandha to keep the body from entering a “fight or flight” stress state. We use a multitude of other ingredients to further balance the caffeine’s affect on the body, but these are a few easy to understand examples.

So how do we know if the caffeine is helping us or harming us? Here is a simple test. After taking your energy supplement or Nootripure product, then ask yourself these questions:

  1. Do I feel energetic and like I want to get up and move around, or do I feel relaxed and peaceful like I am ready to meditate?
  2. Do I feel motivated to accomplish tasks, or do I feel simply “in the zone”?
  3. Does it feel like I am putting in a lot of rewarding effort into my actions, or do my efforts seem to come naturally and without much thought?

If ‘yes’ to the aforementioned option to any of these 3 questions, then the caffeine is abusing your body and mind. When thinking of creating mental health, think of what mental health looks like. What does mental health look like? We like to think of the ideal state achieved from the Nootripure products being that of a zen master. On one side of the spectrum, you have the wild-child who is energetic, motivated, achieving, and ready to get up, yell, swing their arms around, beat their chest, and do challenging things because they can. On the other side is a zen master who is calm, collected, patient, aware, humble, and yet ready to execute any performance of human talent with flawless mental clarity. The wild-child is energetic. The zen master is efficient. Both will accomplish the goal. Over time, using valuable resources from the body, one will end in mental illness, the other will end up more healthy. Now you get to choose which one you would like to be?

Conclusion

Nootripure is not in the energy business. Nootripure is a company for mental health; helping people undo the damage that was marketed to them by other companies who pride themselves on selling consumers “healthy” energy products. Many of our customers choose to pay a little extra for improving mental health only once they have burnt out on the energy drinks and lost their mental performance, but hopefully you will make the right choice before it gets to that point. If you do decide to make that choice, we are here to back you up and support you on your journey. Feel free to join the community, learn more about our mission or even become an advocate of mental health.

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