Clever_Mercury t1_j8fkgya wrote
There are two recommendations that I'm not seeing others offer that might be of help.
First, motivation doesn't have to be an emotional experience. Sometimes trying to run everything on our sense of thrill, terror, or adrenaline is the problem; it makes tasks exhausting to our central nervous system. Many benign tasks, like doing the dishes, really should be something we train ourselves to do without emotion.
So here's an example, when doing the dishes it doesn't have to be a thing where you've whipped yourself or punished yourself to do the task, it can be emotionally neutral or robotic. That's OK. In fact, it might be nice to let your mind escape while your hands just repetitively washing.
Second, motivation does not need to mean something like having a negative or positive connotation to the end product or reward (like fearing a consequence or exhilarated by an outcome). Instead, we can think about the experience of the task itself as something worth doing. The possible reasons might be for 'variety' or from 'curiosity.'
Here is an example of the latter; I sit most of the day, so while mopping the floor is not exactly a fun time for me, it's an opportunity to stand up, walk around, blink more, and I can listen to music while doing it. These aren't punishments or rewards, but they are different physical sensations and the sheer variety for my day is something I do not resist. So the floor gets mopped!
ElegantCherries OP t1_j8hd6wu wrote
This is great and reminds me a lot of my former therapist's reminders to "get curious" about my experience rather than spinning off into that anxiety. Thank you.
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