If you feel less comfortable in your skin or if you feel tired, it is difficult to stay active. The annoying thing is that staying active is the best recipe to make you feel more energetic and cheerful. If you stay on the couch at home, or maybe in your bed, you won’t have any positive experiences. You also have a lot of time to worry. The result: you feel worse and worse. If you succeed in staying active, you will have positive experiences and you will have less time to worry. In turn you will get new energy! This is  how you can motivate yourself to go and stay active.

Negative spiral

Okay, staying active is the solution. This is a typical case of “easier said than done”. After all, you feel tired. Maybe you worry that you are a burden to others. You may think others will find you boring, because you participate less in conversations. The result: you cancel appointments and have more time to worry. You end up in a negative spiral, where you do less and less and you feel less and less futile.

Time to do things differently

Try not to see activities in black and white: to do or not to do. Look for the gray area in between. Do you feel like cancelling an appointment? Try to look at what would be possible and feel good for you. Remember that doing something or not doing it at all will not always help you. Beware of your boundaries. The challenge is to search what lies in between; undertake an activity in which you do not take up all the energy you have but actually also get energy from. 

Three tips to get started

• Is it too much for you to go to a friend  for the whole evening? Adjust the appointment to what you can handle now. Only eat something together or only go for a drink may ask  less of you. You can also take a short walk together. What would it be like if this friend came to you for a cup of tea or a short walk? That is of course also possible! If this is too much for you, call each other and schedule an appointment in the short term that suits your energy level better.
• Is exercising too much at the moment? Do not only think to exercise or not, but look at the gray area. What can you do instead of doing sports? You can also go running for ten minutes instead of following your entire sports lesson. Walking or running outdoors also has a positive effect on your mood
• Not in the mood for a crowded birthday? A short visit is also an option. Of course you can also see if you can celebrate the birthday in a different way. For example, go and visit at a different time.

Last, it is good to know that you do not always feel better immediately after an activity. Give it a moment! After a while you will notice that you will feel better and better, but it is important to keep doing activities.

Practice

Take a look at your agenda for next week. for which activities are you not in the mood? How can you make this activity more “gray”? Can you adjust the activity to what is currently going on? Do you need some help with this? Get started immediately with a professional.