Thread by @sarb

[WELLBEING THREAD] With 2 days til the next NZ Alert Level decisions, if you’re going to feel tempted to cut corners + other risky behaviour, it’ll be around now. Here’s what you need to know to stick to the plan to STAY HOME + stay safe to protect yourself and others

Sticking to lockdown rules can be hard. It takes self-control. After exerting self-control for a few days, you can feel less motivated to continue (although you could do it if you REALLY had to). How can you find that motivation?

For example, you’ve been sticking to your eating plan all day with a healthy breakfast and lunch, and even resisted the donuts being offered around work in the afternoon.

But by the time you come home at night, you no longer have the self-control to go with your plan, order take-out and spend the rest of the night snacking while watching TV.

research shown that people could resist the effects of self-control slipping away when given a powerful incentive to do so. So, what’s the right incentive?

Guilt appears to be a good motivator. In a pandemic, protecting yourself and others is good, but it might not be enough when we are tired and just want life to go back to how it was.

Our brain feels tempted to take the easy way out and become over-optimistic, leading us to take unnecessary risks. However, when we reflect back on our behaviour, we sometimes experience feelings of guilt - and it’s these feelings of guilt that can motivate prosocial behaviour

Problem is, we don’t want to wait until afterwards, because that may be too late with potentially disastrous consequences.

Here's 3 ways we can refresh our ability to persevere when times get tough:

1. Improve your mood. Being in a better mood improves your ability to motivate yourself and keep going when times get tough..

2. Get better sleep. Sleep appears to reset your self-control and gives you the ability to continue to motivate yourself throughout your day. Lack of sleep has the opposite effect, making self-control more challenging.

(Just think about how much harder it is for you to resist junk food or one-too-many-drinks when you’ve had bad sleep compared to when you are feeling well rested).

3. Think about what you care about. Acts of self-affirmation, such as expressing the beliefs that you most strongly resonate with can counteract the effects of waning self-control.

If doing the right thing matters to you, then find ways to do the right thing, no matter how tiresome it can feel. But get in touch with why it matters to you again [ENDS].