On Monday I wasn’t having the best day… One of my friends asked me how I was, and the best word I could come up with was scunnered (I love that word).
I felt stuck, frustrated and lost in my problem.
This feeling cycles through me often. Sometimes, it is business, health, my place in the world, or something else.
I have some unhealthy habits: binge eating, binge-watching, wallowing in my frustrations, and feeling sorry for myself, feeling like the victim…
My healthy habits – which is where I went on Monday: Take myself outside and go for a walk, listen to a chapter of an audiobook that’s useful for the problem I am struggling with, take some intentional breaths and look for a solution to the problem at hand. My friend Julie says everything is figureoutable, and it is. Often I go back to my own book 9 Rules to Sort Your Shit, taking a step back, assessing the situation, going back to Values, getting a plan in place then taking action on ONE thing to get the ball rolling in another direction.
The simple stuff WORKS!! The more complicated we make things, the more complicated it gets…
You can’t find the solution in the mindset of feeling stuck, so you need to remove yourself from the situation. Change your space, change your state. Move your body, your energy, your flow. Breathe slowly to quiet the chatty part of your mind and switch from your nervous system’s sympathetic (fight and flight) side to activate the parasympathetic (rest and digest) side. This is where you can rationalise, allow the creative part of your brain to kick in and find a solution to your problem.
What do you do when you feel stuck? Is there a situation that you feel stuck in right now? What one thing can you do to unstick you?
What one thing can you do to help yourself? Change up your bedtime routine to improve your sleep? Subscribe to a meal delivery company for a couple of weeks to get you in a routine of eating better? Make sure you are properly hydrated? Take a proper rest? Be around someone who lifts your energy (sometimes a phone call is all it takes)? Track your months to see if your mood/energy/symptom changes are cyclical (I am never surprised when women realise this, even post-menopausal).
Learning, understanding and honouring your needs is essential self-care. We women are not taught to do this; in many situations, there may be pushback when we start. If you keep doing everything for everyone else, you are the first one to suffer, then everyone else, because you can’t keep up the pace.
Yes, we are incredible, but we are not invincible.
If you want to take action, have you watched my podcast #169 Chronic Illness and overcoming feeling stuck ? If you would like to take further action, why not join my 3-day mindset recharge, which you can sign up for here: https://dashboard.
