In a Slump? Let's talk.... : My Path To Zen

Let’s talk…we all get in a slump sometimes. You might call it feeling down, the blues or in the dumps. When I’m in a good space I am full of energy, confident, strong, happy and feel like I could conquer the world! Is there a mere mortal who feels like that every minute of every day? If so, I haven’t met them. When a slump comes along I tend to doubt myself or feel overwhelmed and have a hard time focusing on any one thing. Most common for me is feeling tired, even achy with very low energy, not wanting to do ANYTHING productive. Sound familiar?

Time out is time well spent!

But we can turn this “down time” to our advantage. Our bodies and minds aren’t meant to run at full capacity 100% of the time. When we honor our natural cycle by taking a time-out from our normal routine we can benefit with even more creativity and mental acuity to do what we love. I know intuitively if I take a day to lay low and unplug, 24 hours later I feel energized and ready to go again. Also, communicating to my husband about what I need gets me his support and usually the space I crave. If you have young children or caring for a sick family member this can be a challenge. Yet even a few moments of quiet time squeezed in here and there, can refresh us.

My son, his wife, our precious 4 month old granddaughter and their two big beautiful rescue pups stayed with us recently. It was the first time they had gone anywhere since the baby was born and I wanted this trip to be special and restful for them. We were all enjoying ourselves but I wasn’t taking time for my normal morning meditation practice and started to feel run down. My husband noticed and suggested I step out for a little quiet time. Great idea! By slipping away to our bedroom to meditate for just 15 minutes I returned refreshed and rejuvenated. My sweet grand-baby probably didn’t notice a difference, but I sure did!

Mother Nature Calling!

I have learned that feeling blue isn’t always a bad thing. It’s a sign I now pay attention to. Listening to our internal wisdom and following Mother Nature’s lead we can do what’s best for our bodies and minds to feel like ourselves again. Nature is full of expansion and contraction examples; the sun rises and sets, ocean tides ebb and flow, a flower opens and closes, we sleep and wake. We crawl out of our winter hibernation to an awakened spring and an active summer till we begin slowing down in the fall when the cycle begins again.

If we use this natural cycle to our benefit, we can embrace those times we feel on top of the world, then acknowledge what we need when our energy is low. Being in a slump can be a time to clear out the clutter in our minds while recharging our batteries. We also experience this “clutter cleaning” when we sleep and during meditation.

“Silence isn’t empty, it’s full of answers”

If you read my last blog post you’ll know I recently graduated and am now a Chopra Center Certified Primordial Sound Meditation instructor. I took the course and became certified because I wanted to be able to share meditation with the world, one person at a time. I was so focused during the seven months of study, presentations and testing it didn’t occur to me how it would work out after I graduated.

Then I hit a slump and felt conflicted on how to move forward to teach meditation. Since retiring 3 years ago I enjoy the benefits from a lifetime of working hard to get to this place in life. Yet I also want to share the life-changing benefits of a meditation practice with anyone interested. After a few days enjoying the end of classes and being pretty worthless I decided to ask the Universe, through meditation, to lead me.

It was the best possible decision I could have made! Taking a break and releasing control allowed me to be open to opportunities that fit with my life. I told friends, family and social media I was available to help them start or refresh a meditation practice and let it go. Slowly people have started contacting me for help with meditation. Thank you Universe! Nurturing self-care, patience and dark chocolate all helped too.

And if you need a different path…

We don’t want a slump to last too long. For me, after more than a few days or a week of feeling down, I would be concerned. If you suspect this feeling is something more serious, please don’t hesitate to talk to your doctor or mental health professional to get checked out. A healthy diet, reading or listening to inspirational books, talking to loved ones, setting goals, exercise and meditation are all good tools to help rise out of a slump. Lifehack.org author Brian Lee wrote an inspiring article titled “16 Ways to Get Motivated and Break Out of a Slump” offering clever ideas on how to get back to feeling good again.

Remember…it is human nature to have cycles of emotional ups and downs. Especially now with so much uncertainty in the world around Covid-19, working to resolve racial inequality, high unemployment, an upcoming election…the list is long. If we pay attention and take good care of ourselves physically and emotionally a slump should be a fairly rare thing. But if our mood and/or energy takes a dip, we can recognize a slump for what it is, temporary. Taking time to nourish our soul we can then rise, clear-eyed and ready to embrace this beautiful gift of life again.

One More Thing…

As a graduation gift I bought a quartz crystal singing bowl tuned to the ‘F’ note which is the heart Chakra. The sound is amazing and adds a divine element before and after meditation. I use it with clients who feel the healing vibrations even over Zoom or FaceTime. If you are interested in meditating with me please send a message through Contacts above. I’d love to hear from you.