Motivation is the driving force, but it’s dead in the water if it isn’t activated. And sometimes what’s missing, for me anyway, is that stimulus for action – the trigger that gets things started. Many of us on our life journeys have experienced a vast array of stimuli, wanted or unwanted, that have sparked us from a lethargy and set us on a journey along a variety of pathways. In our later years, that journey has often been unplanned and sometimes perplexing. Surely a good rest will re-activate us?

Even when we are resting our minds are often working hard. Try as we might, it’s often hard to change our thoughts and when we try to sleep the old brainbox is often still working overtime, sifting through the alternate solutions to a myriad of personal, or imagined or global problems, over and over. Personally, I have a method that helps, I pray. It helps me to sift and evaluate the important stuff and to reorder my mind in a positive way; to analyse, identify and focus on what’s affecting me and, indeed, the world!

There’s no doubt I’m not alone when I sometimes forget things that need, or should, be done. It’s even harder if you are caring for someone who is depending upon you (whether they realise it or not). So, I’m especially thinking today about the carers who are managing two lives (and maybe more) in a family where Alzheimer’s is present and whose minds are sometimes actively working in top gear and ever alert… But now, for me, being alone is easier – although the flip-side of easier is idleness, and that sometimes leads to depression and feeling miserable. Know what I mean?

And there’s yet another angle affecting we older folk, and that’s mobility. Many of my friends who have difficulty moving their bodies, who can’t walk far unaided, who can’t get up and go, have this activation/motivation restriction. Amazingly, they all have found ways to recover, or maintain, a degree of flexibility and dexterity with mind-active activities: creative hobbies, reading, studying, listening to interviews and books, writing, playing a musical instrument, or card and mind games with a friend. I am always amazed to hear how my non-physically active friends remain so alert and enjoy their lives, despite an infirmity, and their positivity encourages me.

Whether it’s mind or body, or both, our health and wellbeing will be activated when we develop a technique that delivers a sense of satisfaction. Some of us maintain that equilibrium using social encounter and some by willpower but, when that doesn’t work, we need to be practical and find other methods, and prayer is the great stimulus for me. There is some truth in the old adage of “Mind over matter”, and I mind, because others matter.

Perhaps you have your own special method of self-activation, of beating the blues? How about you drop me a line and share it?