Submitted by someoneinlife1 t3_11a293f in GetMotivated
I’ve honestly just been living half a life for so fucking long, isolating myself and just having completely given up. I wasn’t trying in any aspect of my life and I can’t exactly explain why. But idk I’m just living again lately. Doing shit. Was I depressed? Who knows. But now I’m ALIVE. And yeah I still get sad but things will be okay. I went so so long without hope. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.
Keep it up!! Day by day step by step. Knew a man who completely turned his life around by walking. Just walking everyday that’s how it started.
WALKING
There are 2 versions of me.
I wake up and work out in the morning and feel great, have energy, and am happy
I decide to sleep in and hate myself
WALKING—2
This will probably be me lol. We just had some snow so it’s crazy cold, but it should be warm enough by Monday so I just gotta make myself stick with it consistently. I’ve told myself once a week is enough of a minimum to start just so I don’t lose motivation but I’ll aim for more often, we’ll see.
I have:
Hell yeah man! I was (and still am to some extent) in the same situation as you; depressed, not really seeing much point in living. I've been getting help but honestly I've started running at like 6:30-7am every other day and nothing has helped more. Keep it up, and safe travels!
Exercise is a helluva drug
Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people don’t kill their husbands. They just don’t!
Sounds like movement is healing. I need to do more moving.
An interesting anecdote my friend’s mom gave me one day decades ago while we were all hanging out at dinner. She is a doctor of eastern medicine as my friend and his family came over from China.
“ when you have a pail full of water and leave the pail to rest, what happens?” she asked.
“Gets all nasty with bugs and stuff starts growing in it .” I replied
“Well our body is almost 80 percent water, what do you think happens when you don’t move around that water enough?”
This piece of advice has stuck with me ever since!
You are my hero. I hate running a lot
I'm currently in this rut. I can't muster any motivation to clean, play games, read, take care of myself. I've gone on walks, went to the gym, drove across the country to the Grand Canyon. I've completely lost hope
Sometimes you just have to keep trudging through the mud till the sun comes back out and dries it all up. I’m in the mud now too, but we gotta keep walking. Sun always comes back out eventually.
Thank you stranger. The past few years I've been through the cycle of trudging through the mud until the sun comes back out so many times. And every time the trudging starts over it's like I'm deeper in it so it's increasingly more difficult. I need to stop trudging to just sit and catch my breath for a while, but with the way this society is I never get that chance.
Reminds me of that quote in the movie Cast Away, "I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?"
Username checks out, but for real though keep working it and being awesome guys.
WALKING—2
That sounds familiar to me. Running saved me too in a way. I felt free because of it for the first time.
Chestbump on the 3 am run. I’ve lost count of the number times I’ve been in that exact same situation. Stay awesome. And keep working through your journey.
It gets better. Trust me.
Keep running my person!
Get it. In your moments of doubt, try to remember that feeling.
Yeah you’re absolutely right. My mind is a fairly negative place to be sometimes and I know I’ll go through rough times again, I just have to remember during those times that things can and will get better :)
Not to sound insanely cheesy, but life is beautiful and there’s always hope even if it doesn’t always seem that way.
I see you got a taste of that Dopamine now let me tell you it feels really fucking good.
Taking a run when you didn’t really plan it but just in the moment felt you needed to shake your self up is low key amazing.
Start training for a marathon . IT WILL CHANGE YOU
Tbh a marathon can be pretty harmful. The total number of miles you have to run in addition to (presumably) having a full time job means it’s almost impossible to have proper time for recovery and diet. I got pretty dinged up training for and then running one. And the depression afterwards is some of the worst there is
Yolo
I’m just saying if OP was previously depressed and running helped, maybe he should just stick with it as a hobby instead of basically a part time job
What? 4 AM wasn't early enough for you?!?!
OP you're a beast. Keep it up.
Huge connection between sleep deprivation and depression.
Dude running in the middle of the night is the absolute best thing ever. Literally nothing can beat the peaceful silence and solitude, accompanied by crickets and the occasional opossum depending on which part of the neighborhood you’re in. It’s the reason I love the summer so much, when it’s warm enough to do
Running through the woods on a full moon lit night through fresh snow used to be my favorite thing to do, the cold was so invigorating. Summer has its perks too, but something about a night run in sparkly, undisturbed snow.... Thanks for this post OP. I THINK you got me motivated to try again.
I went through a similar phase. I was just unmotivated. Then stuff got easier for me.
I'm happy for you!
Let’s gooo
Those are the best runs. Was going through a real rough patch and would leave at 230 just as the drunks were coming back. They would also ask what I am doing and I just got in the zone and kept running.
Awesome man. Running has pulled me out of some serious depths quite a few times. Although I’m not sure it’s safe to do it at 3am where I live now :(
I was thinking that too, I feel like 3 am is when serial killers are out and about :(
Why at 3am? I love the excitement and newfound motivation, I used to run a mile or two at 6am-just a mile usually- to get the blood pumping and it was great for my mood- changed my life for a while. I would say however (not to assume anything about your health) this sounds like it could also be a manic upswing. Take note of whether or not you’ve needed less sleep lately, are making grand designs and connections, etc. Hopefully this isn’t that though and inspires sustainable change!
I appreciate the concern but this isn’t a mania thing, just a have to be at work super early thing lol. I usually wake up at 4:30 anyway but I just woke up like an hour early and had a random impulse so I followed it. But thank you!
Yeah my husband has a bipolar diagnosis and this was my first thought.
Welcome to the wonderful world of exercise for treating your depression. Honestly the most effective, if difficult to administer, treatment I know. One of the most depression relieving moments I've ever had was a few months ago riding my bike 20 miles at 11 at night. I just needed some escape and release and it felt so goddamn good.
Honestly I should’ve tried this years ago. Like it’s a natural stress reliever that is actually good for you instead of being some meaningless escape, maybe I’ll try cycling at some point. Life can be so good sometimes :)
Did it give you that american werewolf in London chills? That will get the adrenaline going
That’s awesome 👏
Good on you man! I miss running outside, not the biggest fan of running in -30 celcius tho. Although my work is robbing me of my energy. I feel so freaking high after a nice run.
Congrats! That’s a big step, just continue doing that daily and big things will come your way! I’d love to see your journey continue!
So happy for you! We all have our periods and strings of bad patches. But running is great and it often improves things.
Keep it up OP! There's nothing like running! 😀
Just keep doing things that make you feel that way!
If you find that, you’ll find people eventually
Nice trip doug 🤝
POD would be proud.
Been going to the gym for 2 hours a week and oh my, the endorphins….can’t describe how good it feels
Hell yeah dude! Keep it up. I was in a similar spot last year, felt like a zombie. My body was just a functional casing for my mind. Made a New Year’s resolution to do things that make me feel alive again, like moving my body! Has made a hell of a difference already.
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Live it! Running at night is the best
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Awesome! Change your context, move, do something kind for someone every day. You’ve got this.
This is a great experience, you should learn from it,otherwise make self-rewarding for each goal. You can develop yourself better and better until to become successful, moreover remember that “no thing is easy.
I need me some of this.
Never too late to do the right thing..keep on adding 10% every week and see where you will land in 6 months..you don’t need to run at 3 AM..anytime is a good time for run..Try using some app like Runkeeper to keep track of your progress..proud of you 👌👌
You’re not wrong…3am is mainly because of work but also part of the reason I never exercised is because I have social anxiety and don’t want to exercise around people so the 3am thing kinda helps lol. I’ll check out that app though thanks! And maybe once I get more confidence I’ll be able to run in the afternoon or evening or something. Or maybe mornings will be amazing for me and I’ll love it who knows :)
Hell yeah, brother!!! Memento Mori !
Your time here is literally the only thing you have…
Come back and tell us how you're doing at 3p.m. it's not sustainable.
I think it might be. I get up at 4:30 anyway for work, so say I go to bed at 8 and get up at 3:30 that’s 7 hours of sleep which is potentially okay.
Excellent point. Still, that's both an amazing and rough hour to awaken. When I lived in Wisconsin, it was the best getting up at that hour. It seemed like the whole world was still sleeping. And just after a fresh bit of snow, other-worldly.
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Hell yeah. No better feeling than a good run to clear your head.
Do it 4-5 times a week at whatever pace comes to out that day and you’ll feel way better all the time.
just-a-pair-of-eyes t1_j9pbdfv wrote
So proud of you! find things that work and DON'T GIVE THEM UP. No matter how much it seems like it won't make a difference. (See people be like, I had fresh air for 10 minutes for the first time an a month and didn't want to die, weird) and I'm like CAPITALIZE ON THE GOODNESS