Burning a scented candle or spraying a room with your favorite air freshener doesn’t only make your home smell wonderful, it stimulates areas of the brain that change your mood. “Scents can generate reactions in the frontal lobe and the hypothalamus that influence behaviors and personalities,” says Alan Hirsch, M.D., Founder of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago. According to his research, if you want to be more…
* Energetic, sniff coffee: This wake-me-up aroma helps you approach life with more gusto and passion.
* Creative, sniff baby powder: After breathing in this scent, you’ll enjoy trying new activities for the first time and take fresh approaches to old ideas.
* Confident, sniff fruit: Folks who breathe in citrus, apple, pear and berry scents tend to be strong-minded, ambitious and natural leaders.
* Organized, sniff rain, grass or ocean: These and other nature scents help you stay on top of important details and schedules.
* Resolute, sniff jasmine or lavender: Trying to stick to a diet? Exercise regime? New Year’s resolution? These gentle aromas amp up your willpower and keep you focused on your goals.

[photo: prakhar]

Find that you’re less active during the colder months when blustery weather makes it hard to bike, hike, garden, swim and do all your usual outdoor exercises? Then, you’re also missing out on the great benefits from being active—such as a stronger heart, more energy, a smaller waistline, a brighter mood and less stress. Luckily, there are lots of easy, inexpensive ways to make indoor workouts just as enjoyable as outdoor ones:
* Relive your childhood with a hula hoop. They’re not just for kids anymore. Adult-sized versions are slightly heavier to give you an easy workout that tones your hips and tummy. They’re about $40 at sports stores such as Dick’s Sporting Goods and Sports Authority. Never hula hooped before? Check out instructional videos at ehow.
* Turn your outdoor bike into an indoor one. You don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars on a fancy stationary bike. Simply put your regular bicycle’s rear wheel on a training stand to hold it in place and you can start pedaling away right now. Find one on ebay for about $40.
* Stretch with elastic bands. Forget cluttering your home with bulky barbells and weight equipment to get stronger arms, legs and stomach muscles. Elastic resistance bands—which strengthen muscles as you stretch the band—work just as well and take up a fraction of the space. Starting at about $10 from amazon.
* Hike your stairs. At a normal pace, you’ll burn over 200 calories every 30 minutes. That’s as much as you’d shave off with a StairMaster.
* Turn on the TV. There are many free exercise and yoga programs up and down the TV dial. You can even order many free “on demand” shows so you can work out around your schedule. Check tvguide or your local program guide for schedules.

[photo: Richard Faulder]

Which of these do you think is best at increasing daytime alertness and energy:
A. Sleeping in extra hour and a half
B. Two cups of strong coffee
C. A brief afternoon nap

It’s C, say scientists at the Sleep Research Center at Loughborough University in England. They tested each of these methods on volunteers and found that those who snuck in 20 minutes of shut-eye around 2 p.m. were the most alert and energized for the rest of the day. Coffee was the second-best energy booster. And, surprisingly, sleeping in an extra 90 minutes in the morning didn’t improve daytime energy at all!

[photo: fotographix.ca]

You read right—less caffeine! Harvard Medical School scientists say that sipping a little caffeinated tea or coffee throughout the day keeps you more alert and energized than downing an oversized mug-full in one gulp. According to their research, small amounts of caffeine spaced out over several hours works better at countering the effects of adenosine, a drowsiness-causing brain chemical that builds up as the day goes on.

Tip: On a decaf diet? Perk up your energy with spearmint gum. Research shows that the minty scent boosts alertness and the act of chewing brings more oxygen-rich blood to your brain, which helps wake it up!

[photo: Robert Couse-Baker]

Nope, not sheep! If you have trouble falling asleep or tend to toss and turn all night, before turning in, try counting your blessings, for instance, the health of your children, loving friends or even a relaxing bubble bath you took earlier in the day. Researchers from the University of Manchester in England found that the people who regularly think about reasons to be thankful fall asleep faster, have more uninterrupted sleep and enjoy higher energy levels during the day than those who don’t feel as grateful. Their reasoning? Thankful thoughts make us feel more positive, which short-circuits stress, a main culprit behind lousy sleep.

[photo: Emma Johansson]

University of Michigan researchers trying to pep up sleepy college students during a boring day-long lecture discovered that easy self-applied acupressure moves did the trick. Those who were instructed to gently tap the top of their head (or two inches below their knees or the back of their hands between the thumb and forefinger) three minutes at a time for a total of 15 minutes reported feeling significantly more awake than those who didn’t try this ancient energizing technique. Acupressure appears to work in a similar way as acupuncture: it stimulates specific points of the body that contain nerves and cells that affect activity in brain areas responsible for mood and arousal including the amygdala, insula, hippocampus and thalamus, explains lead study author Richard E. Harris, Ph.D., a research assistant professor at the University of Michigan.

[photo: arriba]

If you tend to get energy lulls during the day and your whatever-cino isn’t kicking in, try carrying a sprig of rosemary around. Then, whenever you need to recharge, take a whiff. In addition to enjoying the herb’s minty pine aroma, you’ll be breathing in ursolic acid, a compound that blocks the body’s natural breakdown of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter your brain needs to stay alert, according to a study at England’s Northumbria University. Result: You’ll feel more awake and be able to focus more easily!

[photo: dnak]

Scientists have long known that eating yogurt helps prevent yeast infections as well as colds and other ills by supporting the immunity system with its rich stores of the good bacteria Lactobacillus. Well, now scientists say those same bacteria improve your mood and erase fatigue. The proof: In a landmark study, volunteers who were given the bacteria every day for two months had significantly less anxiety and higher energy levels than those who received a placebo, reports the journal Gut Pathogens. Turns out, what happens in the gut affects the brain. How? Ingesting Lactobacillus (either through yogurt, such as Dannon’s Activia or Stoneyfield Farm Organic Yogurt, or popping 1 billion to 5 billion CFUs of Lactobacillus supplements) provides fuel for the production of the amino acid tryptophan, which is the building block of serotonin—a hormone in the brain linked to happiness and better sleep, explains study author Vinket Rao, Ph.D.

[photo credit: tigr]