How to stop feeling depleted and drained

A common sight on the other side of the room. You see a group of 30 somethings. happy and full of life. They are talking about getting kids, scoring that new promotion or how they had a lovely weekend with old friends at a nearby lake house. As you look across the room you can see their clinched grins getting wider and higher. It's not that you don't enjoy the view of others, nor is it that you despise them for feeling the way they do. It's just that you don't feel this way and in fact you haven't felt excited, fulfilled or full of life in quite a while. It's not a depression per se, you have told yourself. Nor is it stress or anxiety. Rather and put simply it's just the feeling of a balloon depleted from its air.

You don't have to feel drained and down on life but it's not quite a choice. It's a common mental condition but its fix is not to switch gears or simply start being like the "the others". Here are a few tips to help you feel full of life again and ready to embark on whatever curve ball it throws next.

Allowance to be bored

To enjoy life is to feel bored. Once we feel bored we allow our brains to relax and process information we have collected during the day. This is usually when we get our best ideas and afterwards we truly feel relaxed. But why are we so afraid of boredom. After all it's so easy to turn on Netflix and find a new TV show to watch. We are wired to constantly seek that "sugar for the brain", type of excitement. But try to ignore it as the first step towards a proactive full life is to allow yourself to disconnect from your sugar rush of chores and distractions. If this is hard for you why not actually block two hours of boredom into your agenda. It's worth it in the end.

Take note what gets you excited

The second tip is to keep track of your emotions. A common way to do this is by keeping a journal or using a mental health app such as a mood tracker or digital diary. Our goal is to be present and aware of activities that brings us joy and happiness. This is especially important when you feel depleted and find it hard to get excited about things. Once you find activities that help you try and make a conscious effort to expose yourself to this feeling more often. A common phase: "we work to live", is very applicable when you feel mentally drained from life.

"Find a new pairs of ears"

Of course conscious effort will bring you very far and can fix the situation for you. However nothing helps your situation more than a friend of family member that truly cares about you. Just saying how you feel to other human beings brings us an instant sense of relief. The problem you carry is now out in the open. And where acknowledgement is the first step towards recovery, finding help is definitely the second.

Practice self-reflection

Answer reflective questions in a safe and private environment. Reflective questions are open questions designed to make you think about your life and the personal situation you are in. Mental awareness is a crucial first step towards recovery. So you might find that your environment or certain behavior from friends is contributing towards negativity. Mental reflection helps us fund the root cause which is the only way to fix feelings of depletion.

We hope this article helps you to take conscious steps towards improve your mental health. How we feel from the inside is crucial for our health as a poor mental state can lead to burn-out and even physical problems. When we do feel happy our heart rate goes down and we get to enjoy life to the fullest. We only have one shot at a happy life so why not take the best of it and make an effort to improve our mental wellbeing.