Buck Up and Lie Down.

How to stay motivated when your get up and go has got up and gone.

Downcast. Despondent. Dispirited. Disheartened. Discouraged. Sometimes life loses its dynamic, its potential, its joy. You wake up and sort of wish you hadn’t, searching for all the reasons you should stay in bed. Essentially your mind recognises this feeling and is searching back through the archives for the reason why you are feeling this way. As it searches, it may dig out what it believes to be the most appropriate narrative to accompany this feeling or mood state. This narrative then reinforces the way you feel and you become stuck in a cycle of despair and depression. But what if we can identify the real cause behind this pattern of mood swings and depressive states, and it is simply related to an upset in the balance in your energy levels. We always have an emotional attachment to significant moments, and this can be an obstacle for us when the feeling is simply related to low energy. Energy levels align with our emotions because emotions are a key method of communication in the form of a transaction in manifested energy. Therefore, when energy levels are naturally high or on the up, we are more likely to feel upbeat, jolly, light and positive, and when our energy levels are sinking or on the decline, our emotional state will reflect this too. The essence of managing our own energy levels rests on a stable or balanced regimen of deliberate activities, including diet and lifestyle, work, rest and play. Assess your routine and how much time you are spending on one or other activity. When one activity is too demanding of our time and energy, we will lack energetic and emotional equilibrium, and likely wind up resenting this activity. If the activity is work, then that’s bad news for motivation and incentive to ‘get up and at ‘em’.

What are your Core Values and how do they feature in your activities? Remind yourself of the freedom of choice you have and make a conscious decision to direct time and energy towards an activity that has been neglected. We are disciples of happiness, and a happy life requires discipline. Rest and relaxation are sometimes undervalued disciplines, but absolutely necessary to recover energy levels and repair damaged or spent body cells. This is why relaxation is an essential part of yoga practice. You need to train yourself to find relaxation not only acceptable but necessary and purposeful. A lot of people associate relaxation with ‘doing nothing’ and remove the importance and necessity for it. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF RELAXATION. Frequently, as people reacquaint themselves with the process of relaxation, their body fidgets because the mind is unable to let go of its desire for activity. Therefore, if we engage the mind in the practice of relaxation it is doing something! Take the mind through the body from the feet to the head encouraging softness and heaviness through the different physical fabrics: the muscles, the joints, the tissues, the brain, the organs of digestion. This will help you to slow all processes down and recharge energy levels. Recharge, restore, and reboot.

Recovery & Repair classes are online and in the yoga studio: Mondays at 5.30pm & Thursdays at 7pm.