After writing about my epic Gilmore-Girl-style breakdown, I’ve been trying to pull myself out of another funk. I said in that post that I didn’t have any answers for you if you’re going through it as well, but guess what? I have answers. They may not be full answers, but at least they’re getting somewhere.
Here are two things that helped me.
Magic spells
The idea of magic spells comes from Molly Mahar. She has a section each year in her Holiday Council sheets that asks you to figure out magic spells for when something isn’t going right. This isn’t the first time I’m hearing this. Nicole Antoinette has mentioned in her podcasts that she wrote a “Care and Keeping of Nicole” guide as a way to help pull her out of a depression. You can also think about it like an IFTTT (If This Then That) recipe if you prefer a more digital example.
No matter how you look at it, it’s important to recognize where things go wrong before you get into a bad headspace because only you truly know what support you need. It seems like something you should just know, but when you get into that funk, sometimes we’re blind to what’s right in front of us. Having a guide, spell, or recipe to follow is a natural step when you just don’t know what to do: when I feel like Y, do Z. It’s written down. So do it. Because there’s nothing else to do. And you know it helps.
Strength in numbers
#squadgoals exists for a reason. Trust me, working from home can make it harder to pull yourself out of a funk because you can retreat so far inward and no one is really there to notice, so long as you’re maintaining day-to-day status. I have to send out a huge thank you to my gang for pulling me up.
If you can, find the ass-kicker, the practical one, the nurturer, the comic. All of these roles are so helpful when you need a mirror to reflect your good qualities and get you back on track. You may not have four people to surround you. Maybe these roles are filled by one person at different times. Or maybe you have an army of ass-kickers with their own unique flavor. Whatever works for you, just don’t retreat.
The biggest thing I can say is to try your very hardest to see when you’re spiraling down and catch yourself or, even more important, tell someone that it’s happening and let them help you.
What helps you recover when you’re feeling funky?
