Mood Follows Action: Simple Ways to Shift Your Energy

Create Yourself - Practical Activities for Self-discovery, Transformation and change.

We all know that feeling when we’re tired, sluggish, and lacking energy.

Everybody has low days, but I’ve realised something important: we have far more control over our energy levels and mood than we often tell ourselves.

This year, I’ve had just one low day, and that’s not to brag (trust me, I’ve had my fair share of low days in the past). I bring it up because it’s a reflection of how mood follows action and how my actions are significantly shifting my mood and energy levels.

Too often, we see low mood as something solely happening in the brain, something we can’t change. But our actions can—and do—have a massive impact on how we feel.

Mood follows action.

I’ve been reminding my therapy clients of this a lot recently, particularly those who find themselves spending hours in bed scrolling through TikTok (most are Uni students).

I wonder…

If I asked you to get up and run up and down the stairs for five minutes, would it shift how you feel, even just a bit?

I bet you it would.

Why not try it now?!

For the past few months, I’ve been experimenting with weaving in short 10-minute bursts of yoga, meditation, or movement into my day, and it’s definitely made a difference to my energy levels.

As a therapist, I have to sit on my ass for long periods of time, so making the effort to move every hour and a half or two hours is making a huge difference.

There’s a caveat to this, of course. If you’re deeply depressed or anxious, it probably feels insulting for me to suggest that just doing 10 minutes of movement here and there throughout the day could make any difference.

I hear you, and you’re absolutely right. If anyone had said this to me when I was anxious, I would have wanted to smack them in the face!

But here’s what I will say: for most of us—who are not severely anxious or depressed, but have our own struggles and stresses—doing this can help lift your energy. And when your energy is better, you feel more resourceful, and that means you can cope better.

For someone who is deeply depressed, I understand this will feel like the absolute last thing you want to do. Every cell in your body will probably resist. But I have to repeat—mood follows action. It’s what therapists call “basic behavioural activation.”

The common belief is that you have to feel motivated before you can do the thing.

Honestly, that’s complete BS. By doing the thing, you create motivation. You build forward momentum, and that momentum and movement is what shifts your mood. Mood follows action is a simple truth we often forget, but it’s so effective.

Journal Prompts

• What activities make you feel energised and uplifted? How can you incorporate more of them into your day?
• What small action can you take today to boost your energy or mood, even if you’re feeling low?
• Write about a time when you felt really energised and full of life. What were you doing, and how can you recreate that experience?

WORK WITH ME

I am an experienced and fully qualified counsellor, psychotherapist and coach based in the UK.
I work predominantly with women who want to make positive changes in their lives. Women who want to make better life choices, changes and decisions. My specialisms are equipping women the practical tools and strategies so they can manage their own mental health and wellbeing. I have over 10 years experience working with people to help them manage their stress, anxiety, low mood and lack of motivation.
I enable women go from a place of feeling stuck and hopeless, to a space where they can trust themselves again and find more inner-peace and contentment.
Often the women I work with are women who want to make changes but are struggling to know how or where to start. They feel overwhelmed and stuck. I help them make the changes they most need and long for.

https://www.kayholdsworth.com/