I DON'T know about you, but I cannot imagine a less motivating word in the lexicon right now than #motivation.
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I know that in this hyped-up era of worshipping "the grind", when we're all meant to be out there hustling and getting that bread, that this might be a somewhat unpopular opinion, but if I see one more Instagram post #motivating me to work out some trendy flubious-maximus-supercalifragiliscious muscle group that until yesterday I was convinced only horses and some small deer had, I might throw the phone across the room.
I'm not saying an active lifestyle is bad (quite the opposite). And I certainly don't hold any ill will toward the Instagram activewear set who seem to have mastered the mental fortitude needed to survive 80 push notifications and a 3am daily gym regimen equipped solely with progressively larger drink bottles.
But as the weather cools down and we spend a little more time rugged up and cosy, the idea of hitting #LegDay is less and less appealing.
On top of all that, add the fact that we're probably exposed to more information in the 20 minutes between waking up and pouring that first coffee in the morning than our grandparents had to deal with in an entire day, and the feeling of running on empty starts to compound.
In the 21st century, it feels like everyone wants something from us and they want it now - to say nothing of all those extra hours when we're meant to be working on ourselves. But lately, as the weather cools down, I keep finding myself slumped in my ugg boots, on my fifth coffee, balancing tenuously between caffeine jitters intense enough to see through time and a terminal flatline of motivation to do anything about it except regress into some primal goblin.
When did everyone in our Insta feeds suddenly find 30 hours in the day and boundless energy to do all this stuff?
I can't be the only one who feels a bit flat for a while, right?
![Personal trainer Shelley Lentfer says finding motivation to beat the winter sad can be about finding time to take care of ourselves, eat healthily and exercise. Personal trainer Shelley Lentfer says finding motivation to beat the winter sad can be about finding time to take care of ourselves, eat healthily and exercise.](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/n8uGJwMg95DiH9D4L9ShGa/9eb14fbe-a49d-4dd2-8a3f-73167fc488f4.JPG/r0_2015_3667_5508_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Well, to find out if I wasn't alone - and maybe to get some help - I reached out to personal trainer Shelley Lentfer this week for some guidance.
Shelley operates Pineapple Fitness in town - a women's only boutique fitness studio and boot camp - with her business partner Brittany Smith, and happily confirmed my suspicions when I phoned her up. Winter sad is a thing - but more than that, #motivation fatigue (my phrase - I look forward to hearing from the Macquarie Dictionary people for my Word of the Year award) might also be a thing too.
The technical term is seasonal affective disorder, which is a moody, depressed, grey-clouds feeling that can come over us in varying degrees of intensity when the days get shorter and darker. It's triggered by a disruption to our circadian rhythms (among a few other things) and tends to leave us feeling just a bit ... ugh.
![Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip) Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip)](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/n8uGJwMg95DiH9D4L9ShGa/82893326-d7f4-4050-b218-1d47bde84b8c.jpg/r0_107_2048_1259_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"It can feel quite significant, but spread across different parts of your life," Shelley explained.
"It's not just that desire to be inside and cosy, it's when you feel like there is a dark cloud hanging over you and your emotions feel heavy.
"I think [finding motivation has been harder since] coming off the back of a couple of years of COVID and the impact of that still playing out, and however that stress has impacted us as individuals and as a community - and also our lives are just busy.
"They are filled with so many things that we should do, and the lack of energy we feel to do all of that is just compounded by the fact that when you're not spending as much time in the sun - when it's cloudier and colder - it just exacerbates the things that are potentially lurking around there anyway."
So, what can we do about it?
![Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip) Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip)](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/n8uGJwMg95DiH9D4L9ShGa/76db28e6-eacb-4ddd-a349-f3aaaf2dd548.jpg/r0_0_1365_2048_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Well, just when I began to worry the answer might be a tabloid-style list of five amazing things that involve a lot of kale and apple cider vinegar, Shelley mercifully had another idea: give yourself a break and be kind to you.
"Live by the 80-20 rule," she said, adding that one good way to recapture motivation is to work out what self care is for each of us and balance our expectations carefully with what we can manage.
"Perfection is not what we need," she said, "When we go online, we're only putting up a snapshot in time and it's usually when we're killing it." Making time to show ourselves a little bit of care can be a great motivator.
![Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip) Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip)](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/n8uGJwMg95DiH9D4L9ShGa/513b8473-b38e-4829-98e3-e77d5ed663bc.jpg/r0_0_1365_2048_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"We spend a lot of time talking about self care and it can be a spa day and all those things, but for me it usually looks like making sure I prioritise time to go and sit in the sunshine, or make myself a nourishing lunch or breakfast. Listening to uplifting music. Things like that can be so profound."
Hitting the basics, like aiming to make nutritional meals more often than we indulge and committing to moving our bodies around in ways that we can manage is a good place to start, Shelley said.
"Perfection and striving for perfection can feed into those feelings of never-going-to-make it and can be really demotivating," she said, "But making that first choice to commit [even when you're not feeling motivated] can snowball."
![Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip) Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip)](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/n8uGJwMg95DiH9D4L9ShGa/b559b820-dbe8-408e-a2cb-f271ab03d6d0.jpg/r0_107_2048_1259_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
To that end, Shelley said finding as much as 15 minutes a day to soak up some morning sunshine can help regulate circadian rhythms and energise us for the day, and applying the 80-20 rule to eating healthy, nutritional meals and making time each week to exercise can be a great step to recapturing some energy. It's ok to indulge sometimes, but fuelling our bodies on good, healthy nutrients can turn around the winter ick.
"And it's ok to ask for help," Shelley said, "Find a supportive community that isn't going to judge you - it can be on any level - can help you want to keep showing up and that's motivating too." Not bad advice. Something to ponder on tomorrow's morning walk.
![Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip) Feeling a winter slump? There's a fix (and it doesn't involve a 3am gym trip)](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/n8uGJwMg95DiH9D4L9ShGa/d2acc117-8032-454d-aa53-091ddf417ae8.jpg/r0_0_3667_5500_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)