A friend said to me recently: “You should talk about this - why we stop feeling joy. It’s happening to me, and I think it’s happening to a lot of people.” And I recognise it well - I’ve been there too. Actually, I’m probably still there more often than I’d like to admit. I heard it from other friends and clients, too: “I used to get so excited about things. Now everything just feels plain or stressful.” For example, trips were once something to look forward to. Now it feels like an unexciting to-do list: flights to book, packing lists to make, and work to organize. When did anticipation turn into yet another project? You see something beautiful - maybe light hitting the trees just right, or your city at dusk, any perfect little moment. And your brain goes “oh, that’s nice,” and then immediately you’re thinking about what you need to cook for dinner, or that email you forgot to send, or where you parked the car. You’re standing right there, looking at this beautiful thing, and you’re already gone. If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you know exactly what I’m talking about. Here’s what I think is happening to us. We see beautiful things, but we don’t actually let them in. We hear music, but we don’t let it move us. We eat something delicious, but we’re already thinking about the next thing. We’re with people we genuinely love, and our brain is running through the to-do list. It’s not that we don’t care anymore. We’re not cynical. We’re not always depressed. We’ve just forgotten how to pause and stay present. How to actually be, rather than just passing through. Everything’s become something to get through. To complete. To check off the list. Even the things that are supposed to be joyful. And the really scary part? We don’t even notice we’re doing it anymore. What’s Actually Happening Here? Okay, so I’ve been going down a research rabbit hole because I wanted to understand what’s happening. Here is what I found out. There’s a part of your brain called the Default Mode Network that runs in the background all the time. It’s like having fifty browser tabs open in your head, constantly churning through the past and the future - what you need to do, what might happen, what you should have said, what they probably meant.

I start working with every new client by evaluating their mental fitness, which helps me plan the right start to our work together. One of the parameters that I always check is whether a new client is experiencing the symptoms of depression - it’s a serious condition that deserves the right kind of attention and care. Depression is talked about everywhere now — and that’s important. But, as is so often the case, there is a risk of misinterpreting how you actually feel and making it sound more severe. I refer to not being able to distinguish between feeling down and being depressed. When you’re struggling, it is important to know what’s actually happening. Do not self-diagnose and label yourself, but understand so you can get the right kind of support. Feeling down is a temporary emotional state — a normal response to stress, disappointment, exhaustion, conflict, or loss. Research consistently shows that experiencing low mood following life stressors is common and often changes for the better when circumstances change and/or regulation and coping practices are used. This is normal, and I am sure you recognise it. When you’re feeling down: - the feeling usually has a context (you can say why you are feeling so); - it comes and goes; - you can still experience moments of pleasure, connection, or motivation; - rest, support, or the right kind of change often helps. Yes, it’s uncomfortable and painful — but your sense of self and hope are still there. The inner narrative often sounds like: “I’m having a hard time.” Depression, on the other hand, is a clinical condition involving changes in emotional processing, motivation, cognition, and nervous-system regulation. It ranges from mild to severe. Evidence from neuroscience and psychiatry shows that depression tends to: - last weeks or months; - persist even when life circumstances improve; - affect sleep, appetite, energy, and concentration; - reduce or eliminate pleasure (anhedonia); - involve persistent self-criticism, hopelessness, or emotional numbness.

How to use dopamine wisely, avoid burnout, and maintain motivation even when life gets in the way. Loads to do and zero motivation to do any of it - we all can relate to this situation. According to neurologists and S. Freud, we are all moving towards pleasure and away from pain. So doing nothing is somewhat rewarding. And one of the reasons procrastination exists is to avoid negative emotions that may arise when we go through our to-do list. Normally, we start a new project with considerable motivation, because of the anticipation of a big reward at the end of it - better shape, higher salary, more fame. And then, for many reasons, including poor sleep, low energy, urgent issues to resolve, and more, we lose motivation to move forward with previous projects. Basically, we are more motivated to work on a goal if it will give us a big reward, or if it is urgent, not doing it will create a perceived significant amount of pain. How to stay motivated to reach the chosen goal even when life happens and priorities shift? Big question. I will share a couple of ideas for manufacturing your motivation instead of pushing through with none or waiting for it to appear. First things first. Before you start applying any tools, make sure that lack of motivation is not a symptom of something bigger - depression or a condition where your dopamine is naturally lower than the population norm. If you rarely feel motivated or nothing seems exciting for a long time, make sure to check in with your doctor and rule out a biochemical imbalance. And back to the point of this post. We know that feeling motivated is closely linked to the brain’s reward system, specifically dopamine levels. Knowing that, we can create the conditions needed to maintain consistent motivation. Let’s zoom in on this key neurotransmitter. It’s a hormone of anticipation, released into the bloodstream as we anticipate a reward from a certain act—whether that’s good food, winning, or succeeding in a complex task. First, significantly increased levels make us feel very good. But then comes the dip. And with it, the pain that follows pleasure. To avoid this discomfort, we engage in more reward-seeking activities. The more we do it, the more our receptors become insensitive, which means we need higher levels to feel that same pleasure. Too much activation exhausts the brain’s reward system and leads to what’s called “burnout”—a deficit state where motivation plummets, tasks feel uninteresting, and you feel tired.

Hello and welcome — I’m Ekaterina Leonova, transformation coach ✨ So many of the people I work with have spent their adult lives adapting, performing, and meeting expectations, becoming highly skilled and deeply relied-upon, yet never learning who they are at core and how to listen to their own needs. That is where my work begins. Coaching, for me, is a slow and intentional process of uncovering what is truly happening beneath the surface — the real starting point, the gaps that create misalignment between what is and what is the actual need, and the transformation that needs to occur for someone to feel more like themselves again. My approach blends psychological depth and systems thinking with analytical clarity, intuition, and a very human understanding of how complex growth can be. I’m really glad you’re here. And I’d love to meet you! I would like to invite you to introduce yourself below: who you are, what brought you here, and what you’re hoping to grow or change.