We don’t always need a reason to feel down/sad right?

Well.. Even though most of us have accepted this, it’s not true always. There is definitely a reason why we feel a certain way. As most of the times we are unaware and fail to find them.

why do you feel down for no reason

So, if you’ve been feeling a little off from sometime but failing to find a reason then keep reading this article till the end. Hopefully it will be helpful in some way.

3 Reasons Why You Feel Down For No Reason

1. You Have No Purpose

Nope, not the spiritual purpose which is trending these days. Here what I mean by purpose is an individual & short term purpose which makes you look forward to your day.

It can be anything as simple as cooking your favourite dish the next morning. You’ll feel already excited the night before wondering about how it’s gonna taste, whether your family members will like it or not. When you go to sleep, you would know what you are gonna do next day.

Or Reading a book, watching a movie/series, writing a poem, etc etc.
These are some pretty basic examples of purpose that we all have in our day to day life.

Now let’s see some advanced/long term purpose can be exercising daily, practicing an instrument, preparing for an exam/job, etc.

Here, you have a clear long term goal which gives you a reason to do things everyday with all your heart & efforts to make it happen. So, almost everyday you know what you are going to do and it keeps you occupied most of the time.

Forget about the long term ones, if someone doesn’t even have a simple purpose like the ones mentioned above then it’s obvious that life will feel meaningless.

Because they won’t have anything to look forward to which creates a hollowness in their life. As time progresses this situation can lead to some serious mental health problems.

2. You Don’t Have A Routine

Again, not gonna exaggerate anything here. Do you have a certain thing that you do every at a fixed time?

Forget about waking up at 5 am in the morning. Even if you wake up at 8/9 am, are you consistent with it? Are there activities in your routine that you do daily? Is there a structure to your day?

Let’s understand the importance of having a routine with an example that I’ve faced during exams at school/college.

During every exam I would plan a list of things to do once the exam gets done. Like going out, watching movies, playing games etc.
But once they were over I would feel empty. Like I’ve nothing to do anymore. Even those exciting things that I had fantasized earlier wouldn’t feel exciting anymore.

Similar thing I felt at the start of the Lockdown where I literally missed being stressed and occupied. (Later I did manage to keep myself busy though)

So what’s the reason behind this weird nothingness? The reason is that the structure in my routine went missing once exams finished. While they were still on, I knew when & what subject to study on a particular day and for how long.

But once it’s done, life feels empty. As there aren’t many things to look forward to, things that require my immediate/consistent attention.
I do realise that procrastination and so many other toxic habits have been normalised on social media and are cool to joke about. However, they are still toxic.

So even if your friends laugh at your self deprecating jokes where you boast about your unhealthy habits, it’s still going to harm you in short & long run, both.

3. You Don’t Have A Sense Of Urgency

You can clearly see that your daily habits are making you lazier day by day. Your clothes are getting tighter and breath shorter every time you sprint for a while.

Still you stay cool & refuse to act on it. (Just an example of my situation few months ago).

Yeah, I get the body positivity movement on social media. Let’s just accept that every body shape is beautiful but definitely every body shape isn’t healthy.

I forgot this isn’t an article about fitness.

See, we all already know what are the things which need the most of our attention. Be it fitness, Studies, career, Hobbies, etc. But you choose to not act on these as if you have all the time in the world.

Because you don’t realise the urgency of those ignored aspects from your life. Instead you end up wasting all the valuable time in doing things which are helping you to ignore the important & urgent things. Like getting into social media fights, watching TV shows whole night, defending favourite celebs on twitter and what not.

If you’re living your life like this, with different kinds of addictions by your side, you’ll definitely feel down. And you won’t be able to find the reasons behind it because you’ve ignored them long back. You will be blinded by your own addictions and unhealthy habits.

3 Things To Do When Feeling Down For No Reason

1. Introspect

You already have answers for all the questions that you keep asking to others.

So the moment you start feeling down without an apparent reason, it’s time to slow down. Instead of getting into activities like scrolling social media(which is gonna make you feel worse), sit with yourself without anything.

Ask yourself what’s actually going on in the present, as well as considering your whole life. What I mean is, try to recall if you’ve been keeping the promises that you made a few days/week ago? Also, are you also on the right track to reach what you had planned throughout the long run?

Most of the times it’s the things that you do/don’t do daily are what make you feel this way.

So, if thinking about your whole life, the long term goals feels depressing in the moment, then just look at what you’re doing on a daily basis.

You’ll definitely find something that you’ve been constantly doing that’s making you feel down in some way. Maybe it’s sleeping late, watching YouTube, gaming or anything that is taking you away from who you desire to be. All those activities which you know are harmful to you yet you do it everyday.

2. Add Structure To Your Routine

Now once you’re aware about what exactly is bothering you directly/indirectly, your half problem is already solved. Because most people don’t even get to this stage of awareness where you accept what is wrong.

We discussed having a structure to your routine, that’s what you’re gonna do here. Once you’re aware of things that you should be doing to make you feel good, start placing those activities/tasks in your daily routine.

If making timetables or to do lists feels intimidating to you (like I do), don’t worry. You don’t have to do that. Just decide when, how long and how often you will be doing those things in a week.

Let’s say you’ve been wanting to read more. You don’t really have to follow the advice of people and take up the advice of reading x pages daily. It’s your life, you’ve the right to live it the way you want. So do it your own way, finish the book on weekends if that is finding suits you.

Hope you got that. This is how you can restructure your routine to add some structure to it.

3. Complete Things

You know, the most satisfying feeling is when you complete things.

The feeling I’m gonna get once I finish this article which I’m writing for a week now.

Just think about it, when is it that you feel really good about yourself ?

Is it when you’re procrastinating or when you’re getting done with your tasks?
And how strange that even though not doing what we should be makes us feel so miserable, we don’t take any action against it. Why not we try to finish those pending tasks and see how it feels.

So, start doing those stuff one by one. Do them in your own way and convenience as we just discussed in the routine point. But make sure you completely complete them.

Because doing things is something which will skyrocket your self esteem/self respect. You’ll start feeling good about yourself that you kept your promise and showed up, defying all the odds.

See.. Now you’ve got many reasons to feel good about yourself.

Final words

Well, I’m no mental health expert or a life coach to advice anyone. I know the whole article does sound like advice, but they aren’t as I’m writing for myself (mostly).

So, in some cases people might be going through a condition which needs to be taken care of by professionals (which also needs introspection). As feeling sad for no reason is a legit symptom for mental health problems.

Most commonly people feel like they’re sad for no reason because of distractions like social media which blinds them from the real life issues that need their most attention.

I hope you found this helpful in some way to some extent. Share your thoughts in the comment section and share this article.

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