How to Get Unstuck
Erin Cairney White
We all have times when we feel like we are stalled in the fast-lane of life. Stuck in the routine. Bored and maybe even burned out. In Monday’s post, which you can find here, I offered some tips to get unstuck. Here are a few more worth trying.
Do something for someone else. Tough to remain stuck when we move outside of ourselves to help another. This is the easiest way to get back in the game of life. Go sweep a neighbor’s porch. Hide love notes around the house for your partner. Make a casserole for the new mom down the street. Go eat lunch with your daughter’s class at school. Drop food off at the local food bank. By making the world better for others, we also reset our own self-focused pattern to something more global, or at least neighborly. Kindness is a quick way to boost your mood.
Quit the thing that no longer holds meaning for you. We are always expanding and growing and so it’s likely, expected even, that our desires, needs, and values will change and grow as we do. Yet rarely do we tweak our routine to accommodate this growth. We may want different things, yet we repeat the same behavior patterns. This creates an energy-sucking dynamic where what we do every day is no longer consistent with who we are. Meaning and inspiration are lost.
Time to regroup and reboot. Look at the activities you are spending your time on. Are they essentials – like paying the bills? Are they things that excite, inspire, energize you? Or, are they the should do’s — things you do because you have always done them?
Drop the should do’s. You don’t have to organize the staff party just because you did last year. Nor do you have to coach soccer, volunteer at school, or go to church if those things no longer align with your values and desires. Instead, keep up with the essentials and replace the should-do’s with things that fit where you are now. Things that inspire, add meaning, and provide room to grow.
Create something. We are expansive beings and we feel better when we are expanding. Creating. Make something each day. Paint or write on a book. Get out and work in the garden, or try a new recipe. Come up with a new walking route in the neighborhood or a new workout routine.
Stuckness leaves us feeling as though we are tethered to a single path. We are locked into the same route, living the same patterns. Life begins to feel like a copy of the original.
When we create something, we move beyond that rope and we are free to explore our world emotionally, spiritually, viscerally. This creates energy and excitement. It leads us to new passions and sometimes just reminds us how to laugh and have fun again. This is all hopeful, of course, engaging and satisfying.
And just like that, then, you are no longer stuck.
