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On usual occasions we make a practice of stopping an occupation as soon as we meet the first effective layer (so to call it) of fatigue. We have then walked, played, or worked \u2018enough,\u2019 so we desist. That amount of fatigue is an efficacious obstruction on this side of which our usual life is cast. But if an unusual necessity forces us to press onward, a surprising thing occurs. The fatigue gets worse up to a certain critical point, when gradually or suddenly it passes away, and we are fresher than before. We have evidently tapped a level of new energy, masked until then by the fatigue-obstacle usually obeyed. There may be layer after layer of this experience. \u2014William James, \u201cThe Energies of Men\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If you\u2019ve ever prepared for a running race, you know how in training you reached a certain pace that seemed like your absolute limit; it seemed impossible to go any faster. And yet, on race day, you did<\/em> go faster. Even though you thought you were pushing your hardest during your workouts, this was an illusion.<\/p>\n
We often think we slow down and stop during athletic training because we run out of physiological energy — that it is the strength of our muscles or the oxygen in our blood that caps our maximum expenditure. Yet research finds that when individuals feel they\u2019ve reached their physical limits, they actually have the capacity to go on for much longer<\/a>. It isn\u2019t your body that shuts things down, it\u2019s your mind.<\/p>\n
The brain exercises a miserly control over the body\u2019s life-sustaining resources; it monitors the environment within and without, and when it feels there\u2019s a risk of your getting too fatigued and run-down, it puts the brakes on your efforts, throwing the switch far from the actual point at which you would become dangerously exhausted.<\/p>\n
When something compels you beyond this premature barrier \u2014 such as the animating pressures of competition \u2014 the parsimonious brain relents, and opens up another store of energy. You experience the proverbial \u201csecond wind.\u201d<\/p>\n
The phenomenon of the second wind manifests itself not only in regards to physical work, but intellectual, moral, spiritual, emotional . . . and even existential<\/em> efforts as well.<\/p>\n
There are times in life when setbacks pile up. Hopes are dashed. Uncertainty intensifies. Just when you were getting used to one twist of fate, another arrives. You feel overwhelmed and worn out. You feel like you cannot find your footing. That you cannot go on. You\u2019re not necessarily clinically depressed, nor suicidal, but you\u2019re down in the dumps; you\u2019ve lost your mojo; life feels empty and burdensome and you simply want to lie in bed, throw the covers over your head, and give up. You\u2019ve hit an existential wall.<\/p>\n
Just as when running a long distance, even though you feel you\u2019ve reached your limits, you still have ample reserves of energy stashed away. But how can you access these stores and catch the current of a second wind?<\/p>\n
7 Stimulants to the Second Wind<\/span><\/h3>\n
as a rule men habitually use only a small part of the power which they actually possess and which they might use under appropriate conditions<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The famous philosopher and psychologist William James was very interested in the phenomenon of the second wind. In \u201cThe Energies of Men<\/a>,\u201d a speech he gave in 1906, he observed that while \u201cIt is evident that our organism has stored-up reserves of energy that are ordinarily not called upon, but that may be called upon\u201d by drilling down deeper<\/a>, \u201cMost of us continue living unnecessarily near our surface.\u201d<\/p>\n
James\u2019 focus in his speech was on how people can access their full, highest potential and operate more frequently at their \u201cmost useful pitch of energy.\u201d Yet the same ideas he puts forth can also help people simply continue on at their ordinary pitch once they feel they\u2019ve reached the limit of their endurance.<\/p>\n
The reason people aren\u2019t able to consistently tap into their second wind, James surmised, is that their lives typically don\u2019t contain the kind of prods needed to do so:<\/p>\n
Every one is familiar with the phenomenon of feeling more or less alive on different days. Every one knows on any given day that there are energies slumbering in him which the incitements of that day do not call forth, but which he might display if these were greater. Most of us feel as if a sort of cloud weighed upon us, keeping us below our highest notch of clearness in discernment, sureness in reasoning, or firmness in deciding. Compared with what we ought to be, we are only half awake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
If the problem in accessing our second wind is insufficient incitements, the answer, James argues, is to make greater use of \u201cstimuli for unlocking what would otherwise be unused reservoirs of individual power.\u201d<\/p>\n
An example of this kind of energy-releasing agent is the competitive atmosphere of a race. And there are many others which can be used to overcome fatigue, whether of the physical, mental, or existential variety. James sorts \u201cthe different ways in which an [individual\u2019s] energy reserves may be appealed to and set loose\u201d into various categories, which include the following:<\/p>\n
Excitements<\/h3>\n
There are two types of excitement.<\/p>\n
The first is experienced in real time: some threat or danger or emergency arises that sets off your fight-or-flight response; adrenaline and alertness surge and you\u2019re galvanized into action. This type of excitement is very effective for catching a physical second wind; no matter how tired you are, if someone jumps out of the bushes at you, you\u2019ll suddenly find yourself with energy and strength to spare. But its durability is too fleeting to move the needle on existential fatigue; even if some catalyst calls upon all your faculties, once the risk has passed, you\u2019ll fall back into the doldrums.<\/p>\n