How to Find Motivation When You Aren’t Motivated
I’ve researched 4 techniques to find motivation hoping to inspire others and mostly myself. Motivation, or the lack there of, is a topic has come up quite a bit from clients, family, and friends. I don’t know about you, but these past weeks have left me feeling unmotivated. Hence that’s why it’s taken me so long to get this blog finished. I have so much I need to do, but I’ve been feeling drained and not accomplishing much. So, how do we get motivated again?
One of the main chemicals in your brain that gives you motivation is dopamine. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter, which means it is a chemical messenger that carries signals between nerve cells in your brain. Dopamine also acts as a hormone, which means it is released into your bloodstream and affects other parts of your body.
Here are 4 techniques you can use to produce dopamine naturally that will give back your motivation. The solutions are quite simple, yet so hard at the same time.
- Exercise is one of the easiest things to do, yet so hard to actually do it.
- Get outside, weather permitting.
- Feed your brain with uplifting stories; through podcasts, YouTube, TV, books, and music, yes music.
- Use visualization, meditation, and affirmations to head toward your goals and desires.
None of these are in a particular order and you can start wherever and you don’t necessarily need to use all of these techniques. If you have something you use that isn’t on this list, please feel free to share in the comments. We gladly accept any useful tool in the Wellness Garden Tool Shed.
Exercise Is a Great Motivational Tool
Exercise is multi-beneficial. It aids in depression, wakes up your brain, and provides oxygen throughout your body. Let’s face it, you may have lack of motivation due to depression or lack of sleep. Circumstance such as work, the world’s crazy stuff, or relationships may have you down without you even realizing it.
Exercising in the morning works best for me to get things going. I throw on my favorite playlist from Spotify that usually consists of heavy fast music to get me going, where I can’t sit still if I tried. My husband works out best in the afternoons and hates working out in the morning. You do what feels right for you. Cardio and weights together or separately works. Start out slow so you’ll want to continue. Even if it’s 10-15 minutes, you can build from there. Begin with twice a week and then go to three times. Test yourself to see if it’s working.
My playlist if you’re interested https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6PWiePOaBKEXQKQsJCU9fc?si=42f689a9d775435e
It takes 28 days to form a habit and 3 months to really hardwire your brain to make it a trait and longer to make it your personality and belief. Data shows that exercise gives you more energy, plus it helps wear your body out for you to sleep better. The feeling after exercising gives you some gratification of accomplishing something, which will (hopefully) motivate you to accomplish more.
Get Outside to Get Motivated
Nothing helps my spirit or motivates me like being outside, especially when the sun is out. Lately, my beautiful, sunny, and warm California weather is all, but that. The morning fog isn’t just in the mornings. For me, I know I couldn’t live in a place where the sky is mostly gray. It’s forecasted to be warm this weekend which I will gladly welcome. Have you noticed how the weather affects you?
Don’t underestimate the power of a good walk around your neighborhood. My friend and I are very fortunate to live in a beautiful and safe neighborhood and that we have each other to keep ourselves company while walking our dogs. We get to enjoy fresh air and good conversations. And our dogs stop guilting us once the leash is on and we’re headed out the door. Not to mention we get a little more exercise in for the day.
Sometimes my neighbor’s schedule doesn’t work with mine and vice versa. I pop in my headset and listen to Lewis Howes’s School of Greatness Podcast or The Smart Ones, depending on my mood. I don’t think I’ve ever listened to a bad interview with either of these shows. I’m either laughing or I’m inspired to try a new way of doing things. Being outside and feeding my brain, double dose of dopamine.
The SmartLess Podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/0Yzd0g8NYmn27k2HFNplv7?si=cfe889a315484705
Feed Your Brain with Motivational Information
What are you feeding your brain? There’s so much trash out there with social media, news, shows, podcasts, etc. And trash can be fun. Who doesn’t like a bit of juicy gossip at times? But how does that motivate you? If you listened to all that negativity for too long, it will affect your psyche. It’s like any addiction. Not all addictions are ingested, but they all offer something at first; fun, fun with problems, then ultimately only problems.
Our society is all about addictions to drama. We went from reality TV to reality social media. It’s all designed to hold your attention. The news likes to trigger fear and anger which leads to people spending money on those topics. Basically we’re just a bunch of pawns. Nevertheless it can be extremely draining. But there’s another side to this.
There are many YouTube videos, podcasts, shows, books, etc. that promote wellness and empowerment. Topics that can make your life better or that motivate you to do better or to create a positive and fulfilling life. I’ve been into self-help and motivational books and podcasts and people will “poo poo” it, like make fun. I’m not sure why. Maybe they don’t understand or maybe they’ve tried something and it didn’t work fast enough. But I can assure you, I’ve manifested a horse at 14 years old, my house at 25, my family, and income. So, for me it’s worked.
Some motivational links.
Lewis Howes the School of Greatness https://www.youtube.com/@lewishowes
Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill https://www.amazon.com/Think-Grow-Rich-Landmark-Bestseller/dp/1585424331/ref=sr_1_1?crid=16V27ROKFQBWS&keywords=think+and+grow+rich+by+napoleon+hill+paperback&qid=1688504036&sprefix=think+an%2Caps%2C166&sr=8-1
Manifesting Me: a Story of Rebellion and Redemption https://wellnessgardentoolshed.com/product/manifesting-me-a-story-of-rebellion-and-redemption/
Meditation and Visualization on Motivation
I’ve used vision boards and have had many things come to pass on them, even learned how to quite my mind to meditate and visualize what kind of life I want, law of attraction. It’s more than just wishful thinking or magical thinking. The formula is law of attraction + law of action = produces results.
What vision boards and visualizing use he reticular activating system RAS which plays a crucial role in many cognitive and physiological processes, such as learning, memory, motivation, emotion, pain perception and stress response. In layman’s term and an example of using RAS is say you bought a new car. Everywhere you go you see the exact same car you purchased, even the same color. People didn’t buy your car because you bought it, you only noticed the cars because that was what you were focused your attention towards.
Think of your brain like Google or one of these AI apps, you give it a task and will give you everything that involves that specific task, good or bad. By thinking and dwelling how unmotivated you are, your brain will give you multiple reasons of why you should feel unmotivated like negative experiences that are from your past. The good news is you can feed it motivating things to get yourself motivated.
Patience Is Needed When Searching for Motivation
I can be extremely tough to motivate yourself when you’re feeling off, but be patient with yourself. It takes time to and mostly consistency to develop habits that will keep you motivated. And many of you probably already know this, but it never hurts to get your thoughts validated. There are many ways to snap out of a funk and I need to practice my what is written in this blog.
I’ve been forcing myself to do cardio for at least 30 minutes three times a week. I’m getting outside as much as possible, and started meditating last week. Honestly, it sort of helps, but I know this funk will pass especially if I stay consistent. This isn’t the first time in my life in this state, in fact these techniques helped me before and I know they will help me find my motivation once again and hopefully you will too.
Either you run the day or the day runs you.
