Don’t you wish sometimes you could just flick a switch or snap your fingers, and just like that, you could be out of that discouraging downcast headspace of anxiety, fear, sadness, overwhelm, worry, grief, frustration, anger, and fear? And to make matters worse, that struggle is usually twofold with not only feeling bad personally but also because you know the way you are thinking and feeling right now is affecting your behaviors and interactions with others also, not for the good.
So if you have ever found yourself in a state of being unusually hyper-sensitive, suspicious, and tempted toward critical, negative thoughts, even picking fights about things you are reading into you know deep in your soul that it needs to be remedied as fast as possible for all parties concerned.
I have come to realize that after I have been through a significant challenge, whether good or bad, and I’ve poured out an enormous amount of energy to face the challenge and take care of what’s needed (in other words, the immediate crisis has passed), there is a tremendous emotional letdown.
If I’m not careful, I can get caught in a prolonged emotional swirl of what I described above with fear, anxiety, sadness, and exhaustion being where I get ensnared. That is where I am often making mountains out of molehills. Ordinarily, a few days rest and some self-care, filling up with God and other good things will ‘right the ship’. But sometimes, it takes something different.
Sometimes I have to break through a deeply emotional state by facing fear and hurt square in the eye and with radical action. Pushing waaaaaay out of my comfort zone in a completely unrelated area snaps me out of my funk in the other area. It is almost like a neurological and emotional reset. I suppose it boils down to a perspective shift which can in fact snap you out of something.
For me, being sad and caught up in my emotions, especially hurt after an unexpected challenge recently was deeply unsettling. I normally can work through things with some good processing and self-care time. However, it seemed that no amount of sleep, exercise, journaling, reading, talking, and even praying was making that much difference. Grief had set in and everyone says THAT takes time.
Disclaimer for what I am about to share: I am no grief specialist and everyone has their own pathway. I am simply sharing a phenomenon that happened for me and perhaps, it could help you too next time you are stuck.
Though all I felt like doing was crawling back into bed, it was my husband’s birthday. So bad timing to be emotionally debilitated, right? He asked me to go (for his bday) for a motorcycle ride…something that ordinarily can cause more fear for me since I have little experience (only ridden one other time). He even gave me a back door since he was aware of my emotional state.
However, I said yes and off we went much to my surprise, on the most exhilarating and mind-altering ride through the north Georgia mountains. Let’s just say it was a fairly dynamic ride through ‘the twisties’.
It was just what I needed! I needed to get out of my comfort zone by a lot! I needed to see myself doing something that I didn’t actually think I could. And you may be like, ‘Really, riding on the back of a motorcycle is something you didn’t think you could do?‘ It’s the type of riding we were doing that was so mind-altering for me.
In any case, the results shocked me! All that gloom, overwhelm, and fear that not even resting, journaling, talking and praying and self-care could seem to touch – one hair-raising yet exhilarating afternoon ride snapped me out of it.
I am still trying to figure this all out from a spiritual, emotional, and psychological point of view – why I suddenly felt so much better. But somehow, all those things I was worried about and had been consumed by seemed so small with my face in the wind and learning to lean into the twists and turns instead of resisting them. Literally, it was as if someone put the defibrillator paddles on my heart, the emotional heart, and jolted it back into rhythm.
Next time you are in a funk and cannot seem to self-care, journal, talk or even pray your way out of it, try a demanding physical and mental challenge waaaaay out of your comfort zone and see if that doesn’t also get you to snap out of it.
The reality of seeing the danger of the motorcycle compared to the danger of ‘someone hurting my feelings and worry about the future’ made the latter pale in comparison in a good way….ah, the refreshing perspective shift that brings breakthrough. The facts did not change, but my perspective sure did which changes everything.
Sometimes we just need to snap out of it so we can resume productive living and loving again.
I realize this is NOT for everyone and not for every situation. I just couldn’t help sharing a phenomenon that worked for me that you could try. Next time you are stuck in an emotional funk that all the usual strategies do not work for…try an extreme (that’s relative) physical challenge that demands a mind shift to possibly jolt and reset your view and maybe your mountain will become a molehill and you too can snap out of it and get on with living!
To shifting fear barriers to exhilarating openings.
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