On Recovering from Mental Blocks
This piece was inspired by my inability to decide on what to write about and other mental blocks that I occasionally run into. Like you, I have many things going on in life and like most of us, my mind wanders from topic to topic in ways that are beyond my control (monkey mind anyone?). Over the years I’ve learned ways to calm my mind and take specific actions to deal with blocks and anxiety so that even if I can’t be productive, I can still find peace in a restless mind.
Routines to start the machine. When I’m obstructed for whatever reason, I first listen to my body and acknowledge the feels that I’m feeling. There’s a big reason for any block or anxiety and ignoring the signs won’t solve problem nor resolve the symptom, so my first step is acknowledgement that I’m in a mood of non productivity. The best ways to combat this for me is to do nothing or do something. I start my path back by taking 15 or 30 minutes to do nothing or if my immediate space is in disarray, I’ll organize my physical space to do something. Today, the nothing was watching Fallout on Amazon and the something was folding laundry. Doing nothing helps level set, so I don’t give anything more weight than it really deserves and doing something gets my mind processing and solving simple problems which is a warm up to solving bigger problems.
Feed the beast. This is the Snickers commercial, it’s really me. When I’m hungry or thirsty I’m definitely not functioning at my best so when I’m stuck, I get up, walk away and cook something and eat. It’s almost like the first point, walking away is the active doing nothing, the eating is doing something and my mind and body can get back to a familiar status. I did this today to, which is when this topic hit me whilst making a light breakfast.
Factory reset to the baseline. I often have a lot of positive and negative thoughts along with really successful days and days filled with challenges and all this can be a distraction. When I’m feeling overwhelmed or succumbing to paralysis by analysis (overthinking), I try to bring myself to a healthy even baseline. When I have negative thoughts, I rephrase them into positive opportunities. Today I got some tough family news and I reframed it as an opportunity to show up for my family and love on them.
With what we do we often have a lot of opportunities in the air which can be overwhelming, and when this happens I like to break them into smaller tasks and tackle them with processes and systems to keep me level. This helps me decide what is really most pressing and important while moving forward, even if it is slower.
Lastly, it’s okay to stop. You aren’t a machine, this isn’t Chat GPT, you’re a wonderfully made human. Grace yourself, try hard and when you can’t, shut it down and tell those who need to know. Move forward when you can but listen to your body when you’re feeling challenges around mental clarity and physical unease, your body is telling you something.
