steady

Mood · In your head

Test the want, not the like

When you can't be bothered to go, go anyway. Decide whether you like it once you're there, not from the sofa.

no timeEvidence: worth trying

Wanting something and enjoying it are separate processes in the brain. Dopamine drives the wanting, the pull to get up and go. Enjoying the thing once you're there is a different process. Evidence: decent In depression, the wanting side may take the bigger hit. Evidence: worth trying

So "I don't feel like it" may be a reading from the wanting side alone. It tells you the start looks expensive, the effort cost. It tells you much less about whether you'd enjoy it. Evidence: worth trying

That idea comes from a review of brain research, not from a trial of this habit. Treat it as a test you run, not a promise.

If you go, and go again, and it still feels like nothing, that's information too. Take it to a doctor: two questions.

Source: Treadway and Zald, 2011, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews (link)

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