You just don’t seem yourself, and things seem to be getting harder and harder, you get busier and busier, and you just can’t seem to get a grip – Is this what life is supposed to be like? to feel like?
Ladies and gentlemen, you’re in what is called a funk, also known as a rut.
Life Strategies With Nat – 5 Steps to Get Out of Your Funk
This episode was pretty special to me, because it marked my 10th episode!
I shared 5 steps to get out of your funk, because it starts with one little choice and then one little action, and slowly but surely, you will get through it.
It’s the law of motion – nothing lasts forever, a moment is just a moment, and time is forever moving forward. Take comfort that if you feel stuck or lost right now, this will pass.
Step 1: Listen to Your Body
This is a lot easier than you think, and like everything, it just starts with a change in focus born out of a change in priorities.
Your number 1 priority at whatever stage in your life is you. Whether you’re a parent or the CEO – you have to be so much more for everyone, meaning you need to prioritize yourself that much more.
If mamma ain’t right, ain’t nobody right, mmmkay. Life is like a plan ride, buckle up your seatbelts for a bumpy ride and in the case of emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others.
Ok, so how the heck are we supposed to listen to our bodies. It’s not like it has a voice and can speak to us… or does it…
How do you feel when you’re overwhelmed?
Describe it into words, and now tell me how you feel? What are you feeling in your body, head to toe? Really connect and tune in to what and how you are feeling. Does your heart race? Do you start sweating?
This is you entering flight of flight mode, because something has triggered you to feel fear… it’s your ego trying to keep you safe and comfortable.
The sooner you are able to tune in and label your thoughts, feelings, opinions even for what they really are, which is just you and completely in your control, whether you know this or not.
You’re in control of your behaviour too, so if you can recognize the signals, you can take steps to control your thoughts, feelings and actions.
Step 2: Recognize what you can and cannot control
When you’re in a funk, it can feel like nothing you do is making a difference.
You can feel alone, confused, fearful, thoughtful, unclear like you’re in a fog.
You cannot change your circumstance, but you can change your thoughts, your actions and your outcomes as a result.
Two people waiting in line, Person A is patient calm, smiling, and being in the moment, really.
Person B is annoyed, huffing and puffing, like this is the worst possible thing on earth happening. They are both choosing their feelings despite circumstance.
Meanwhile, people would love to be able to have a grocery store to go to, let alone fresh fruits and vegetables to buy.
The only thing you can control is you – your thoughts, your beliefs, your opinions, your actions.
Once you recognize, accept and come to peace with this, you can start to reframe your thoughts in a positive light, and suddenly things become clearer and even start looking up and going your way because you’ve released the negative energy that you once held.
Step 3: Stop making it worse
Being stuck in a rut is like being stuck in a hamster wheel; you feel like no matter what you do you just keep spinning and you haven’t moved an inch.
You say to yourself: I should go to the gym, I should be eating better, I should slow down, I should work more… it’s enough to drive you insane.
Just STOP! Like Tony Robbins says, turn your shoulds into musts. Remove the word ‘should’ from your vocabulary, and replace with must, be or do.
Every thought and everything you do sets the standards for your life. Get clear on who you are and what you want.
4. Treat yourself as you would treat your loved ones
Do you ever catch yourself being short with your partner, or snippy with your kids, because you have that deadline or that meeting that is more important.
Wait, what? You’re saying that you just prioritized the love of your life, your partner, your bestie, your kids and said they weren’t as important as work?
This is another… you make your partner or kids a nutritious meal, and then you end up skipping out and eating something bad because you were in a rush i.e. don’t think you need nutritious food too?
This is a red flag team. and can show up at any point in life. When you think of a loved one, a kid, spouse, parent or friend, you want the very best for that person – the best relationship, the best career, the best food, the best house, the best financial situation, ..the best life has to offer, right?
What is it about you that makes you think you don’t also deserve the best? What is it in your subconscious, in your cellular memory that is keeping you in a certain state of being, which is resulting in this rut.
We are great at giving advice and seeing clearly where others’ need help and support, but not so much when it comes to ourselves.
Know why you’re doing anything and why you’re anywhere.
5. Balance your healthy emotions
Have you ever seen the movie Inside Out? It’s a Pixar (cartoon) movie.
If you have, this will make more sense, and if you haven’t, I highly recommend!
Without giving too much away, it’s a story of a young girl who goes through a massive life change – new house, new city, new school. Her emotions – joy, sad, anger, disgust and fear – and how they play a role in her behaviour.
Dr. Robert Plutchik is a psychologist who created the Wheel of Emotions.
Even before we go here though, have you ever heard the concept of cellular memory? This actually isn’t a new concept.
You’ll see a blog article published by the University of Michigan in 2016 that talks about this concept of cellular memory as the theory that memories and personality traits can be stored in any individual cells or in other organs, not just in the brain.
Back to Dr. Plutchik’s feeling wheel. He says that the farther you go towards the outer circle, the less intensity of the emotion, and the farther you go towards the center, the more intense your emotion gets.
I’m not going to get into the essential oils here, but this is an excerpt from a 30-day course that I am building that uses essential oils along with a daily regimen and lesson that will help you balance your 8 basic emotions.
This is why I think I really connected and fell in love with YIN Yoga, because it’s about going inward and learning how to balance your emotions by reconnecting to mind, body and soul.
Joy or Sadness, Fear or Anger, Trust or Disgust, and Anticipation or Surprise are the 8 polarities of the 8 basic emotions.
You can use journaling to tap into your subconscious and try to dig in deep into the source of your feelings which can reveal blocks that you never thought existed.
I hope these steps have helped.
You can always reach out to me if you have any comments, thoughts or questions about any of the above.
Until next time!
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