Self-care #8 – watch a motivational TED Talk

I love me a good motivational TED Talk.  Especially when I’m supposed to be studying, and watching one TED Talk leads to another extremely compelling one. Which leads to another, and another, and satisfactorily fills up all the time that I had set aside for studying.

Do I get much study done? Nope. But I know how to use body language to project confidence. And how fear can affect your brain, how plants can talk to each other and all kinds of fascinating things!

Have I ever actually used any of the interesting facts from the talks? Also nope. It feels good in the moment, like I’m using my time wisely while watching, but then life returns to normal. Slightly more rushed now, because I didn’t really have the time to watch the TED Talk in the first place and now I have to catch up on my work.

I am completely on the fence about motivational talks. Do they actually work, and do they count as self-care? I’m not really sure, because it temporarily makes you happy but unless you put the work in, it doesn’t improve your life at all. And Ill be very honest with you and tell you, dear reader, that I will not be doing the work. I have enough to do attempting to function as a reasonable adult, plus occasionally remembering to eat chia seeds and do deep breathing and all the rest. It’s highly unlikely that I will remember the intriguing fact from the inspiring talk and add it to my routine.    

I did a super quick Google search, and there’s people out there that think the same about motivational talk. They’re great, but only if you’re willing to action the advice.

So as an act of self-care… If your goal is to feel good in the moment, because you’ve had a truly shitty day then go for it. If you want something that will have longer term benefits on your body and stress levels, you might want to try something else on the list.

That’s two weeks in a row that I’ve said something on the list doesn’t work, I’m so sorry! Fingers crossed for next weeks tip 🤞🤞