How to Get Going When I Don't Feel Like It
Updated: Sep 12
After feeling burnt-out some time ago, I had asked myself this question. The feeling of not moving forward was always tied to my inner critic about not being disciplined or not being enough. After a few years of feeling this way, the answer came to me: ‘you don’t’.
Let me explain what it means. You don’t force yourself when your body is trying to tell you something. Our body speaks to us, it always does. We need to spend time with it like quality time spent with loved ones.
Like your own parent, giving a gentle hug to yourself and asking, what made me feel this way? Was it due to the intense emotions from last night’s dream? Was it something I ate that made me feel uneasy or uncomfortable? Or is the thing I am trying to do overwhelming? Asking any question that pops up at that moment helps. Getting the answer in that moment is not what we are focusing on. It can be a further step and the answer can be anything. The important part is giving some time to ask questions and physically sensing where in the body it feels restricted. It soothes our momentary need to be heard.
We don’t need to resolve anything right away, but after giving this kind of attention we can relax the tense body part by slowly breathing and deciding whether to choose to postpone, skip, or go about the situation with a different perspective. These gentle few minutes to yourself would light the awareness about your body and yourself.
When I learned to pause and listen to my body this way, I became less exhausted. The answer to my questions, and making the choice, became an intentional action. Setting the intentions to the external demands can still be a decision made by you. It helped me feel more in charge of myself rather than dragging myself through.
I was able to pivot that energy into the habits that matter to recharge myself. I found myself on a path where there were no extreme pitfalls like before, which helped me become confident. I could see the positive graph, from where I was to how much improvement I had made. I am……a work in progress!