Hi, could you please advise what to do about a lack of energy? It's hard for me to wake up, I'm lazy all day, and if I do something, it comes with difficulty and without much desire. On one hand, there's no reason to get up since I'm not working. Yes, I go to the gym, run, and swim in the pool in the mornings. But when it comes to just sitting down and reading books for even a couple of hours a day, I can't make myself do it, even though I want to. On one hand, this could be hormonal, or due to entertaining myself online or reading bad news, with my psyche constantly on edge. On the other hand, it could be something parasitic or inflammatory, since no matter how many times I've had blood tests, there's been a signal of that. Although I periodically drink wormwood (bitter wormwood). Third, it could be due to the lack of a strong goal that would really switch me over or pull me out of stagnation. For example, I could go study at an institute to change my profession, and to have more job opportunities, but that doesn't excite me, even if I were guaranteed my life would improve afterward. Fourth, maybe the transits aren't favorable. I've asked AI, nothing fits right.
Other Constant laziness for a long time now
2 min to readWhat are your habits like? Are you constantly seeking short term dopamine hits? Social media? Short form content? Junk food? Porn? You could be constantly putting your nervous system in fight or flight mode and this will result in you not being able to focus and recover properly. I think you outlined pretty well a few of the issues. I'll outline some things that have helped me in a similar situation that could help you as well.
If you are consuming caffeine greatly reduce this or cut it out entirely(not recommend quitting cold turkey). Caffeine is the most widely accepted drug in the modern era but all is does is just steal your energy away. Like taking out a bank loan, you are taking energy away from the future.
You should disconnect from any news or social media for at least a week. I've done complete dopamine detoxes but man do they suck.
Try adding blockers on your phone for certain apps so you do not waste time on just taking in useless information.
Build a strong spiritual foundation, consisting of breath work, meditation, and physical yoga, kundalini or hatha yoga. If you need help with this reply to this message and I will make something beginner friendly or make a new thread plenty of people here can help.
Find a goal to work towards, what do you want out of life? What do you want to accomplish? You gotta give yourself some meaning. Have some vision for your life don't just go with the motions. A peer in one of my classes said "failing to plan is planning to fail." Take your life more seriously and apply yourself joy and motivation will come to you.
Even in the face of great adversity, DEFY ALL ODDS
Well, I am moving away from bad habits, or rather addictions — it's true, it's been a long time and it's hard. I haven't smoked cigarettes for almost two years now, but I've started drinking more beer, and I'm trying to fight that. I'm aware of the caffeine and sugar thing, about adrenaline and insulin — the problem is there's nothing to replace it with, since it's tied less to physiology and more to emotion. I know that I'm at a level of life where these habits/addictions are the norm. For example, take a person sitting in prison — he'll smoke and take something else to escape his reality. I understand my situation is better, but even so, pulling myself up by the hair to a better level, where there's no need for the internet, caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, is extremely difficult. I've tried that, and it never lasted long, probably because there was no result, and comforting myself that things will get better in a year somehow doesn't work. If I were acting from a depressed state while in prison, it would be even harder for me, but at the same time it would be much easier for me if I were at a level higher than now — for example, if I had the money to go away for a month to a Turkish hotel and only do useful activities there, while renovation is happening in my house, instead of sitting at home doing the renovation myself, cooking my own food, cleaning, and generally living in the informational stress inherent to your country.
Don't blame this on hormones or health issues unless there's strong proof. A lot of people struggle with what you mention because of bad habits and addiction to their screens.
A lot of issues are solved much more rapidly through physical action. The speed and effectiveness of spiritual workings depend on your advancement. The way you got complacent in laziness is by engaging in it often. You reverse that by forcing yourself to do things in practice, no matter how you feel. Set 3 goals for yourself. It's not an issue if nothing excites you. Set some goals that you know are good for you regardless. The professional changes you mentioned are only 1 example. Improving your lifestyle, learning a new language, anything that is objectively worth your time. You don't have to like something for it to be helpful.
Waking up late disrupts your circadian rhythm and will make you feel groggy and low-energy. You fix it by waking up early, doing physical effort during the day and exposing yourself to natural light, then going to sleep at a decent hour - this should be a schedule, not a 1-day thing. You mentioned entertaining yourself online. That would be social media, movies or videogames. Too much time spent passively will disconnect you from the real world and cause this unwillingness to do anything.
This is the targeted message.
I wrote a guide on procrastination, link in my signature. Laziness is thinking about the energetic cost of doing something, instead of the benefit and the outcome. Knowing you have something very important to do or that could improve your life and change it, raises cortisol, the hormone of stress, therefore you are stressed, and you try to find a form of entertainment (that could be e.g. screentime of any type, porn, videogames, etc) that raises dopamine easily. In many dynamics of procrastination, the relationship between cortisol and dopamine play an important role.
I suggest you to reduce your screen time. Be informed about the events of the world if you want, but not too much as news tend to exaggerate, to keep the population always scared, therefore easily manipulated. This is important, because if you have an easy source of dopamine, the attainment of any other objective will lose importance, and it will become a vicious circle, where "I can't finish things -> low self esteem -> I can't reach my target -> because I can't finish things -> more low self esteem" etc.
About physical weakness, it could also be your mind trying to sabotage you. It happened to me as well. Self-sabotage is common. If you have energies for fitness, you can also have them for other activities.
I don't know much about you, so I'm just guessing, but everyone has an identity forged by the mental image one has about themselves, which in turn comes from experiences in life, trauma, stuff your parents said when you were a kid, etc. If you try to step out of it, your mind tries to sabotage you and keep you protected in an environment it can easily predict. You can easily have fitness activities and you have energies for it, because it has become part of who you are, part of your habits.
Try to introduce in your life small changes, like reading 5 (or even less) pages a day, meditate 5 minutes more, etc, but, in general, START A NEW POSITIVE HABIT. Do it, and you'll notice your mind will try to sabotage you, to keep you behind. It's 100% sure it will happen to you, but it's normal. When you feel it, just do a deep breath and start doing one minute of the new habit you're trying to reinforce. Just one minute, and just a few things. You'll notice it wasn't that difficult at all. Knowing this, you will have more mental energies to keep going. At some point, your mind will stop reinforcing the old, negative habits and reinforce the new ones.
Once you know you have stabilized a new habit (e.g. reading 5 pages a day, or even less) you can try to expand them, and do more.
"No matter how high the mountain is, at any level, the next thing you'll be doing is always one single step."
All I do, I do it for our Temple.
Hail Zevs!
"His thunderbolt is the last argument, to which there is no reply"
Orphic Hymn XV - To Zeus
"Every fall is there to be reversed, and as man fell, so might he return."
Satya's Virtue B - "The Fall"
With laziness, there are practically only these things you can do:
1. Burst it through by sheer willpower.
2. Do not constantly re-negotiate it. Laziness is an energy; you must counteract it with resolve.
3. As you do the above, you will start reframing.
4. Then you must make it a habit.
5. Keep it for a long time.
6. It will go away but always seek to return.
7. You continue on the habit, until it becomes weaker and weaker.
8. You win.
One doesn't do the above? Lazyness will consume all your potential, your life, and you will watch everything drift away and it can consume all your life and potential.
Good evening! I thought laziness was a lack of energy. Could you explain in more detail? If that's the case, what kind of energy is it? And what kind of energy would deal with it best? Thank you.
Good evening! I thought laziness was a lack of energy. Could you explain in more detail? If that's the case, what kind of energy is it? And what kind of energy would deal with it best? Thank you.
Personally I would describe lazyness as a state of the mind, which indeed carries some amount of energy because, counter-intuitively and ironically, lazyness is an unnatural state and something that someone invests thought into, and the thoughts and conscious decisions following thoughts carry energy as biologically they are generated via the electrical neuronal processes in the brain. Inaction and implicitly lazyness is also a conscious decision and the way to counteract it is by discipline and conscious determination but also, investigating the cause of lazyness. Someone may be depressed or going though a period of physical fatigue etc. that could cause this. Countering this though as one can tell requires a lot more energy but obviously existence completely depend on movement and action, and not on inaction.