Getting Unstuck Part 2
In Part 1, I talked about ways to move through getting unstuck. In Part 2, I present the other side of stuck - what does that look like?
I made my decision to leave a job that was burning me out because I was stuck in a creative dead zone and it was sucking the creativity and vitality out of every part of my life. When I took the leap and sent in my resignation, it felt like I was putting a whole stream of events into motion - known and unknown. I was stirring up an alphabet of possibilities, (ABC to XYZ), in a soup of uncertainty.
What is on the Other Side?
When you are stuck, external dictates make you feel like a shrinking person who barely exists. Once you free yourself from those dictates, you have a chance to expand yourself and your life. However, choosing to move through and let go of what makes you stuck can feel like a double-edged sword. On one hand, you celebrate a sense of freedom while on the other, you start to wonder if freedom is overrated. Because not being stuck means taking full responsibility for the choices you make. Once I left, I could no longer blame my misery on being trapped in a draining job. I would have to own my misery, sans the context of that job.
What you step into on the other side is you in all your “you-ness,” (and as I said in the first part, waking up from being stuck begs you to go deeper within yourself). Freeing yourself from the stuckness gives you a chance to explore who you long to be and what you really want to do.
Here are some ideas on how to do that exploration:
Stalk yourself. Have conversations to explore topics and interests that you love with different people in differing contexts. If you already know what you want to manifest, specifically talk about that. The more conversations you have in the world, the more connections can be made to help you define or find what you are longing for. This may feel challenging, but think of it as being a private investigator investigating yourself.
Talk less and listen more. Share just enough during conversations to learn what people know. You will begin to hear new ways to tap into greater options that you otherwise may not have heard when you were stuck. Tap into your intuition so you can listen with every ounce of your being. Talk with open interest and listen with an open radar.
Practice patience. In Part 1, I wrote about trusting your inner wisdom and letting go of the expectations of how things that you want should look. There is also letting go of the expectation of when things will come. Patience is a huge part of manifesting an unstuck life. You can work to put things into place and sometimes there comes a pregnant pause before there can be a birth. Forcing the hand and wanting to have control is often about still being stuck.
Be gentle with yourself. While freedom may feel easier than stuck, you may not always know what to do with that freedom, so there can be discomfort. Moments arose when I felt no motivation, confusion, and out of sync as I went through the transition from non-stop doing to calmer being. It may feel jarring. Feel the discomfort. Let yourself explore what you have kept at bay year after year. This is where kindness and being gentle with yourself needs to be applied liberally.
Get support. As I wrote before, it is important during shifting and transitioning periods to get support and guidance. It can be exciting, boring, challenging, (a whole range of feelings may come), every day. It is up to you if you will go deep or keep going, but having allies along the way will keep you buoyed up while you navigate the ups and downs.
I’m sure there are more articles with insights and advice on getting unstuck. Do your research. Your situation and how you get unstuck is as personal as your fingerprint. But I will leave you with a Rumi poem that spurred me on to choose a path that would only be defined one step at a time:
“Conventional knowledge is death to our souls, and it is not really ours.
We must become ignorant of what we’ve been taught, and be, instead, bewildered…
Forget safety. Live where you fear to live. Destroy your reputation. Be notorious.
I have tried prudent planning long enough. From now on, I’ll be mad.”
Be mad, notorious, wild… loosen your tight weavings. The mission is to continue to expand!
If you need an ally, I am a Certified Life Coach who has helped many clients successfully navigate through transitions. Click below for a free half hour Explore the Possibilities session to find out how I can guide you toward getting unstuck. Take your first step on your path of discovery!