When things feel flat.

Sometimes the problem isn't that you want too much. It's that ordinary things stopped landing. That has a mechanism, and most of it is about how wanting, liking and effort interact over weeks, not days.

These notes explain what's probably going on and which small, boring changes tend to move it.

• Note

  How to enjoy things again

  Not a protocol and not a reset. What sleep research, behavioural activation, savoring and adaptation studies suggest when things have gone flat, plus a first week you can start now.

• Note

  Effort is the variable nobody tracks

  Dopamine turned out to sit closer to effort than to pleasure. That single relocation changes what a "good day" means, and it's why Myo never tells you to want less.

• Note

  When nothing feels enjoyable anymore

  The flatness is real and it has a mechanism. Here's what the literature says is probably happening — and the point at which this stops being a self-help question.

• Note

  Wanting and liking are different systems

  You can want something intensely and enjoy it barely at all. That isn't a character flaw: it's two dissociable brain systems, and only one of them sensitizes.

If low mood lasts for weeks or gets in the way of daily life, talk to a doctor or a mental-health professional. Myo is a self-reported index, not medical advice.