5 Simple Healthy Tips to Get You Unstuck and Moving Forward

Easy, confidence-building techniques that just might change your life

Photo by Candice Picard on Unsplash

Do you carry a constant murmur of discontent about an important aspect of your life? Not quite able to place a finger on the cause or know what to do about it.

Or, do you know exactly what’s wrong, yet you feel stuck, lost, or frozen — not seeing the way out?

You may fear speaking aloud the anxious internal banter running through your mind.

Sometimes I don’t necessarily know what I want, but I can tell you what I don’t want. And that says just as much, if not more.

Message in a Bottle

Feelings are the check engine light of our soul. They’re there to give us pause, to sound the alarm, to encourage us to stop and pay attention.

Regardless of the feeling, there’s always a message.

Since feelings come from needs, if you find yourself overwhelmed, exhausted, angry, or deeply sullen, these are red flags that something’s gotta give. These are the flashing warning signs that your needs aren’t being met.

We all carry the same universal needs to be safe, seen, soothed, and secure.

When our needs go chronically unmet, we tend to lash out, run away (physically or emotionally), or shut down, otherwise known as fight, flight, or freeze. The mind and body can only take so much tension before a release occurs. Whether consciously or unconsciously, at some point, self-preservation will eventually be triggered.

This is the reason why stuffing our feelings is never a good idea.

It’s not actually possible to erase our emotions. Those lil buggers will come out 100% of the time. You, however, may not initially recognize them or be immediately able to connect the dots to their genesis, but sure as the sun rises, somehow, someway, they’ll make themselves known.

This is why if I disagree with my boss and feel unheard, I’ll come home and lash out at my husband for something totally trivial.

Or, in reverse, if I’m not speaking up for my needs at home and resentments are mounting, I’m likely to make a passive-aggressive remark or be unwarrantedly dismissive of an innocent coworker.

In both examples, as the result of not honoring my voice or giving space to my feelings and needs, I’m feeling shitty about myself and taking it out on whoever crosses my path.

I’m Good. I’m Fine (But How Are You, Really?).

The challenge is many of us are just too busy to notice our feelings.

We’re working, commuting, or caring for children or aging parents. We’re on a tight schedule, and it may not be convenient to take time out in the middle of the day to assess our emotional state.

And yet, we may find ourselves in hairy situations where the exit door is hidden. The logical way out is obscured.

When we’re running on an emotional deficit, our brains are blocked from the ability to use logic and reason. When we’re in the muck of high stress, overwhelm, and fatigue, our brain reacts from the most primitive survival parts that encourage us to fall back to the basics (fight, flight, or freeze).

If I’m operating with a cup that’s far from full, I can quickly get controlling, judgmental, reclusive, and small-minded. It’s taken time, guidance, and a lot of practice for me to pause and catch the episodes of emotional flooding.

It may take ten-to-twenty minutes of sitting quietly following my breath, but eventually, the story in my head and the bodily sensations dissipate, and I can return to a calm, neutral state.

5 Top Tips for Getting Unstuck

I’ve found that when I’m stuck and unsure how to move forward, there’s always another way that I’m not thinking about or present to — maybe not necessarily a way out, but through.

The key is coming back to yourself. To pause and allow your mind and body to relax enough for the answers to present themselves.

It’s also a great time to double down on self-care. While we’d love to spend a day at the spa or a weekend in contemplation at a retreat, these opportunities aren’t easily accessible on a Wednesday at 3 PM when your crumbling under the mounting pressure.

Here are a few simple techniques with a ton of science to back up their validity and are also easy to implement at home or the office without much time or training.

Nourish Your Body

When we’re stressed and emotionally depleted, one of the best medicines is to fill up on nutritious foods.

Load up on a variety of colors, tastes, and textures of fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats. This is the time to opt for green smoothies, big colorful salads, hearty soups, stews, and curries.

Drink Water

Most people, especially women, go about their day with mild dehydration. Drinking an extra glass or two of water helps your entire body thrive and allows your brain to not waste energy sending out signals of a looming threat from our self-imposed lack of water.

Aim for half your body weight in ounces every day. An easy hack I found is keeping a glass pitcher on the counter. Every morning I fill it to a Sharpied line as my reminder of how much water I need to drink.

Sleep

Neuroscientist and Stanford professor Dr. Andrew Huberman shares a tremendous amount of science-backed data about the importance of sleep. However, it doesn’t take a Ph.D. to know that our brain and body need consistent, quality, restful sleep.

While the number of hours varies between seven and nine, splitting the difference and aiming for eight is a great start.

Shut down your laptop, stop scrolling social media, and ditch the second Netflix episode to get an extra hour of sleep. With regularity, you’ll have more energy, stamina, creativity, and mental clarity to tackle your challenges.

Movement is Medicine

Tony Robbins raves about changing our physical state in order to change our mental state.

This is why his seminars are chocked full of loud music, shouting mantras, dancing, conga lines, hugging, high-fiving, and rows of folks giving and receiving back massages. It’s the ultimate somatic experience that breaks through old, worn-out patterns and opens the door to change.

You can reap similar benefits on your own. Taking a walk, especially outdoors, stimulates the nervous system and relaxes the mind.

We take deeper breaths, are exposed to sunlight, and our brains are triggered to produce happy, hopeful hormones that stimulate our mood and crack open the door to creativity.

Journal Freehand

One of the best ways I utilize to brainstorm solutions for getting unstuck is to journal. While typing may be faster, there’s healing magic in grabbing a notebook and pen and letting it rip.

Write out the problem in vivid detail. Write out the emotions as they flow. Write the cuss words, people who’ve done you wrong, and everything in between. Play the what-if game.

What if time and money didn’t exist, how could you solve this challenge?

Other helpful questions to ask yourself are:

• What is it that you really want?

• And, what is it that you desperately desire?

Don’t be concerned with spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Just write. Write until you feel the tension is released.

And while you may or may not have written the ideal solution to your problem, you’ll feel a profound relief that gives space to creative ideas and the power of your intuition.

Choices

You, dear one, are stronger than you know.

Your intuition is more powerful than you give credit or recognize.

We get blocked by busyness and all the doing. By the stressful grind of the constant hustle, people-pleasing, stuffing our truth, and unrealistic, perfectionistic ways.

When we ignore our feeling and needs, the universe has a way of sending messages. They start small as whispers, like grains of sand dropped from above. If we don’t pay attention, the messages get louder and larger.

The sand turns into pebbles. The pebbles turn into rocks. The rocks turn into bricks. It’s inevitable when we hit the wall.

My guess is you already know what the challenge is and have ideas on how to solve it.

And yet, one or both may cause tremendous fear and anxiety — may drastically change your life. Even admitting the challenge out loud may cause heart palpitations.

I get it. I really do.

What if today, you got rigorously honest with yourself? What if today was the last time you accepted those old, worn-out excuses?

Because nothing changes if nothing changes.

You, and only you, hold the keys to your happiness, to the solutions you seek.

The choice is yours. Choose wisely.

. . .

Rebecca Murauskas is a high-performance Life Coach. She helps people be free of stress and overwhelm, reclaim their purpose, and feel fulfilled. Rebecca and her husband, Adam, abandoned their careers and moved to Panamá in 2019 to pursue passions for helping people heal. Take the free Time Saver Quiz and find additional content at RebeccaMurauskas.com.