How to unstick yourself
Feeling stuck? Unsure? Wondering which direction to take? It’s not a comfortable feeling, and you probably want to get out as quickly as possible.
Strangely enough, when you’re sitting in the mire of not knowing what to do or where to go with your life, sometimes one of the best things you can do is sit there, be still, and be quiet.
Sometimes when we feel stuck and unsure, it’s because we haven’t stopped to take stock of where we actually are. There’s so much going on that we’re not really aware of it all. What we experience as “stuck” can actually be a build-up of experiences and emotions that we need to let in and let go of. Somewhere along the line, we’ve held onto these experiences and emotions, and they’ve become bindings, holding us fast and making us feel stuck.
Stopping, stilling, and quietening down allows us to unravel the bindings. We can begin to breathe more easily, letting go of the things that no longer serve us, and allowing space to come into our experience – space that a new direction can make itself known in.
So when you’re feeling stuck, try these to unstick yourself:
- Write. Give yourself 30 minutes with no interruptions and write. Write whatever comes to mind. Just write. Anything could come out from your pen. Just write and let it unfold, let the stuckness begin to find expression on the paper. Anything and everything you write is, for this half hour, ok. When you give yourself freedom to write, you give yourself freedom to feel, to digest, to reflect, to process, to move.
- Move. Get out for a walk, turn on some music and dance, do your favourite class at the gym. Emotions and experiences – including fears, doubts and all the rest of them – can get stuck in the body. Through movement you can help these emotions and experiences to relax and release.
- Sing. The voice is a wonderful connector between the head and the heart. Sing, chant, vocalise. Hum along to your favourite tunes or belt it out jazz-diva style in the car. Let your voice set your experiences free.
- Clean. Pick up your broom, duster, cleaning cloth, and set to work. As you clean up your home, or your office space, you spring-clean yourself too.
After an unsticking session, you might find that you still feel stuck, but it’s a slightly different stuck feeling. The process of fully unsticking yourself can take a few sessions before you get to the root of the matter.
In today’s busy world, these kinds of practical activities are often missing from our lives. Sometimes we even design them out, by employing cleaners, dishwashers, or saying that they have no value or purpose for us. But they’re not just unsticking remedies – they’re great prevention remedies too. When you make time to do these things regularly, you give yourself a regular time to clear out things that have happened, things that bothered you, even things that you were really happy about. Think of it as emotional maintenance, like having a shower every day for your inner world, as well as for your outside skin.
What’s your favourite unsticking method?