Unstuck Yourself: What to Do If You’re Feeling Stuck In Life

It is not uncommon to feel stuck in life, here are strategies to help you get Unstuck.

Photo By Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Not a member of Medium? No worries — click here for the free link.

Back Story

I still remember it vividly, It was late June 2023 and something felt off. It was a feeling deep within that I could not shake. On paper, I seemingly had it all. I was finishing my master's in Organizational Leadership in August of that year, I was in a relationship and I held a job with a promise of a promotion down the road.

However, my anxiety grew in every aspect of my life. Once I identified the sensation my therapist and I got to work unpacking this sensation. Long story short, I was very unhappy with my life.

I felt stuck due to my toxic job and unhealthy — relationship. I was financially strapped and I was emotionally burnt out due to the situation (s) I was in.

I used food as a comfort & developed other unhealthy coping mechanisms to deal with the situations.

Until I reached a moment where I said “screw this” and I walked away from my job and relationship a few days apart from one another. No backup plan & no job lined up. Crazy, right?

Feeling Stuck?

I’m not advocating you blow up your life (please don’t).

However, I want to acknowledge that feeling stuck occasionally happens, and this is the perfect moment to self-reflect.

You may be struggling with mental health issues such as depression or anxiety. You may be in a situation (s) that do not align with your values or your goals.

I highly encourage working with a mental health professional to address any underlying mental health issues such as depression or anxiety.

I am not a mental health professional and therefore I cannot/will not offer medical advice. However, I can help and guide you to identify your goals and values.

Whatever your situation, it is important to recognize the cause behind your feelings.

How to Unstuck Yourself

1. ) Build a support network. Talk to people who support you unconditionally, are generally positive & have your best interest in mind. The best way to understand how you’re feeling is to talk about your feelings.
2. ) Identify the “why”. It is important to understand why you feel like you’re stuck. Identifying the ‘why’ aspect is important to understand your mindset. Mindset is everything.
3. ) Get regular exercise. Physical health is just as important as mental health. Even if working out is not your cup of tea, try to get in a good walk every day, which will help you improve your mental health.
4. ) Identify your habits and develop new habits. Before I get to bullet point number six, we need to take some time to observe our habits.
5. ) After identifying your habits, identify your core values. Typically when we feel stuck, we’re not aligning what’s going on in our lives with our values.
6. ) Apply your values, your why, and habits toward goal setting. If you’ve taken the time to understand yourself further, you can now apply what you’ve learned about yourself to setting goals. Work toward these goals to improve yourself and get ‘unstuck’.

When to seek professional help

I hope you never feel embarrassed to ask for support, especially if you’re suffering from depression, anxiety, or a mental health issue. Please seek assistance right away if you’re experiencing any issues related to mental health. I can’t stress this enough, it’s important. You’re important.

In My Experience

In my personal experience when discussing life with people, I discover that most individuals are not aligning their lives with their values. Rather than shape life to their values, they try to shape their values around life. That’s not sustainable and it’s not going to work.

One of the most common things discussed is people working so much that they’re missing time away from their kids/family. We can break this down into identifying ‘family’ or ‘family time’ as a value and the occupation that they’re in is not allowing them to align within that value. So they may feel frustrated, stuck, resentful, etc.

You Need to Put in the Work

When you’re feeling ‘stuck’, it is important to understand that it’s going to take some energy and time on your end to get you where you need to be. There’s no easy way around that. However, it is worth it because you’re worth it. One quote I love is “If you think you can, you’re right. If you think you can’t, you’re right”.

Thank you for reading!

Please subscribe here to receive updates when new blogs are posted: https://marcacerv.medium.com/subscribe

Consider checking out my other links here: linktr.ee/that_1blog