Why do I feel fed up when I should be happy (and what can I do about it)?

There are lots of reasons for why you might feel out of sorts with your life. In this blog entry, we are going to look at habituation.

Habituation is the term used in psychological therapies that describes how we get used to things over time. It’s how we treat phobias using CBT. By gradually spending more time doing a thing you fear, you will become more used it and become more able to tolerate it. This is a great strategy for overcoming fears. The downside is, this phenomenon also works for positive experiences, if we had ice cream at Alton Towers every day it would be awesome. Unfortunately, over time, ice cream and Alton Towers would become less fun and eventually maybe even boring!

So when we think we ‘have it all’ but we are feeling pretty miserable, chances are it’s because we’ve habituated to it. It doesn’t mean anything is broken; it just means you might benefit from changing things around from time to time. This could be something as small as getting up 15 minutes earlier to get some fresh air or do some exercise, perhaps change your working hours so you get to finish a bit earlier on Fridays, working from home more or working at the office more, trying out a new hobby, walking a different route to school/college/picking up the kids. It doesn’t have to be big, it’s just about introducing small changes in your routine to shake up the pattern and create novelty and newness. Give it a try and notice how it makes you feel.

There might be other reasons why your life feels out of sorts that aren’t discussed here. If you need some help to explore this, please click the link below to get in touch and book an assessment.