Everyone can recognize the feeling of restlessness, lack of motivation & even emotional numbness at some point in their life. When my clients are feeling like that, they often want to know why? What can I do? It is a good question and a very important one too.
Take a look at possible reasons why and what you could possibly do. See if you can relate to any of those above.
1) Physical health
First of all, the root can be due to your physical health, e.g., poor diet or perhaps vitamin deficiency. Are you eating a lot of non-nutritious food? The consumption of simple carbons like sugar and white flour can result in fatigue, restlessness, lack of motivation, and sluggishness. Processed meat products belong in the same category. Try to eat more high nutritious food, and the more varied, the better.
My client told me one time, it is all about the alternatives. It is so true. What can you eat instead of your morning cereal, that is perhaps full of sugar and white flour? Can you think of a little bit healthier alternative? Start with one thing and work your way up to an overall healthier lifestyle. Your energy levels, mood & motivation, will improve accordingly.
2) Exercise
Another simple way to keep you motivated is to exercise. You should always be able to find time for exercise at some point during the day or week. If you find it very challenging, make a habit of going to bed a little bit earlier, and start the next day earlier with a bit of exercise. Starting your day full of endorphins (natural happy hormones) is going to affect motivation, emotional numbness & restlessness. Research has shown that only 30 minutes a day affects our cognitive function.
I always empathize with the benefits of exercising with my clients. I have seen how they get more motivated to tackle their daily routine when they have implemented that into their weekly plan.
3) Winter bathing/cold showers effects stress & anxiety
Every time you take a shower, try to end it with a little bit of cold water. Time it and see how much you can tolerate. Then try to improve your time as you can feel the mood shift. Sometimes we can experience these symptoms of low mood due to stress or anxiety. Cold showers give the body a shock that makes us happy – the cold water affects the endorphins because it is a little bit painful, and the endorphins get activated when we are in pain. This affects our overall mood. Moreover, do cold showers affect our libido & estrogen production? With increased libido, we experience more motivation, confidence, joy & self-esteem.
4) Mental health
Lastly, of all is the mental health aspect. Are you living your life according to your values? What are your values, and how important are they for you? Work, family, relationships, mental development & a healthy lifestyle, are all examples of very common values.
If work is an important value for you but not bringing you the needed satisfaction, this might affect you more than if it was just a necessary evil. Have you ever heard about “bored out”? It simply means that individuals feel bored at work, and that can have a huge impact on our well-being. How about your relationships? How is your relationship with your partner? Is it dragging you down instead of bringing you motivation and joy? What about your social life? Are you neglecting your friends? Motivation and joy get affected if you are not living your life according to your values. This may result in an emotional numbness & restlessness where individuals don’t experience any kind of joy but are more floating along with life without any strong emotions.
If you aren’t very satisfied with your current life situation, thoughts can take over. When over-thinking occurs, it is draining and results in fatigue and a lack of motivation.
Emotional numbness, lack of motivation & restlessness can happen to anyone and is often a healthy response to negative events, such as grief, for example. It is, however, worth asking the question: Are you procrastinating something that is good for you, like a healthier lifestyle? Are you still in the relationship that brings you no particular joy? Is work no longer challenging for you, and you find yourself floating through the days? Do you not get enough alone time (me-time)?
Whatever the reason is, you might need to make some changes. These changes may be smaller and less extensive than you think. Decide today to take action that brings you closer to your values. Start with small steps; it is the small steps that create big changes.
