 What simple steps can we take to enable ourselves to get more physically active when we know it would do us good but we're finding it's super hard to motivate ourselves? That's what we're going to be exploring in today's episode of Pookie Ponders so let's dive straight in. Okay so when it comes to getting out and getting active the evidence is unequivocal. We know and the evidence base tells us that it's good for us, it's good for our physical health naturally and it's good for our mental health. Getting active is one of the five ways to well-being which is a very heavily researched approach to helping us all to feel good and getting out, getting active is also a fundamental underpinning of an approach called behavioral activation which is a really really great approach to treating low mood and depression which is basically when we feel really unmotivated and we begin to withdraw that tends to deepen our depression and lower our mood further but if we can get up, get out, get active, get connected then this tends to really relieve our symptoms. Great fantastic except when we need it most, when we need that activation most, when we need that activity we're least able to access it, we're least able to motivate ourselves to get up, we're least able to motivate ourselves to get out so how can we fix that? This episode comes from like deep within my personal depth because this is something that I really struggle with. Physical activity has become increasingly important to me over the years as I work hard to stay well and stay off depression, anxiety and also to stay well day today and live well with autism but there are times when my mood or my anxiety means that it's really tricky for me to do the things that I know will feel good where that walk which feels so good becomes an impossible challenge or getting to my local bouldering wall which I know will make me feel fantastic just feels like an absolute impossibility and I find myself putting excuses in the way or simply just not being able to do it so what are the things that help me and could help you or could help you to support a colleague or a child in your care to get active when we least feel able to but most need it. First of all start small so we need to think about what's a realistic expectation of ourselves so if you're listening to this thinking yes actually I do need to get more physically active I'm going to run a marathon it's not going to work you're setting yourself up to fail and you're giving yourself yet another to stick to beat yourself with so when I'm struggling most I set my intentions lowest so I will be thinking about can I go for a five-minute walk the first step out of the house is always the hardest and sometimes if we set our intentions low and we have a really small goal for ourselves although it will feel big on a bad day but if we have a smaller goal for ourselves then sometimes if it's going well we might choose to carry on so I've had times with my climbing for example where anxiety has meant that getting out being amongst people being in that busy environment feels just like a massive massive challenge just getting in the car and getting there can feel too much and so sometimes I'll just say to myself I'm just going to go show up I'm going to go and walk to the you know walk into the wall say hi to the guys on have a look at the different problems that's what we call the different routes that you can climb have a look at the problems that are there right now and think about what I'll do next time I don't have to climb I don't even need to put my shoes on if I don't want to that really rarely happens but giving myself that out is really important likewise if I'm going through a phase sometimes I go through a phase where I'll be trying to do regular running or walking then I might say rather than doing my kind of regular route or a particularly long route or something new and exciting I'll say I'm going to walk to the bench on the downs now the bench on the downs for me is maybe a 10 minute walk from here and I'll forgive myself if I don't get that far and if it's pouring with rain then I'll say you know I'm not even going to try and get onto the downs I'm just going to walk to the end of the street and then if I want to I'm going to turn around and come home so aim small it doesn't matter how small you aim the key thing is to make a start and the physical act of getting up getting out no matter how tiny that amount of activity might be will really help if you want to do activity within your home then you might for example be doing as I do with yoga and just saying I'm not going to try and do half an hour or an hour of yoga I'm going to set myself the challenge to do five minutes five minutes feels much more possible for me I find yoga is actually really helpful to me it helps me sleep and I try to build it in as part of my daily routine these days but I find it hard to motivate myself to do it because I kind of it feels good when I've done it but I don't really like the idea of it and it's hard not to feel like it's some kind of waste of time because I'm quite a productive kind of person but five minutes I can do five minutes I can spare that's just another youtube video I might not be watching you know so five minutes is doable particularly if it's guided with something like yoga for Adrienne so just go really tiny go micro go to what feels so small that you think that you can rather than you're overwhelmed by the can't next so we've started small we're going to have really low expectations of ourselves that's really important because we want to be able to succeed we can go bigger if we want to but we started small next is pick something that you've previously enjoyed if you can so when we're thinking about getting active thinking about what you've done in the past that's made you feel good something that maybe actually made you smile or felt like a bit of fun getting physically active doesn't have to mean doing really really boring stuff that you don't like that feels horrible that feels hard that demotivates you in and of itself as an activity you can instead think what made me laugh what made me smile what was fun what felt really good when I was doing it or afterwards and try and tap into those feelings physical activity can be fun maybe what you need to do to get yourself active today is just to pop on some music that you really enjoy and jump around that is getting physically active that is absolutely as valid as running on the treadmill or lifting weights or going for a run however you get moving is good so do something that feels good if you can my next tip is about intention planning so intention planning is a proven strategy for making us more likely to do the things that we say that we will it's used loads within the business world but we can use it to help ourselves here too so intention planning is about not just having a goal or an aim but quantifying it and saying I'm going to do this specific thing on this specific day at this specific time I'll do it in this place and with this person we will diarise it is that even actually a word we'll put it in the diary we'll write it down on our calendar chisel it into the stone calendar that we might have whatever we're going to we're going to make a note of it we're going to commit to it and we are going to think about the detail because if we know where when with whom and exactly what it is that we are trying to do we quantify it we qualify it then we are much much more likely to follow through it's also less likely that other things will get in the way this can work particularly well if you're trying to build a routine of getting active so you might say I'm going to try three times a week to walk around the block because I know that's going to really help my mood put it into the diary schedule it in and try to keep this firmly there what I find with this as well is if it's in the diary it might need to move something else might crop up that's okay but if it's there we move it whereas if it's not there and it's just a vague intention that oh if I have time on Wednesday when I've done everything else then I'll go for that walk the walk rarely happens because everything else doesn't get done and part of this is about allowing us to prioritize this because it's really important it deserves to be up there with our other appointments it's every bit as vital to our day-to-day lives our well-being our ability to do all the other things that we get this done so we started small we've picked something we've enjoyed in the past preferably we have thought about exactly the what one where and done our intention planning next the next hack is to try and make it easy for ourselves so at the point at which we found that tiny bit of motivation or it's got to that point in the diary where we said right we're doing this um it's it's going to happen try and make it as easy as possible to then take the next step to engage with the activity so taking the example of climbing for me there's not a lot that I need for climbing which is a good thing that makes it easier for myself as well so I tend to bolder which means I don't actually need other people if I don't want them and there's not a lot of equipment you need a pair of shoes to climb in and you can even borrow those at the wall if you don't have your own and some chalk ideally to protect your hands that's pretty much it apart from some comfortable clothing um but in order to enable myself to do this I keep the things that I need to climb in my car I always have some comfortable clothes I could climb in I keep my climbing shoes and my climbing chalk all in my car so it's not that it gets to the point when it's time to go climbing and I've got to run around and try and get everything ready the other things I usually will take with me when I'm climbing are a snack and a water bottle and again I try and keep those things basically ready to go so everything's already for me to set my snack up I have Ipricots and cashews and they're in bags ready to go with little pots really nearby and then I have a particular water bottle that I take everywhere with me and that's just there ready to be filled so it's a really easy thing I know exactly what I need and it's all there and ready and so if we can reduce those barriers this is like if you are someone who maybe likes to go to the gym just having that gym bag ready and packed so that when you feel able to do this when it's time you've not got this additional barrier of the organization and logistics because that's yet another thing which is a hurdle at which we might fall so try to make it easy easy to do it I also make it a little bit easier for myself with the climbing by having a prepaid membership so for me one of the barriers sometimes is if I'm having a very anxious day I can find it incredibly hard to interact with anyone and I know that going and climbing is going to make me feel better but sometimes the idea of walking in engaging with the staff paying to to climb and the conversations that involves it might sound like little things to most people but for me that can be the thing that makes it impossible for me some days having a prepaid membership and increasingly they you know everybody knows who I am when I walk in then I get waved through I don't have to have any conversations if I don't want to it's always possible to on the days when that would feel good and sometimes connection is a great thing and the staff there are wonderful people to chat to about what I'm working on and that can feel good in and of itself but on another day when I just want to quietly get on with it I do not need to interact so that kind of prepaid membership so have a think for the activities that you might like to engage with what would help maybe there's a particular video that you like to use when you're working out or dancing or doing yoga or something and perhaps you can have it bookmarked in YouTube so you haven't got to find it every time or you know just little things make it easy for yourself to do it at the point at which you're ready to go so you don't have extra hurdles you've got to come over another thing that can really help is to have a buddy so having someone that you're going to actually do this activity alongside can help to motivate you and them and can sometimes make activities feel more possible and accessible for us if your parent or carer one of the ways that you can enable yourself to build regular physical activity into your diary is to do something that you can do alongside your child so I talk sometimes about hobbying alongside our children because it can give us permission and space to engage with hobbies and other activities that we might really enjoy so maybe one of those hobbies or activities could be something that gets us up and gets us out perhaps you have a child who would like to as my daughter Ellie does climb alongside me or maybe you've got a child who would like to walk the dog with you or whatever it is something that gets you up gets you active and this will also have the added benefits of creating connection and bonding whilst you're doing that activity together as well if you don't have a child who wants to join you in this or it's not an appropriate activity for them or the timings don't work or whatever perhaps there is someone else who could be your go-to buddy for this activity we often have a lot more fun when we're alongside someone and it really helps to hold us to account if we've agreed as part of our intention planning not just where and when and what but who and there's someone there that we kind of don't want to let down and maybe that we really enjoy being with that can really help so if I want to go climbing I've got various buddies that tend to be at the wall at certain times and I know right if I can get myself out for an eight o'clock climb on a Saturday morning I know that I'm really likely to see Adam there I know that I'm really likely to see Sally and Nathan there and that motivates me if I want to specifically organize to climb with someone I will give my buddy Carl a call or drop him a line and say really could do with the climb how about it and we will arrange to go together and I know I'm going to love seeing him we're going to have fun climbing together and we're both going to hold each other to account so maybe you have someone like that who enjoys similar activity to you can be something really simple so at home maybe there's someone who might step out for a walk with you if it's a busy kind of work day my husband Tom and I will often think right this is a big day like yesterday he was doing loads of interviews and he knew he was going to be at his desk all day and it was going to be really intense he knew he was going to need a walk he also knew it was fairly unlikely he was going to have the motivation to go for one at the point at which he needed in the weather was horrible and all that kind of stuff and so we planned it we planned together that we would go for a walk when his interviews were done and we both felt loads better for it so it doesn't need to be complicated but having someone to support you to go with you to enjoy the activity with can really help if you want to like really build on that you can get a coach so depending on what your activity is you might actually have regular times when you would attend group coaching sessions or have some personal coaching if that's something that feels possible for you both in terms of the interaction and of course in terms of the budget so when I was learning to play squash I never got really good at that and I have so many other activities but I did enjoy it and one of the things I liked was that there was a weekly coaching session for women so this felt like a really accessible thing to do both in terms of not being too intimidating it was other women who were new to the sport it wasn't too costly and it gave me a time and a place and a person with whom to be so that can work really well too finally you can find buddies through joining a team so if there's a team sport that you like maybe go find out whether there is a local social team that you could join that would mean that you would regularly get to access that sport alongside other buddies who would enjoy it too so perhaps you really enjoyed netball but you haven't done it since school I bet that in your area there would be a social netball team that you could join if you wanted to and then suddenly you've got something that helps to motivate you to get out there this may be though if you're at that stage we're just getting out of bed and getting out of the house feels impossible that might just feel too hard so remember what we talked about starting small that five minute walk around the block is totally legitimate you don't need to join the netball team yet it's okay this is maybe one for the future kind of alongside like doing with and intention planning we can think about building a habit so when we create habits or routines of doing things regularly then it becomes easier to engage with them we've done the thinking before about doing this thing in this way at this time and we've overcome the anxieties related to that because the more that we do things the same way again and again then the lower that anxiety tends to get and the more familiar this activity begins to feel having something as part of our routine or building a habit of it also means that other things are less likely to get in the way because this is what we do at this time we've already given ourselves permission and made the space to do that so thinking about where you could regularly fit this in I personally find that it's often easier actually to do something every day at a certain time than it is to try and fit it in sporadically it sometimes feels like you can possibly have time to do something every day but actually you find sometimes that just building in a little bit every day is easier than trying to do something intensely a couple of times a week say for example yoga I mentioned that before when I'm doing well with my routine then I do five minutes of yoga every day just before bed and it's just a little part of my routine that I try to do every day and because I do it every day it comes after my shower and before my reading it's just what I do and that's okay if I were to try and do like 10 or 15 or 20 minutes of yoga just a couple of times a week that I think would be much much harder to motivate myself and to find the time for the next hack is just about noticing how you feel during and after a physical activity that you're engaging with so actually the whole reason why we want to do this why we're trying to find these hacks to get ourselves up and get ourselves out is because it will make us feel better so notice that as it's happening as you're engaging with the activity just check in with yourself and notice actually this feels good I'm laughing I am enjoying I can feel the endorphins of coursing around my body whatever it is that feels good connect with that feeling and just really notice it notice how good it feels and then afterwards notice how you feel think about whether your mood has actually lifted take note and if you're someone who journals or records things in any way actually literally take note because we want to remind our future selves that the effort that we went to to do the thing to get active was worth it because it actually did have an impact on how we felt and alongside that I would say very important to allow yourself a moment of smugness when the activity is completed no matter how tiny you went when you did it you did it and that's fantastic allow yourself to feel that sense of pride that sense of challenge overcome that sense that yes you did it which is great so a little bit of smugness can go a long way here because what we're looking to do here is to create these sort of cycles of positive reinforcement that help us to remember that it feels good when I do this I'm going to allow myself that moment of pride that moment of joy that I did it and then we're just that little bit more able to do it next time a little bit more motivated perhaps to do the activity again the final hack on my list is to ask others to encourage you so if you are confident that going for a walk for me going for a climb getting out on the hill and going for a fly whatever it might be that feels good for you then let other people know and ask them to gently encourage you at times when it might feel difficult for you to encourage and enable yourself think with them perhaps if there's anything they can do to enable you so again this is something that my husband Tom who's amazing is very very good at with me so he will take note if my mood is low if I seem quite anxious if I haven't been out in a while and he notices that I would do well so he might offer to go for a walk we will do that often and that will really help if he thinks I need something a bit more he'll just really encourage me to get out and climb if I haven't done that for a few days that's a warning sign for me that things aren't going so well and he will encourage me he will help me to overcome the barriers I might have created in terms of work places I need to be things I need to do and help me think about that intention planning and when I'm going to fit it in or he'll just relieve me of some of those burdens and say hey don't worry it's fine I've got lunch I'll sort out everyone here you don't need to worry about leaving the house for a couple of hours just go I think it would do you good you will feel better and sometimes that little push where he takes away the barriers and I've got no excuses left other than my internal struggles which can be big then that makes it more possible for me to do it that only works if we've actually had good discussions with our enablers beforehand because what we don't want is to feel bullied or for them to push us in ways that don't feel comfortable and they will not feel comfortable with that either so discussions at times of relative wellness and calm and happiness about in those more tricky moments what they can do to help you to access the things that make you feel better and that means being honest about the things that feel good that means being honest about some of the barriers that you sometimes may be put in the way and the challenges that you have to overcome and being honest about what they can do to help you and what does not help as well so there you go a whole bunch of ideas to try to try to help us to get out and get active at the times when it would do as the most good but it might feel the most challenging I hope there were some helpful ideas in here for you if you liked what you heard today or you like my work more generally please support me by sharing what I do the more widely my work is shared and the bigger this smile will become and you can also support in other ways so you might head over to Patreon and join my little growing community there of people who get early access to my work and who feed into the ideas that are in my content pipeline all the time it costs a pound a month to join me on Patreon and it's a joy every time somebody signs up because it's just a little way of saying thank you a little way of saying I believe in you it's just a lovely supportive thing so that's a possibility and then the other way if you'd like me to support you and you'd like to support me is to ask me to come and speak at your next event or in your setting so keynote speaking is my thing and I absolutely love it and it's always a joy to be asked so if you're running a conference or you're part of a network or your multi-academy trust is coming together for a training day maybe I could come and help you out I do do online as well so you could ask me to come along and do a webinar for you as well okay hope there were helpful ideas in here do on the socials drop me a line and say what you do how do you get yourself active on those days when motivation is low what can you add to the ideas in here there are always more ideas I'd love to hear yours but for now that's all I have to say so until next time over and out