If you can't seem to find yourself motivated because of several reasons, take a deep breath and try to motivate yourself with these simple yet effective tips: 1.Close your eyes, and visualize yourself reaching your goals. 2.Try something new today. 3.Take a walk in a park, and let nature reset your mind. 4.Make a to-do list. You'll feel encouraged as you cross off items. 5.Get more sleep. Sleep deprivation could be making you less motivated. 6.Drink coffee for a quick jolt. 7.Start exercising, and you'll feel like yourself 8.Take a small step. You don't have to immediately immerse yourself in the project and see it until completion right away. Just make baby steps, and take it one day at a time. 9.Wake yourself up from your slump with a cold shower. 10.Have a reward system, so you'll have something to look forward to. 11.When doing a task you don't want to do, play energizing music to help you get through it. 12.Get the hard stuff done first thing in
For me, even at my most depressed, certain flow states never seemed to fail me. I can reliably trust that I’ll get into a flow state by playing guitar, writing, listening to my favourite music, or having a philosophical discussion with someone whose mind I respect and feel challenged by.
What are your personal flow state inducing behaviours?
Flow state – seed habit: engage in flow states that appeal to you… if only for a few minutes, every day.
7. Take action
In the past, when I have felt at my most depressed, I become very prone to staying indoors and ruminating on what it is that I should do to fix the problems that I perceive with my life.
Do I need to process more emotions? Do I need to change something about my career? Is there some old emotional wounding that I haven’t fully healed? Thoughts and questions circle around in a flurry of chaos in my mind.
The thing that always snaps me out of it and back to reality… taking action.
The following quote by my homie Napoleon Hill wasn’t originally intended to be about anxiety or depression, but I feel that it is very useful in this context.
“The greatest cure known for loneliness, discouragement, and discontentment, is work that produces a healthy sweat.
Emotions are sometimes strange, volatile, and unpredictable. They do not always respond to logic and reason. They do, however, respond to action. If you have occasional feelings of loneliness, discouragement, or discontentment, the best way to kill such negative emotions is to work them to death. Almost nothing is as bad as it first seems, and there’s nothing like a hard day’s work to put everything in proper perspective. When you begin to feel negative emotions, dwelling on your misfortunes only makes you feel worse. Do your best to put them out of your mind and think about more positive, constructive things. Physical labor can help. Choose a task that doesn’t require a great deal of concentration, and then focus on accomplishing the task at hand.”
Whether you do some laundry, make yourself a healthy meal, throw out old things that you don’t want anymore, or anything else, the point is to take action. Do something, and you’ll inevitably feel a sense of accomplishment for having done it.
Take action – seed habit: write down a short list of things that you want to do, and commit to doing them today. You’ll be amazed at how much it moves the needle on your sense of self-esteem and well being.
How To Cure Depression Naturally – TL;DR
None of these things in isolation will necessary take you from 0-60 overnight… but the cumulative effect of them will absolutely make you feel better.
Many of these things have been proven to be more effective than most major antidepressants. Do the majority of them, and you’ll feel it.
If you wanted a high leverage action plan of what to do on a daily basis, I’d recommend that you start by:
– Consuming omega 3’s, liquid vitamin d3, and a B vitamin complex daily
– Engaging in outdoor play with friends (soccer, football, tag… anything)
– Taking action on anything in your life that feels doable (laundry, cleaning, work, creating art, etc.) on a daily basis
– Reaching out to your core group of friends/family members, and/or having them reach out to you in order to force yourself to socialize
Do the above, even a few times per week, and your brain will be back up and running faster than any statistic would have you believe.
And remember… there’s no reason to be too hard on yourself to rush through this process. Depressive episodes often have spiritual gifts to teach us… for example, about the things that we need to shift in our lives.
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