Sometimes low energy, poor focus, and difficulty getting motivated is a sign of chronic stress and a brain that’s been in survival mode for too long.
Rachel Havocost: Low motivation can be a symptom of poor executive functioning. She says sometimes a lack of motivation is a sign that we've been experiencing stress for a really, really long time. In her second video, she talks about another reason that perhaps we're struggling with low motivation.
If you struggle with low motivation, feel like you have a lack of energy, or generally just struggle to focus, this video might be for you. Hi. My name is Rachel Havocost. I am a writer and mental health advocate. I've been in therapy for my own mental health for about 19 years, and I also have a master's in psychology, and everything I do is in service of helping one person feel less alone. So last week, I had a really great therapy session with my therapist, and we were talking about how I've been feeling like I've been lacking motivation.
And there were two really important things that she said to me. I'm going to share one of those in this video and the other in my second video on this topic, so make sure you watch both to see if one resonates more than the other. So the first thing she said to me is that sometimes low motivation can be a symptom of poor executive functioning. Executive functioning is essentially the part of our brain that allows us to plan ahead, complete tasks, think about the future. It has a lot to do with our ability to sort of structure things that are going to happen beyond the very present moment when we've experienced things like trauma or chronic stress.
Oftentimes that part of our brain gets underused because we're in a constant state of survival. So when we're in a constant state of survival, we're focused on the present because we need to focus on if there's a dangerous thing happening right here, right now. So we're less concerned with what's going to happen in 510 15 minutes, and we're more concerned with immediate present moment. We're also hypervigilant, on edge, focusing on more than one thing at once. So naturally, it makes sense that we would have a more difficult time focusing on one task, thinking ahead, getting motivated to do something that might require us to be focused for a long amount of time, because that signals to our brain that we can't pay attention to other things around us.
So sometimes a lack of motivation is actually a sign that we've been experiencing stress for a really, really long time. And or perhaps our brains are working in more of a survival mode because of a past trauma or a stressful experience in the past. So if that's the case, oftentimes what's really helpful for us is to focus on how can I get my brain out of survival mode. So things that are really helpful for that are mindfulness, breath work, meditation, anything to calm the mind and the nervous system, to kind of bring us back into a parasympathetic state and remind our brains that we're safe and not in danger, and it's okay for us to let go of needing to be focused on everything all at once.
Hopefully that was helpful. And make sure you check out my other video about another reason that perhaps we're struggling with low motivation. See you next time.
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