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Areas › Low mood and hard feelings › Act on your values
Do not wait to feel like it. One small good act, then another, is how the heaviness starts to lift.
Whoever does good, male or female, and has faith, We shall give a good life (Quran 16:97). The good life is promised through the doing, not the waiting.
النحل
مَنۡ عَمِلَ صَٰلِحࣰ ا مِّن ذَكَرٍ أَوۡ أُنثَىٰ وَهُوَ مُؤۡمِنࣱ فَلَنُحۡيِيَنَّهُۥ حَيَوٰةࣰ طَيِّبَةࣰۖ وَلَنَجۡزِيَنَّهُمۡ أَجۡرَهُم بِأَحۡسَنِ مَا كَانُواْ يَعۡمَلُونَ
To whoever, male or female, does good deeds and has faith, We shall give a good life and reward them according to the best of their actions
Qur’an 16:97read it in the library
Translation: M.A.S. Abdel Haleem, The Qur'an, Oxford University Press, 2004.
Doing meaningful, rewarding things, even before you feel up to it, reliably lifts mood; waiting to feel motivated first tends to keep you stuck.
Mazzucchelli, T. G., Kane, R. T. and Rees, C. S. (2010). Behavioral activation interventions for well-being: A meta-analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology doi
Deliberately engaging in meaningful and rewarding activities lifts mood and wellbeing, even before motivation returns.
Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.
Engaging in small, meaningful activity lifts low mood, even before the motivation to do it arrives.
Where this sits: DBT and ACT, opposite action and values-based action.
Ask what kind of person you want to be here, then take one small step that way, even while afraid.
When a feeling pushes you to hide or lash out and it does not fit the facts, gently do the opposite.
Most people can tell you exactly why the thing is a bad idea. The trouble arrives later, when feeling is running high and all that reasoning is nowhere to be found.