14 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You are Feeling Depressed

Some days, getting out of your bed becomes a challenge.

Other days, you eat nothing, talk to no one and keep sleeping ( maybe this way, you press the fast forward button on your life).

It happens with most of us at some point that motivation is low or zero.

Depression is the real culprit behind all this.

Well, it’s okay to have zero motivation or a lack of love for life.

But it’s not okay to keep living like that.

I can help. Here I am unlocking 14 Ways to Motivate Yourself When You are Feeling Depressed.

Pick any method to motivate yourself.

1. Breathe with Nature

Non-Stop overthinking kills your mood and positive vibes, so try to walk out of your home and office for some time, a little fresh air changes everything. Why not try?

Practice inhaling and exhaling in the fresh air. Let your mind and lungs have some fresh air and thoughts.

Next time, when depression is taking a toll on your mental health, all you have to do is get rid of your bed and walk out.

A change of scenery can make a tremendous difference.

Spend 10–15 minutes close to nature, in a garden, or somewhere where there is abundant greenery. This fresh air and healthy environment will give you the motivation you are looking for.

2. Set a Routine

We often feel depressed as we believe that we are not getting what we want or we fail to accomplish something.

In that scenario, setting a routine helps a lot.

Create a routine, like I will wake up at this hour, sleep at this time, and keep repeating it.

When you successfully complete a day and routine, you will have a sense of accomplishment. You have gone through this kind of scenario that will motivate you to keep doing it all over again.

3. Write A Journal

Depression is the darkest phase. You think negatively; you may have suicidal thoughts. There is a lot going on inside us.

It’s the time when you need to open your journal. You can write a journal online on your smartphone or have it in hard copy; the choice is yours.

Writing a journal will help you dump some negative thoughts in that book.

You can find hundreds of gratitude journals at Amazon and other places. These journals will help you discover a way out of your depression.

4. Practice Gratitude

Everyone has some burden on their shoulders. If you feel overwhelmed and have negative thoughts, you can transform this negativity into positivity.

Think about three things that you like about yourself: your family, your life, and your surroundings.

The problem with dark times is that it covers every single good thing and moment of our life.

Try to kill the darkness of depression with the light of hope.

Shed light on things you love, and this is how you will step into a positive world and get the energy to do something.

5. Replace Multitasking with Single-Tasking

Don’t be a jack of all trades; please don’t.

It will consume your energy and make you feel restless.

During the depression phase, avoid multitasking. It’s because you already feel overwhelmed, and the thought of handling multiple tasks at once simply burdens you more, and you feel dreaded.

Try to rearrange your to-do list and assign one task to yourself at a time.

Stick with Single-Tasking. Complete one task, and you will feel relaxed that you have done it.

Here I would like to share link of my favorite post by David A Staab. He wrote a wonderful post that explains what costs you pay for doing multitasking at work.

6. Congratulate Yourself

Please be kind to yourself. The problem with less-motivated people is that they keep blaming themselves for things they couldn’t achieve or have done.

Blame games won’t work. So, please don’t be very hard on yourself.

Set some small reasonable goals, try targeting them.

If you have done one thing well and in the right way.

Say Congrats and feel over the moon.

Why?

It’s because you have been going through depression, a phase with low morale and all the bad feelings.

So, if you complete a task, you deserve a round of applause.

7. Become a Helper

If you can’t achieve anything, it’s okay. Maybe you don’t have the energy to make a difference in your life, but you can surely do something for others.

Becoming a helper or volunteering is always a great thing to do.

If someone needs your help, time, and energy, then give them.

It will motivate you in a way you never expected.

Must Read: Is Life Coaching a Scam?

8. Focus on Enough Sleep

When you are depressed a lot, you sleep more. You feel zero energy, and it takes you hours to get out of bed.

For some people, it’s the other way around. They sleep less and try overworking, overthinking, and multitasking.

Well, it’s time to set a balance.

Sleeping too much is as bad as sleeping too little.

Your body and mind need 8–10 hours of sleep. Go and get it.

Inadequate sleep distracts your focus, and too much sleep makes you lazy.

Either way, find a sleep balance, and it’s how you will find motivation when you feel depressed.

In case you don’t know whether you are sleeping well or not, then Matthew Royse post explains it all for you. A must read: 10 Ways Your Body Is Telling You That You Are Not Sleeping Well

9. Seek Support

Try to Create a Support network for yourself. Depression won’t go away in a day or two. It will stay there, so you need to establish your support network. Joining a support group is a good way, but you may not feel like driving there to join.

So, when depression is weighing you down and won’t let you move on, it’s when you can ask for help and go to a mental health coach.

Unless this depression is due to Trauma, a professional health coach can listen to you and tell you hundreds of ways to find motivation.

Join Onecubecoaching.com and start talking to experts. You can find a wide variety of coaches there, from a life coach to a marriage coach.

No matter what causes your depression or lack of motivation, talking to experts helps you find a way out.

10. Read Positive Quotes

When you feel low and getting out of bed feels like a struggle, you can grab your smartphone and start reading positive quotes.

You don’t have motivation because you have negative energy in your life.

You need to get positive vibes that you will obtain from positive quotes.

11. Practice Self-Care

The problem with most people is that they care about others more than themselves. For example, a mother is depressed, and she has three kids. She keeps fighting depression and stays angry with kids but still loves them more. Her life circles around them. And she forgets all about herself.

It’s a big mistake.

Treat Yourself and practice self-care.

12. Reward Yourself

Spend fifty minutes on a task, and then reward yourself for ten minutes. For example, complete a task and watch a funny video for ten minutes.

Take a break from your work frequently. Constant work with depression makes you less motivated. Some days, you feel it is difficult to go to work.

So, it would help if you started rewarding yourself. If you complete a task, you can eat chocolate. A little reward at the end of a task keeps you motivated.

13. Get Your Control Back

You feel no motivation because you give all of your control to your thoughts and emotions. It’s not the right thing.

If you don’t control your emotions, they will control you.

Since you are depressed, your mind is playing games with you. Therefore, getting out of this zone seems like a big challenge.

Well, try getting your control back. Talk to a health life coach from OnecubeCoaching. They will share some exercise that helps you regain your control.

Why do you need to hold this remote control of your life?

If you don’t, this depression will take you to rock bottom and won’t let you live your life.

Keep saying to yourself:

• I CAN do that.
• I have complete control of my life, action, and thoughts.
• I Can handle this task.
• I am stronger than other people.
• I can turn any challenge into an opportunity.

You won’t have to find motivation once you keep repeating all these lines to yourself because you will already be motivated.

You may like to Read “Who needs a Life Coach?”

14. Stick with Exercise

Depression won’t let you feel fresh. So, one way to uplift your bad mood is to do exercise. Brisk walking and jogging are enough if you can go out.

Don’t want to step foot out of the bedroom?

No worries, you can stay inside and play some workout videos.

Another good idea is to play songs and dance. Within a few moves, you will feel a difference in your thought.

At least, it will distract you from everything terrible happening.

Wrap Up

I have shared 14 ways to help you find motivation when you feel depressed.

The truth is, you need to find a way out of depression. These ways will work, but the ultimate solution is to seek help.

You can Join OneCubeCoaching.com and plan a discovery session with a mental health coach. This one session may help you see the light at the end of a dark tunnel.

Do you have your own ways of finding motivation while feeling depressed? Please share with us.