The other day I was out for a walk and saw the kite from my photo stuck in that tree. I felt compelled to take a picture of it because it just reminded me of feeling ‘stuck’. All this kite wants to do is soar in the sky, and whoever was flying the kite when it got stuck felt the same way, wishing it wasn’t just stuck there. Both would love to start over or… begin again.
Today is a day when I am working on becoming ‘unstuck.’ I think we all feel stuck sometimes, stuck in a rut of our diet, activities, work, or finances. Years ago, my dad said to me…
“People always think things will be just like they are right now.”
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When the stock market is down and inflation is high, we feel like it will always be this way. When we are stuck on a project for work that feels like it will never end, it feels like this is how work ‘always’ is.
In Psychology, we hear about ‘confirmation bias’; this is when we look for signs that things are how we think they are. We confirm how we feel by looking for signs it’s true- we read negative articles about the state of inflation in the world. There we are sitting at the same desk every day and staring out the same window. We sit in front of the same tv every night instead of pursuing something new or trying out a new activity. Then we stare at our bank account and think it will never grow.
So, how can we become unstuck? See things with a new view?
Even if you haven’t considered meditating, you have probably heard about it and its benefits to help your mind reset or find mindfulness in your daily routine. As I said, though, in the title of this post, I am not going to suggest you meditate…today, anyway.
I want to use one of the key principles of meditation, though, to help us all get a bit ‘unstuck’. Oftentimes, people who are just starting out with meditation feel like they are ‘doing it wrong’ because new thoughts and distractions keep popping into their heads. They give up thinking, “I’m not good at this” or “I’ll never get this right”. One of the best explanations I heard about this was from Dan Harris’s “10% Happier” app and Joseph Goldstein, a well-known meditation teacher, in one of their ‘new to meditation challenges’. Joseph explained that in meditation, when distractions come, and they will, we just need to…
“Begin again.”
Here are a few ideas to give you some forward momentum:
- Declutter a drawer or empty out the refrigerator.
- Quickly review your bank transactions or recent Venmo transactions- just take a look at them. What are a few transactions that make you think for a minute- hmm, did I really need to buy/do that activity?
- Can you go for a 10-minute walk? And if you enjoy it, can you go 10 minutes further?
- Look up a new recipe to try.
- Read an article about Chat GPT.
- Pick up the book that’s been sitting by your bedside table for a while and read ten pages.
- Make two plans that won’t cost any money, and add them to the calendar- perhaps you’ll add that you will attend a farmer’s market and stroll or plan to visit a park in a nearby town. You could also visit your local library or their website and see what events they offer for free and put them on your calendar.
Repeat after Me
So, today, as I’m also working on being ‘unstuck’…again…I will repeat a mantra I was shouting from the rooftops last year around this time. It comes from a suggested list of activities to become ‘unstuck’ in Jon Acuff’s book, Soundtracks. The line is…
“The only thing standing in my way is me and I quit doing that yesterday!”
http://acuff.me/soundtracks-2, Jon Acuff “Soundtracks” book
Let’s all believe that and make something happen today! Just…begin again!
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