EP 542: How to Work With Pessimism and Lack of Motivation

I found myself yesterday in a very familiar - and very uncomfortable - place. Despite everything seeming to be ‘ok’ in my life, I found myself just down in the dumps. Wanna know how I picked myself up? I explain it all in today’s episode: In almost 100% of cases, when we feel inexplicably emotional (Yesterday I was sad and pessimistic, but it could show up as anger or jealousy or virtually any other powerful emotion), just looking and finding the source of the emotion is enough to start to lift yourself out of it. For me, the source was both circumstantial and also tied to what I was consuming with my mind. But it could be as simple as not getting enough sleep or not having enough to eat. The point is that the connection between our bodies and our emotions is powerful and unambiguous. And the key, again, is to see it; to understand it. This seeing and understanding arises from self awareness. And self awareness is cultivated by practicing presence, acceptance, compassion, and curiosity. If you feel like you need some help developing such a practice in your life, I have two options: You can go the 1:1 coaching route by taking the first step of scheduling a session here: https://calendly.com/artburns/45-min-coaching-session Or you can go the communal route and come to my mid-week mindfulness meeting on Wednesday at 7 pm MST (9 pm EST, 8 CST, 6 PST), and you can register for free right here: https://www.meetup.com/learning-to-surf-talks-on-buddhism-meditation-mindfulness/events/vhrtfsycckbkb/