7 ways to Reboot your brain out of a slump
What to do when you begin to doubt yourself.
Sometimes you get into a mental slump. You feel trapped in a box. You have challenges and things don’t seem to be going your way.
How do you get out of that slump?
There times when a bad situation, a challenge or a series of life hits can cause a downward spiral of negativity. You start to have a negative attitude that builds on itself. You begin to see all those things that can go wrong. You see a bleak future that is, in reality, a construct of your own mental state.
You build a dark house of cards.
This is no way to live; stumbling under a dark cloud. If you consistently imagine a dark future, you cause that dark future to manifest. You guarantee its manifestation through your mental focus and reinforcement.
When you worry about the bad things, the bad future state, you subconsciously ask your mind to validate that vision. Your mind, like a good clerk, heads back into the archives and drags out all the examples of where you have failed before. It constructs a dark tower of proof towards the inevitable future failure.
It is a self-reinforcing spiral downward into darkness.
STOP!
Build a future vision of abundance, light and joy! Drill that vision into your brain.
- First, build a positive future vision. Stop wallowing in today’s troubles. Stop imagining all the ways things can go wrong. Stop re-hashing mistakes of the past. You can’t change the past. You can change the future. You change the future by controlling what you do right now.
Take a moment to look 5 years out. Paint a picture of joy and peace that your life can be. Imagine it. Put yourself in it. Live it. Describe it. Write it down. Feed it every day as part of your habit, part of your routine.
- Second, write down all your strengths. What do you do well? What are you good at? What do you take pride in? What do people compliment you on? Make a list. Have your brain-clerk scurry off and find examples of your strengths in action.
Build an inventory of your strengths with examples and make those part of your routine.
- Third, write down what you are grateful for. Enumerate the good things in your life. No matter how dark you think your situations is there is always some good. There is always something to be grateful for.
Even the small things; the wind in the trees, the birdsong in the morning, these things are the magic dust to brighten your outlook. Make them part of your routine.
- Fourth, take the long view. Whatever situation you are in today is merely a footnote in a long life well-lived. Don’t’ worry about it. Do your best and work your plan. Do things and do them in ways that you want to remember in the future. Live the full span of your life in the context of today.
- Fifth, do the things today that you have to do every day to make the future, positive reality manifest. Think those thoughts, do those things, lift those bricks that one by one build the future life you want. Create the routines and habits that support that vision.
- Sixth, learn from your present challenges. If you’re in an uncomfortable state, more than likely you’re growing.
How do you learn from something that in the now seems dark and endless? Detach from the results and just work the process. If you have the right process the results will take care of themselves. Get coaching or community to help you sort out the lessons from the challenge.
Learn from what doesn’t work.
- Seventh, be of service. Help people. Approach every person, especially the difficult ones, as someone that needs your light. Let your light shine.
Get up every day and execute these things as part of your routine and not only will you find your way out of your current challenge but you will build a future that is bright and abundant.
You can’t control what happens. The external world doesn’t care about your feelings. You do control what you do, and to some extent, what you think. You control it today. You control your habits and routines and you can use them to make your world, this world, our world, a better place.