There is something about this particular lockdown that has affected me more than I anticipated. For a while, I felt stagnant, even though I know that things are moving forward positively and there is so much to be grateful for, my emotional rut wouldn't let me prosper. In March President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that our lockdown would go back to a curfew of 8.00 pm and that everything that was available to us will no longer be available or if so it is limited, hit me differently this time around. I am not sure if it was realizing how this would affect livelihoods including my own or whether it was not having the option of being able to say hey let's go out to our favourite restaurant, and it was back to a life of indoors and a very limited social contact, or all of them rolled up together. But it has and did hit me differently and I found myself in and out of an emotional rut than I am used to.
Typically I am the type of person who recognises that even though things are not going as planned that it is important to hang on and ride it out but for some reason, nothing was working. Until I went back to the drawing book of unplugging myself, silencing the outside noises to fix what was affecting my internal makeup. Doing that helped me feel reset, rebooted and rejuvenated, I am definitely back to a more balanced and centred place in my mind. So the following tips are what I am practising to ensure that I don't find myself in another emotional rut.
I share the tips that have worked for me to help others who might be finding themselves stuck in defeating thoughts that are affecting how they behave and also leading to the inability to achieve day to day plans. My wish for you that may this lead you to reconnect with who you know yourself to be and a reminder to know whose you are, for me that is God but this may be a different positive forceful nature but whatever it may be the end result is the same which is a more emotionally controlled being achieving the highest and truest expression of yourself as a human being.
1. Let it out
If you need to cry, cry. If you need to scream, scream, if you need to feel sad, anger, or whatever emotion your feeling let it flow out of you. I spent one evening just crying and my God it was ugly probably my second most memorable meltdown but after allowing those emotions to be, the next day I was able to think more clearly and I started to change my focus from what I am feeling to what I want to feel.
2. Guided Meditation
Take time to listen to calming music and guide yourself through the emotions your feeling. I find on Youtube you will find a specific guided meditation that will help you deal with the specific emotion or thought that is affecting you. The more you do this the better you will feel and the more centred you become. It is also a great time to let the emotions within flow without and although this point of vulnerability might not be comfortable for you it is important that you let those emotions flow.
3. Prayer
In times of emotional negativity, it is important to still stay connected to God because he will lead you back to a place of peace as you pray for help through your challenges. Even when it doesn't feel like there is change happening, do not stop praying. Prayer leads to you being instinctively connected to a greater force than you and the more you pray the better you are at deserting negative thoughts.
4. Journaling
Write things out, when you see what you're feeling and thinking in black and white you will be able to see the root to your problem and build a bridge to the right solution needed to get back to being on top of things.
5. Positive Mantras
You can do all the above and still feel emotionally down, so this last point although the last I feel it is the most important. You need to start openly voicing out a daily mantra to be your anchor for the day. So instead of thinking, feeling and saying I am so tired and over it, change it to I am rejuvenated and filled with fresh ideas. What you will see happening over time is you will start putting more effort into what is within your control to do and the more you pour into that then things just start working and when you look back you will find that you worked through the very thing that felt impossible to do.
Lastly, I will leave you with the best reminder and thought process that has helped me through unlocking the positivity I needed to wipe out the negative emotions I was feeling. When you look at the word emotion, there is the word motion which means movement and the letter E for me stands for energy, so I often anchor myself to my own coined mantra and quote which is "{insert your name} be careful of the E before the MOTION for it will more often than not dictate how you act, behave and feel.". So before reacting and acting, ask yourself which emotion is leading me?
I wish you a positive mental attitude going forward.