0:03 depression is a thief it steals a lot
0:05 from us and two of the things that it
0:07 seems to like to steal the most are
0:10 energy and motivation which is probably
0:12 why the third most popular question when
0:14 I asked you a few weeks back what videos
0:16 you'd like me to make in the community
0:18 section of my YouTube channel was how
0:20 can I improve my energy and motivation
0:23 while recovering from depression this is
0:24 technically two questions but I'm going
0:26 to try to cover both of them so free
0:28 bonus content today well I guess it's
0:30 always free so that what I just said
0:32 makes no sense um so pretend I didn't
0:34 say it and let's just continue energy is
0:37 your ability to do something motivation
0:39 is your desire to do something and so
0:43 they are definitely separate resources
0:45 it's possible to have plenty of one but
0:47 not enough of the other it's also
0:49 possible to be completely depleted in
0:50 both of them which does happen
0:53 frequently during depressive episodes
0:54 but I want you to be able to tell the
0:56 difference in whether you're lacking
0:58 energy or whether you're lacking
1:00 motivation so that you know which set of
1:01 interventions we're going to discuss
1:02 today are the most likely to be
1:04 beneficial to you because I see people
1:07 mix these up all the time if you are
1:10 lacking energy but you have motivation
1:12 that means you have a drive or a desire
1:15 to do something like I want to clean my
1:18 house I want to be more socially active
1:20 I want to go back to school I want to go
1:22 to the gym there are things in your head
1:24 that you're thinking I would like to do
1:27 this I would like to accomplish this but
1:29 when you try to actually get yourself to
1:31 do them it's like it just doesn't happen
1:33 like like something gets Lost in
1:35 Translation between the desire and your
1:37 mind and your ability to actually
1:40 execute the thing and no action ends up
1:42 happening if that is something you
1:44 experience frequently I often see people
1:47 label this as no motivation I don't
1:49 believe that is the correct label
1:50 because you have drives and you have
1:52 desires I think this is an energy
1:55 problem rather than a motivation problem
1:57 a motivation problem is when you really
2:00 cannot think of anything feel worth
2:02 doing or that you want to do and
2:05 sometimes we have low motivation and
2:07 plenty of energy I could do something
2:08 right now I have the ability I have the
2:10 capacity I just can't find a single
2:12 thing that I want to direct this energy
2:14 to nothing feels worthwhile nothing
2:16 feels enjoyable this is something we
2:17 often experience during periods of
2:20 anhedonia so it's very possible to have
2:22 plenty of one but not enough of the
2:25 other if you're lacking energy this is
2:26 actually probably the more complicated
2:28 of the two because there are so many
2:31 reasons why might not have enough energy
2:32 I'm going to cover what I think are the
2:34 five most common today this is by no
2:37 means an exhaustive list but number one
2:39 by far if you're consistently lacking
2:41 energy this is the very first place I
2:44 would encourage you to look is sleep
2:47 there is no acceptable substitute for
2:51 the energy that is created or replaced
2:53 by sleep I don't care how much caffeine
2:55 you have I don't care what your mindset
2:58 is nothing can fix what sleep is
3:00 supposed to replenish for you there's no
3:04 Band-Aid to this one almost everybody 99
3:07 Point some percentage of all people
3:09 needs somewhere between 7 and a half and
3:11 8 and a half hours of sleep per night to
3:14 feel and function optimally so let's
3:16 assume you're in that range of people
3:18 because you almost certainly are now you
3:21 might be adapted to less or more if
3:22 you're struggling with insomnia or
3:24 hypersomnia that doesn't mean that's
3:26 actually what you need that doesn't mean
3:27 that's what's optimal it means that's
3:29 what your body's used to because it's
3:31 functioning under non-ideal
3:33 circumstances number one most important
3:35 thing with sleep have a schedule have a
3:37 routine and do your best to stick with
3:40 it so I encourage people to pick an
3:42 eight- hour window of their day and
3:45 designate that as their sleeping time it
3:46 really doesn't matter what time this
3:48 window is as long as it fits in with
3:50 your lifestyle and your other
3:52 obligations there's truly no right or
3:54 wrong time to sleep but during this 8
3:57 hour period of your day there are two
3:59 things you can do that are acceptable
4:01 you can be asleep or you can be trying
4:03 to go to sleep and if you're doing
4:06 anything other than those two things
4:08 during this 8 Hour window of your day
4:10 you are not spending your time correctly
4:13 if your goal is to have enough energy
4:15 because there is nothing else that is
4:18 going to be as productive as giving you
4:21 energy than sleeping now please hear me
4:24 when I say this I very much understand
4:26 how frustrating sleep can be I have not
4:28 personally struggled with hypersomnia
4:30 where a person sleeps like 10 11 12
4:33 hours at night I have had long-term
4:36 struggles with insomnia longterm like
4:38 half my life on and off I know what it's
4:41 like when sleep becomes a stressor I
4:43 know what it's like when the most
4:45 stressful part of your day is when
4:46 you're getting in bed and trying to
4:48 sleep it doesn't change the reality that
4:50 we're working with you need sleep if you
4:52 want energy there's a lot of more
4:54 advanced techniques that I've covered in
4:56 other videos but in addition to setting
4:58 the schedule and by the way that eight
5:01 hours we want to be at the same time
5:03 every night seven days a week even on
5:05 weekends because that will help your
5:08 circadian rhythm basically synchronize
5:10 with the times of day and it'll be so
5:12 much easier for you to fall asleep stay
5:15 asleep and wake up feeling rested in
5:17 addition to having your eight hour sleep
5:19 window I would also strongly recommend
5:22 that you designate a 30 to 60 Minute
5:25 period of time directly before your
5:28 sleep window as your wind down window
5:29 and your goal during this period period
5:32 of the day is to prepare for sleep to do
5:35 things that are calming relaxing
5:37 downregulating and that help you get
5:39 ready for sleep because when you're
5:41 awake and alert and functional and like
5:42 doing chores or watching TV playing
5:44 video games your brain is very
5:46 stimulated by these activities and it's
5:48 in what's called beta wave production
5:51 mode the period of time when you're
5:53 tired calm relaxed getting ready for bed
5:55 your brain is in Alpha wave production
5:57 mode and then it goes through the sleep
5:58 cycles on a lower level of brain
6:02 frequency waves below Alpha when you
6:04 stay busy and active right up until the
6:06 moment you go to bed you're essentially
6:08 trying to skip alha mode and what's
6:09 happening is you're not so much going to
6:12 sleep as you are passing out and you're
6:14 missing part of your sleep cycle so I
6:15 know it's convenient when you fall
6:17 asleep within like two minutes of
6:18 getting to bed especially if you have
6:20 struggled with insomnia and you hate the
6:22 idea of laying in bed awake but you're
6:24 never going to have enough energy if you
6:26 move this way you you just won't because
6:27 you're missing part of your sleep cycle
6:29 and you're always going to wake up
6:32 feeling a little groggy confused grumpy
6:35 so 8 Hour window sleep 30 to 60 Minute
6:38 before it wind down time there's nothing
6:40 that's going to substitute for that and
6:42 if you're not doing that my remaining
6:45 four items aren't going to do a ton you
6:46 have to get enough sleep there's just no
6:49 way around it second thing I'd encourage
6:50 you to think about doing is make sure
6:53 you're eating three decent quality meals
6:55 per day and a couple snacks in between
6:58 probably and just like with sleep we
7:00 generally want these to be time at about
7:03 the same time every day caloric energy
7:05 it's kind of a spoiler because the full
7:07 word for calories is caloric energy it's
7:09 two words but whatever is a source of
7:10 energy for your body and your brain and
7:13 if your body and brain are even mildly
7:15 malnourished you're not going to feel
7:17 like you have a lot of energy we fall
7:21 into so many unhelpful lifestyle habits
7:23 with sleeping and eating they're they're
7:25 so basic they're so fundamental they're
7:27 not exciting or glamorous parts of life
7:29 for the most part I know but so so often
7:32 I see when people get busy or they start
7:33 to struggle with something like these
7:35 are the first things that they neglect
7:36 these are the first things that go out
7:39 the window and realistically they should
7:41 be the absolute last things that go out
7:43 the window now another thing I want to
7:46 mention about food is overeating can
7:48 also contribute to low energy because
7:51 your brain also needs blood flow to
7:54 function optimally and feel alert and
7:57 regulated when you consume a greater
7:59 quantity of food than your body is used
8:01 to consume assuming at that time your
8:04 body actually diverts extra blood flow
8:07 to the digestive system to work on
8:09 processing this relatively large amount
8:11 of food more efficiently that's the real
8:13 reason why after people eat a lot of
8:15 food they feel like a little bit groggy
8:17 maybe a little bit disoriented even you
8:18 know if you think like the the
8:21 Thanksgiving food coma for example and
8:22 you know people are sitting around like
8:24 oh I had it's the turkey it's the trip
8:28 Defan no you you binged you ate too much
8:30 food that's why you're tired like it's
8:32 not because of the freaking tryp toan in
8:35 the turkey it's because your body is
8:37 desperately trying to process the much
8:38 larger than normal amount of food that
8:40 you just put inside of it and that's
8:41 really all it can handle right now it's
8:43 a very similar process to what happens
8:45 when you consume alcohol your body
8:47 prioritizes metabolizing what is
8:49 literally a poisonous substance and it
8:52 doesn't have enough blood flow to power
8:54 everything else that it normally does
8:56 because your body as far as blood flow
8:57 essentially functions on a power grid
9:00 like structure that priori I izes most
9:04 immediate needs so moderate sized meals
9:06 three meals a day probably a couple
9:08 snacks in between should keep your
9:10 energy as high as possible from a
9:13 caloric intake perspective the third
9:15 thing that I want you to consider if
9:17 you're struggling with energy is taking
9:19 a really hard look at your use of
9:23 caffeine alcohol and marijuana all three
9:26 of these are not necessarily your friend
9:29 when it comes to energy caffeine I know
9:30 seen like it is caffeine is kind of a
9:33 tricky one because in the short term
9:35 caffeine gives you energy it it causes
9:37 increased blood flow to the body into
9:39 the brain so it gives you that jolt
9:40 right it gives you that kind of start
9:43 but there's a price to be paid later on
9:45 basically your body and your brain when
9:47 you're using caffeine are running on
9:48 overdrive you know they go from maybe
9:52 like 100% to 120% for example but when
9:55 you push something to run on overdrive
9:57 there's a compensatory period where it
10:00 has to run at below Norm Al capacity to
10:03 make up for the excess resources it
10:05 expended previously you can't just run
10:09 it 120% all the time so if you are a
10:11 heavy caffeine user especially early in
10:14 the day you'll notice that probably six
10:16 seven eight hours after your initial
10:19 period of caffeine consumption you start
10:21 to get tired that's because you've gone
10:24 from 120% you start to slowly taper down
10:25 to 100 and eventually get down to
10:27 functioning at like 80% and that's when
10:30 you get that that groggy mid day feeling
10:32 you basically got two options at that
10:34 point power through it or consume more
10:37 caffeine if you consume more caffeine
10:39 around noon or afternoon or even early
10:41 evening you go into this overdrive
10:43 period again and now you're going to
10:45 mess up your sleep because caffeine
10:47 stays in your system for well over 12
10:50 hours and when you try to fall asleep
10:51 with caffeine in your system you're
10:53 either going to have insomnia and that
10:55 brings us back to point number one or
10:56 you're going to fall asleep but your
10:58 sleep quality is going to be poor
11:00 because the caffeine keeps you out of
11:02 the deeper stages of sleep so even if
11:04 quantity-wise your sleep is fine I hear
11:06 people say this all the time I can drink
11:08 a cup of coffee at 6 p.m and go to bed
11:10 at 10: yeah maybe but your sleep still
11:12 sucks like if we if we did a sleep study
11:14 on you you would not like what you saw
11:16 under those circumstances I promise you
11:17 you're you're more like having a series
11:20 of connected naps throughout the night
11:22 rather than actually going to sleep
11:24 alcohol I kind of covered that a little
11:26 bit already um it has a similar effect
11:28 on your body as overeating it it becomes
11:30 this priority
11:32 that your body has to metabolize and
11:34 work through and it takes energy and it
11:36 takes blood flow away from the brain so
11:39 both during and after periods of alcohol
11:41 consumption you feel groggy you feel not
11:43 yourself you're in that low capacity
11:46 mode again marijuana or THC actually
11:48 interacts with your sleep receptors and
11:50 it causes a lot of grogginess and
11:52 fatigue so that one's probably not as
11:54 much of a mystery I think most people
11:56 know you know smoking pot makes you a
11:58 little bit tired um but science has
11:59 definitely confirmed that that's not
12:01 just like a placebo effect or something
12:04 like that so all of these substances
12:05 really are probably going to work
12:07 against you more than they work for you
12:09 from an energy standpoint that was
12:11 actually points three and four because
12:12 on my bullet points I had alcohol and
12:15 THC as one and caffeine as another so
12:17 those are the first four tips for energy
12:19 the fifth this one might sound a little
12:22 tricky too do some type of physical
12:25 activity regularly now initially that's
12:26 obviously going to take more energy than
12:29 it gives right think of it as sort of
12:32 like an energy investment you know let's
12:34 say you go for a 20 minute walk today
12:36 during that 20 minutes of the day you
12:38 are actually expending more energy than
12:40 you typically would so it seems like
12:41 well that's going to give me even L like
12:42 I already don't have enough energy and
12:44 you're telling me to use more of it like
12:47 that makes no sense but it will pay you
12:50 back throughout the day because regular
12:52 physical activity improves blood flow
12:55 throughout your body including to the
12:57 brain so your brain will work better all
13:01 day long from even a brief moderate
13:03 intensity period of physical activity it
13:06 is going to create a net increase in
13:09 energy even though it creates an acute
13:12 deficit in energy asterisk as long as
13:14 you don't overdo it like don't if you go
13:16 do some crazy work if you're like today
13:18 I'm going to do two hours of CrossFit
13:20 you're going to feel awful for several
13:21 days so like you know pace yourself
13:24 right within reason those are my five
13:26 interventions I'd recommend for energy
13:29 moving on to motivation this is a
13:31 trickier one because a lot of people
13:34 just assume if they aren't doing things
13:36 that they want to do they're not
13:38 motivated but if you want to do things you're
13:38 you're
13:43 motivated motivation is not a mechanism
13:45 to get us started on something it really
13:47 doesn't every now and then it might do
13:50 that for you it doesn't typically work
13:53 that way motivation is a resource to
13:57 sustain action we have already begun the
13:59 main reason I say that is what makes you
14:02 motivated to do something is the feeling
14:04 that that thing is worth it the feeling
14:07 that the reward in whatever way whether
14:08 that reward is like Joy or
14:10 accomplishment or connection it can mean
14:11 many different things or a paycheck even
14:14 right the feeling that the reward
14:16 eclipses the effort in other words when
14:19 I do this thing I get back more than
14:21 what I put in and so it feels worth it
14:23 to do this thing when you're trying to
14:25 get yourself to do something that you
14:28 either have never done before or have
14:31 not done in a very long time it is very
14:33 difficult to convince your brain that
14:35 that thing is worth doing because your
14:37 brain does not have recent data on how
14:39 hard that thing is to do or how good
14:42 that thing feels take my example from a
14:44 little bit ago about taking a 20- minute
14:46 walk if you haven't gone for a walk in a
14:49 while you don't really know how hard it
14:51 is and how good it's going to feel so
14:53 your brain you think about going for a
14:54 walk and your brain basically does this
14:56 quick equation and it says do I think
14:57 that's going to be worth it and what
14:59 it's probably going to come back with is
15:02 I don't know like we don't do that very
15:04 often I don't really know how that feels
15:05 I don't know how hard it's going to be I
15:06 don't know if I'm going to feel good
15:08 after this is just kind of a big
15:11 question mark to me so very rarely in
15:14 life are you going to feel super excited
15:16 about doing something that you're not
15:19 already consistently doing so there is
15:22 almost always going to be this awkward
15:24 period when you first start or restart
15:27 something of like I don't know if I'm
15:29 getting anything from this yet you have
15:31 to sort of take a leap of faith and
15:33 exert a little bit of willpower to get
15:36 yourself going if you rely on motivation
15:38 and go purely based on do I feel like
15:40 doing this thing or do I feel like this
15:42 thing is worth it you will almost never
15:44 break out of your pre-existing lifestyle
15:47 patterns because you don't have data on
15:50 new stuff so you start with willpower
15:52 and you just kind of force it for a
15:54 little bit and then once you've done it
15:56 a few times then your brain collects
15:58 data and it can say I think that thing
16:00 is worth it it feels pretty good when I
16:03 do that I would like to continue doing
16:04 that and that's where your motivation
16:06 comes from or sometimes your brain will
16:08 say nope not worth it hate walking
16:10 walking sucks try again pick something
16:12 else that'll happen sometimes too and
16:14 that's actually still a good outcome
16:17 it's all one big experiment life mental
16:20 health because every single person has a
16:22 different neurobiology a different inner
16:25 structure that's why no one has figured
16:27 out like an exact blueprint for live
16:29 this way and you'll be happy and healthy
16:30 because there is never there's never
16:32 going to be one for all people so
16:33 there's always going to be some trial
16:36 and error in figuring out what are the
16:39 things that really give you like good
16:41 mileage on your Investments That
16:42 metaphor made no sense because you don't
16:44 get mileage on investments you know what
16:45 I mean you guys are smart you can figure
16:48 it out don't rely on motivation to get
16:50 started this is cliche I know like this
16:52 is kind of a meme or like a Tik Tok
16:55 thing but motivation is there to keep
16:57 you going not to get you going you got
16:59 to find something else to get you going
17:02 willpower drive just acceptance that
17:03 it's not going to feel great right away
17:05 unless you find something you instantly
17:07 click with so don't rely on your
17:09 motivation because it is fickle it is
17:11 and it's it's not going to be super
17:13 excited about doing something that you
17:16 don't have data on really quick two
17:18 other things you can do to improve your
17:21 motivation given that it's about the
17:23 interplay between reward and effort is
17:25 find ways to either increase the reward
17:28 of an activity or decrease the effort so
17:30 increasing reward could be pairing it
17:31 with other activities to make it more
17:33 fun for example so like the walk 20-
17:36 minute walk going on 20-minute walk by
17:38 yourself versus going on a 20-minute
17:40 walk with a friend going with a friend
17:42 might be more rewarding or going on a
17:44 20-minute walk in silence versus 20-
17:46 minute walk listening to a podcast now
17:48 again this is where it gets tricky some
17:50 people would prefer the silent walk it's
17:52 trial and error there's no blueprint for
17:54 this you have to know yourself and you
17:55 have to run some experiments you have to
17:58 try some things out you figure out what
18:00 variant of the Walk is most rewarding
18:02 for me then you just duplicate that
18:05 process with effort you can lower the
18:07 effort or lower your perception of the
18:10 effort trying to get
18:12 a can't get yourself to go on that 20
18:16 minute walk okay try 10 just continue to
18:19 lower that effort threshold until action
18:21 starts to take place so hopefully these
18:23 tools help you with the lows in
18:25 motivation and energy that tend to come
18:27 with depression thank you guys for
18:28 submitting these wonderful questions
18:30 really enjoyed answering them we'll do
18:32 it again sometime soon see you next time
