Spring asthenia and performance: 5 tips to combat it
The spring asthenia is a condition known as a type of "seasonal affective disorder" whose symptoms usually include loss of appetite, increased heart rate and peripheral circulation, restlessness, flushing ... etc. However, there are people who also complain of fatigue, apathy and increased sleep.
All these symptoms have an impact on our intellectual performance and especially affects the students, precisely now in the exam period, and professionals, eager to achieve the objectives set for the first half of the year.
Spring asthenia: this is how this seasonal change affects us
Although there is little research on how seasonal changes affect our behavior and our performance, it is known that sunlight improves our moods, stimulating the secretion of serotonin, and that a temperature of 22 degrees Celsius is the most favors "In addition, the production of melatonin, the sleep hormone, is reduced in the spring, favoring higher energy states, and on the other hand, in the second half of spring, the production of luteinizing hormone, responsible for the production of testosterone and ovulation, "explains neuropsychologist Luis Díaz de Losada.
Therefore, in the coming weeks we will all be affected by the arrival of spring, but are all these changes beneficial to our professional performance? "It is evident that all the disturbances suffered in this period diminish our tolerance to conflict and frustration, and to tasks that require a high concentration," says Díaz de Losada.
5 keys to combat spring asthenia
To combat the imbalance and channel energy, Luis Díaz de Losada offers a series of practical tips to overcome the spring, making good use of time and increasing our performance:
1. Maintain our time habits, this helps our circadian rhythm to stabilize the organism.
2. Perform exercise regularly and if possible with moderate solar exposure. It will increase the available energy, improve the quality of our sleep due to the lower production of melatonin, and sun exposure will increase the synthesis of vitamin D and the production of serotonin, which will improve our mood.
3. Increase intake of vitamin D and B complex in our spring diet, that reinforce our immune system and our nervous system.
4. Try to avoid direct and unproductive confrontations both in the family and in the professional field, trying to adopt a more reflective attitude. For this it is useful to remember that it is not always in our hands to solve all the situations that pre-occupy us, and that we must avoid dispersion by occupying ourselves, that is, concentrating our efforts on the tasks that do depend on our performance, which are the affective and professionally more profitable.
5. Work time management. To avoid dispersion, nothing like inaugurating habits of using powerful prioritization techniques. Once the pertinent classification of priorities has been made, dedicate the first hour of the morning to advance in the most tedious task of the list.
José Luis Díaz from Losada. Master in Neuroscience and Specialist in Personal Coaching by the University of Navarra.
