Every now and then any of us can feel a bit flat in terms of our energy levels or emotions, affecting our performance and general well being. This can be for a combination of reasons, such as diet and metabolism, insufficient sleep, stress, or perhaps the recovery from illness or loss. For some people it can be a temporary mid-afternoon slump, but for others is can be more sustained over days or weeks and become very disconcerting.
Where it's the more sustained, then seeking professional advice from as early as possible is the best option, in order for a proper detailed analysis of root causes and professional diagnosis to be undertaken. But where it's more sporadic in nature, then you might like to try some of the tricks that have worked for me in the past. I'd suggest attempting the Simple Mood Boosters first if you haven't already, as these could prove effective for you, and require less time and effort. Or you might simply be looking for a challenge and want to extent yourself further. But now onto the more challenging mood boosters!
Challenging Boosters
- Difficult Tasks First. This might seem a little counter-intuitive. After all, the last thing we feel like doing when we're not feeling great is to do more tasks, especially difficult ones. But there's a couple of ways this can help. Firstly, it temporarily takes our mind off how we're feeling by giving us a task to focus on. Secondly, the sense of satisfaction we get from progressing a task is in itself a mood boost. This is a common maxim for productivity gurus, and the reason for it is that we often have more energy and focus at the start of undertaking a task. Another bonus is that there's also an inherent sense of relief at making progress on a task that we've been putting off. The extension of this concept of undertaking tasks early is to wake up early, since many people find that they are more productive first thing in the morning. It won't hurt to try re-ordering tasks on your To Do list, and you might just find that your mood improves simply by getting difficult tasks tackled early rather than weighing on your mind during the day.
- Mindfulness. You've no doubt heard this a million times. But there's a reason for it, as that if you take some time out for your mind, your mind will be thankful for it. Agitated emotions can be symptomatic of an agitated mind, so calming the mind can be a way of helping to settle emotions. By being mindful you'll be allowing the mind a time out to find a moment of peace and acceptance. Acceptance of those things that are outside of your control and learning to be okay with that. Mindfulness need not be a focused meditation session, it can be as simple as closing your eyes, focusing on your breath, and listening to the sounds around you. I've found the best way to make a habit of it is to do it when I'm about to fall asleep. Positive affirmations, or listing things I'm grateful for tend to be calming for me.
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Cold Shower. This one might've given you a bit of a giggle. But some people may find this one easier to do than the next one. If you love to push yourself to the limit physically, then this could be ideal for you. I however, admit to being a coward when it comes to this, and can't say I've tried it very often. The theory here is that the shock to the nervous system puts the body in a heightened state of alertness, thereby having an immediate impact on your mood. I guess you could call it shock treatment!
Note that this should never be attempted by anyone with any existing or predisposed medical conditions that could be triggered by a sudden change of body temperature, so as not to put any undue stress on the heart. If in any doubt, be sure to consult your physician. -
Reflection. This one might sound like just another way of saying Mindfulness. But it's actually quite different and somewhat more challenging. This refers to self-examination and exploring the causes behind why we behave the way we do, and why we make the choices we make. When we make decisions based on sound reasoning or personal experience, we have little reason to doubt that we made the best decision we could with the information we had at the time. Even if the outcome doesn't meet what we'd hoped, we can be confident that they were still good decisions.
But then there's the decisions that were made in haste, or with not as much information as we would've liked. Those decisions tend to be more heavily influenced by preferences and aversions, or perhaps by the opinion of others. They are the decisions we are often less confident about because we feel like we had to make them based on poor or little information. Often these kinds of decisions rely less on reason and more on guesswork, instinct, or what seems safe.
You might be thinking, so what...when there's no alternative, you're still faced with having to reach a decision?! Well this is where knowing yourself comes into its own. If you're conscious of your own biases, you can account for them in your decision making. Biases or aversions are things that we're not always aware of, and tend to think of them as simply the things we dislike and leave it at that. We rarely re-examine them and therefore they can tend to get entrenched.
As a random example, if you hated any kind of food with aniseed in it, you'd be very unlikely to ever want to try a dish on a menu that contained aniseed. If you'd recently tried it and found you still hated it, then it'd make perfect sense why you'd want to avoid it. But if you couldn't remember the last time you'd had it, or couldn't even remember ever having tried it, then that could be worth investigating. It might even be that you'd never had it before...maybe a parent had a strong dislike for it, and you adopted that same dislike without realizing.
The point is, when you have to make a decision with very little to go on, examine your own motivations and not just the potential outcomes. You might find that you'll be happier with the decision in the longer run if you've considered what might be subconsciously pushing you in a particular direction. Obviously this isn't practical for every decision, but could be of significant benefit when it comes to life-changing decisions. The better you know yourself, the better you'll know what does and doesn't work for you, and you'll be less likely to make decisions that don't work for you in the long run.
So how does this help as a mood boost? Well, developing this ability to self-reflect can be expanded on with practice to help you look at why you might be feeling the way you do right now. Consider whether something in particular happened recently to trigger the current feeling, or whether it might be part of a pattern cycle for you. For instance, you might've had some recent success that made you feel great, but then felt flat because you'd achieved that and now were feeling a bit lost about what to move onto next. To expand on this further would be to consider if you find your career and relationships to be satisfying and fulfilling, or if there might be some aspects of your life that could do with a bit more attention.
Self-reflection can be uncomfortable and too challenging for many people. There is often a very good reason for people not wanting to confront a particular issue. If you find it to be too challenging, or simply find it too unfamiliar, then you may prefer to do it in a guided way with a professional counselor.
'Know Thyself' is actually an ancient Greek maxim which has been very influential in philosophy, and can be interpreted as highlighting the value of self-awareness. In this TEDx Talk, Julie Cantrell gives us her personal insights into the search for true identity:-