At the start of the year I embarked on an 8-week mindfulness course (using this book by Williams and Penman). Mindfulness seems to be quite popular at the moment and is becoming widely used in schools as well as in the health sector. If you’ve not heard about mindfulness, I would describe it as learning to be more ‘present’ in the moment which allows you to live a more balanced life.
There was one particular learning towards the end of the programme that has really stuck with me. The idea is to understand what depletes or nourishes you as an individual. This is important because most of us, when we are stressed or anxious, stop doing those things that nourish us, thereby adding to the likelihood that our energy and happiness will rapidly decrease just when we need it. The authors highlighted the fact that we are often motivated to do something and then we go out and do it. However, in certain instances, the motivation is not there and we must go out and do an action before we gain any feeling of motivation.