Recently, I am just back from a period of low energy. I didn't have any internet access so there were several things related to my work and to my social life that I simply could not do. There were however things that I could have done, such as writing articles, but I didn't feel any motivation to do anything at all. I felt bored, tired and fed up.
So, whenever I get into such feeling I try to:
1. Be aware of it. I don't try to push it away. Instead I try to explore the feeling to see what it can tell me about why I feel in that way. There is probably some good reason to why I'm feeling the way I do.
2. I don't blame myself for feeling down. It is ok to not be at the top all the time. As far as I know it happens even to great people that I admire. I'm still a great person even though what I feel and achieve at the moment is not great.
3. I don't feel pity for myself and I don't blame others for the way I feel. Only I am responsible for the way I feel. Even if some specific event triggered me to feel in this way, that event is not the reason to way I feel like I feel right now. I can choose to feel differently if I really want to.
4. I decide whether I want to stay in that feeling or not. In some cases I actually do want to stay on low energy for a while in order to recharge my batteries. It could be my emotional batteries, my social batteries, my physical batteries or some other batteries that need recharging.
5. If I decide to get out of the blue feeling, I start doing some of the things that I know will cheer me up and give me my energy back. In my case, that means going for a walk in the nature, meeting my best friends, talking about how I feel to my boyfriend or coaching (yes, that really gives me energy!). Also, don't forget that laughter is an instant vacation.
What do you do when you're feeling down and want to get back on track? Do you have a strategy for living a five star life? I suggest that you write a list of things that make you happy that you could do whenever your energy and motivation levels drop. I also suggest that you promise yourself to not feel bad about feeling bad. Some people start feeling a little low. Then they feel bad about not being "as they should be" so they start to feel even worse. By having this unsuccessful strategy they pull themselves down deeper and deeper as if caught in a whirl pool.
Next time you start to slide down, take it as a great opportunity to learn something about yourself. Be an anthropologist and ask "how does this person work when she/he is feeling down?" Then, when you have gathered as much information as you can about yourself, make an active decision of what to do next.
Quotes for the day:
"The big secret in life is that there is no big secret.
Whatever your goal, you can get there if you're willing to work."
*-- Oprah Winfrey
"There are some people who live in a dream world, and
there are some who face reality; and then there are those who turn one
into the other."
*-- Douglas Everett
"You're not going to make me have a bad day. If there's
oxygen on earth and I'm breathing, it's going to be a good day."
*-- Cotton Fitzsimmons
