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8 Ways to Get Yourself Out of a Funk (and Feel Like Yourself Again) · Grounded and Guided: Channeled Insight, Real Life Lessons and Spirit Lead Conversations for Transformation and Change

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  Hello world, and welcome to Grounded and Guided.
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  I'm your host, Lynette Waltham, and I'm just so grateful that you're choosing
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  this moment to be here with me Today I want to address something that I
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  have been walking through recently.
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  And what spurred this was a question that come up in a podcast
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  interview that I had a while ago,
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  and that's about, what do we do when we're in a funk?
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  What do we do when we're maybe not feeling like ourselves?
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  How do we essentially shift our energy, sometimes move our mood?
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  How do we kinda get back into that space that we're wanting to get back into?
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  Now, for me, I can really recognize when I am not myself, when I feel off, when
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  I feel in a funk, when I feel that my energy has been affected, and that's
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  just come from years of doing this work, moving through the, the journey, and just
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  that learning process, the being aware of myself and being connected with my
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  body and learnings that I've dived into and, and things that I share with people.
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  That's how I can be so in tune to what is happening.
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  So I just want you to recognize, first and foremost, you can get there, too.
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  I feel like that's always the message that I, I want people to
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  recognize is you can get there, too.
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  So today I just, I kinda wanna talk about how we can maybe recognize
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  if we are in a funk or maybe not in our normal and then just some tools
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  of how we can shift our energy, shift our mood, shift our vibration
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  So what does that kind of like funk feel like?
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  I want to compare and contrast what maybe a normal steady state
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  feels like as compared to a funk.
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  So for me, that normal steady state is I feel light.
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  I feel energized.
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  I feel full of personal power, that energy is flowing through me, and I feel like
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  there's a direction that I can put that energy towards I, like I can feel joy, I
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  can be in the present moment, I feel very connected with people and the world around
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  me and the universe, the higher power, my spirit guides, and the energy of creation.
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  That, that's my normal.
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  But just recognize, like it took a lot for me to get there.
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  That wasn't my normal 10 years ago.
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  That wasn't my normal two years ago.
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  The, and the normal of me today isn't even the normal that I
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  had maybe even six months ago.
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  But I do recognize that there are some characteristics that are normal for me.
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  And that steady state for me is also, like I can feel my personal power, in my belly.
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  So right above my solar plexus chakra, um, there is an energy center there, and
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  I can really connect with that easily.
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  It's vibrant, it's moving, it's expanded.
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  That to me is my normal, my steady state.
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  From a nervous system standpoint, I am regulated.
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  I am safe, and I'm holding that ventral vagus nerve state where there's, like,
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  deep connection with myself and the world
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  so now in contrast, that space when I don't feel like myself, I feel down.
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  Negativity more easily wants to slide in, there's an edge to my behavior and
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  how I treat people, where once there is a softness and a cushion, when I'm
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  not myself, there's that edge there.
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  I really kind of just like lose positivity.
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  The light within me really does seem to dim because I do struggle
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  with connecting to the energy.
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  Connecting to energy doesn't wanna flow.
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  And then, then I start to kinda distrust myself.
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  I distrust my body I can't really feel the energy moving in my body.
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  So all of that then therefore, like I have nothing to give.
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  The idea that I'm going to help and serve people, no.
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  No way, no shape, no form.
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  And I also too, , I don't want a lot of interaction.
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  I don't want a lot of stimulus.
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  I don't want anything that's going to get my energy going
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  and get my energy to respond.
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  I feel like I don't want to put anything into my world.
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  I wanna contract and I want to, like I wanna contract and I want my
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  energy to be almost very, like, held.
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  And over the last month, I've been in this state, and it started because I
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  got sick, and then that kind of turned into a cough, so I have no choice.
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  I had no… I have no choice but to kind of shut down and contract because my
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  body needs that energy to heal itself.
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  I need to contain that.
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  I need to allow that to work for me first.
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  But what I also recognize when I'm looking at that from a nervous system perspective
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  of how some of these things have played out for me is that was a freeze response.
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  I needed to, to basically stop, almost immobilize myself, shut myself down
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  completely, retract and do nothing
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  And so you might be wondering why the freeze response, Lynette?
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  Why did your nervous system shut you down like that?
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  And it's just really apparent to me as I've been doing a like a little
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  bit of reflection, as that I was doing big things, and every time I was doing
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  big things, , my nervous system was very much in a sympathetic state.
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  I was kind of in this, like, fight or fli- flight area, where I'm, I'm stressed
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  because I'm pushing myself out of my comfort zone a little bit kinda pushing
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  my levels of safety to try and expand myself, and do new practices, s- create
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  new projects, and even, like, really put myself into- out into the world.
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  Like, even with this podcast, this is kind of a big thing.
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  And so one thing after the other, those little pushes, those little
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  pushes, and maintaining myself in a, little bit of a stressed state.
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  And then throwing a few just bigger things in my path that really challenged
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  me just caused me to absolutely shut down, absolutely freeze, immobilize
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  and retreat And I've just had to have to learn to accept that's what's going
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  on, and this is something that is kind of a pattern that I've navigated
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  been reflecting on this a lot.
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  Over the last six years of d- choosing to go into spiritual entrepreneurship,
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  there's many times where my nervous system is being challenged, is being pushed, and
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  logically when you're owning a business, you kinda wanna keep, like, pushing
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  those boundaries, pushing those barriers because you're building a business.
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  But there comes a point where your nervous system just can't take it anymore, so
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  boom, I get, , totally sent into a freeze response, shut down, immobilization,
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  so that I have to just learn to
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  Reset, recalibrate, redefine safe for myself, redefine where I'm
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  walking and how I'm getting there.
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  And in the past, I didn't have the knowledge, the skills, and
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  the tools that I have today, so I would keep pushing that.
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  So getting sick was happening, like, quite frequently for me.
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  Now, things are a little bit different.
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  This is the first shutdown that I've experienced in probably about
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  a year, and so I'm approaching that a little bit differently.
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  I'm allowing myself to get a little bit more curious, and I am
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  bringing my awareness back to those tools that help me walk back into
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  my work, into my passions, into my purpose in a safe space
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  So I really wanted to use this podcast to talk about those things that walk
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  me back there, talk about those tools that help me get back into that space
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  where I feel like my normal self, where I feel energized, I feel my personal
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  power, I feel energy moving through me, I want to share with the world,
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  I want to live in an expanded way.
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  I want the joy, I wanna be in the present moment, and I wanna be connected again.
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  So how do I get there?
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  How do I go from this place of being negative, very contracted, feeling
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  helpless, feeling lost, distrusting myself, distrusting my body, not wanting
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  to give, and just wanting to shut out everything that I always interact with?
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  How do I go from that in a span of, , even just a couple weeks?
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  Sometimes it can even be, like, a day.
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  I can pop back and forth, but when I'm in these big bubbles it takes time.
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  It takes kind of weeks to shift back into my gear, shift back into
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  how I interact with the world.
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  So I think the very starting point to help create that shift is just recognizing
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  that I am safe Sometimes that means, , I need to put a hand on my chest or
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  even, , connect deeper down with that chi center, down in that solar plexus chakra
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  area, and just remind myself I am safe.
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  And that is something sometimes you gotta say over and over throughout
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  the course of the day, "I am safe.
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  I am safe." Because as I start to lose that positivity, and you kind of are
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  in a nervous system dysregulated state that's where, , the fear and the anxiety
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  , starts to creep in, so constantly trying to remind myself that I am safe.
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  And I will also start to get really wrapped up in, in the doing, that,
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  oh, like, I need to do this, and I need to do… I need to do that.
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  And that gets a whole other type of energy going.
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  It feeds into that nervous system dysregulation.
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  So instead of feeling like I need to jump from one task to another to
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  another to another, like clean my house, organize this closet, and run
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  here with my kids, do the garden, just, uh, task after task, there's
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  nervous system dysregulation there.
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  I am the doing because I am not feeling safe.
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  So I just kind of have to bring it back, hand on chest, hand on my energy center,
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  and just remind myself that I am safe.
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  Take that breath in, exhale it out, and I am safe.
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  And that might mean deep breathing for multiple breaths.
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  Three is great, just to bring myself back to that reality that I am safe.
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  And when my head kind of starts spinning and that anxiety wants
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  to creep in, I have to tell myself that I am safe And I have to remind
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  myself that my basic needs are met.
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  There's food on my table, I have clothing on my back, I have shelter
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  over my head, and I have water to drink, and those basic needs will be met in
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  the present and in the near future.
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  So that really helps to remind myself that I am safe
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  And sometimes just those practices can take days, can take weeks.
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  Just constantly reminding myself that I am safe to try and just get
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  that nervous system to regulate
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  Another thing that I do is I reflect.
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  I remember where I once was and how I felt, and I remind myself that I,
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  I never want to feel like that again.
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  So it's not for me to, to be hard on myself.
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  It's just to remind myself how far I have really transformed and shifted, and that
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  I have the knowledge, the skills, and the tools to not go back there again.
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  So that, that helps to kind of just ground me a little bit, and it is that
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  small motivation to keep moving forward, to keep leaning on my toolkit to help
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  me regulate my nervous system, to help me shift my energy, and to keep trying
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  things when I feel like trying things.
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  And like I mentioned before, I have to not be hard on myself.
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  That's one thing that I've really had to learn and navigate through having cough
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  that lingered for 30 days in my past.
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  I've really had to
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  go easy on myself Because life, everything ebbs and it flows.
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  Everything is energy.
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  Energy has movement.
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  So there's going to be waves.
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  There's going to be ebbs and flows.
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  And just to be able to embrace that and remind myself that I'm here
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  having a human experience, and that experience is all about change, growth,
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  evolution, or the lack thereof it.
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  And so I just have to really just be kind to myself and recognize
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  that I might be in an ebb
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  But that ebb is going to shift at , some point in time.
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  And if I can keep leaning on my tools and my knowledge and my skill sets,
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  then eventually there's a shift that will come when that shift needs to come.
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  And that's a big part of what I'd say is, is number four,
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  and that's about this faith.
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  This faith that I have that a shift will come, a change will come.
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  It might not be instantaneous.
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  It might not be the very next day, and it might not be or look
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  exactly how I think it's gonna look.
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  But I just have faith like that old saying, like the tides will turn the shift
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  will come, change will come as long as I have faith and I keep being open to it and
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  allowing myself to continue to interact with the world to help support that shift
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  so the next practice that I lean into or call upon when I am trying to shift
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  myself out of a funk, get that energy to move, is I go back to the basics.
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  So for me, the basics are journaling, moving my body, and Reiki meditation.
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  So when I'm in that funk, and maybe I'm in that funk because my physical body is not
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  healthy I can get myself to a place where maybe I can do a little bit of journaling.
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  Because I can't maybe physically move my body.
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  I just can't get there.
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  I don't have the energy.
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  I don't have those, , that capability.
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  But maybe there is some energy that I can move by just writing.
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  Just even moving thoughts out of my head, putting them on paper.
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  That can kind of really help us shift.
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  And for me, that is my basic.
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  That is the very first tool that I learned as a teenager that really kind
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  of helped me to stabilize my nervous system, and it is still my go-to.
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  It is something that just really allows me to process thoughts, feelings,
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  emotions, and it's so easily accessible
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  the next basic for me is moving my body, And this one has brought me kind
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  of a lot of grief in those moments where I am in that funk, and my body is
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  physically unwell and/or it's capable, but not to the point where I can move
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  my body to the level that I want to.
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  So there has been a lot of grief and a lot of hardship on myself over the
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  years because moving my body in a very
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  Fast, aggressive movement really help me regulate my nervous system,
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  to really help me to heal, to really help me move emotions through my body.
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  But that can't always be my go-to because I am not physically well.
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  I don't have the lung capacity if I've got a cough for 30 days.
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  So I have to lean on other ways . So sometimes what your
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  body really needs is slow, gentle movement, things like yoga, qigong
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  Just walking
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  But to me, just the idea of moving my body is a basic and I know it might
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  not be a basic for other people, or you're still finding those basics
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  but that is one that really does help me to get back into my energy flow,
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  to really get things to shift for me
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  And the other one that I mentioned is Reiki meditation.
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  So this is another practice that I learned, at the start
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  of my awakening journey.
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  And when I say awakening, I really mean like awakening to myself,
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  awakening to my body, awakening to energy, and really just coming alive.
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  And so this tool just really helped me to find safety in the present moment and
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  Reiki is just another way to move energy.
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  I often use it to help clear myself, clear my clients, of these energies
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  that maybe might be sticking to us or that we've sponged up.
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  And so it can really help to move some of those energies.
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  But I recognize when I'm in those moments where I'm not trusting myself, I'm not
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  trusting my body, I feel very contracted, I'm in more of a negative space,
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  moving energy isn't accessible to me.
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  It's almost like the dimmer switch has really been turned down, and
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  I can't seem to, to turn it up
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  and when I get to those space that those basics are not working for
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  me, I'm not getting the shift, I'm not getting the energy moving, I'm
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  still feeling helpless, hopeless, my faith is really downgraded, then I
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  start looking for some external help.
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  Sometimes in those moments, what I really need is I need some joy,
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  and that's when you feel pulled to bring a friend into the mix.
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  And sometimes that friend can just give you a laugh to help shift that energy.
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  Sometimes that friend can be that sounding board.
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  There's some things that you need to talk out as a way to kind of get that energy
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  moving, and if you're really lucky, you have friends that you can go deep
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  with, that you can vault things with.
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  So I learned the term vault from Brene Brown, and when you have a friendship
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  and you're able to discuss something and put it in the vault, there is a
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  level of safety there, and there is a level of trust in that relationship
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  that creates such a deep connection.
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  And I am very blessed.
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  I have built those relationships in my life.
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  I have friends that we can vault together, and sometimes that's really what I need,
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  is I need to be able to talk it out.
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  I need to bring someone else into kind of the energetic mix with
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  me, whether for them to be able to take what I'm carrying or whether
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  I just need, I need their energy.
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  I need them to help me laugh because I can't seem to laugh myself.
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  I need to feel their positivity.
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  I need to feel their vibrancy to help me to move my mood, shift my energy,
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  and sometimes I really need to lean on my mentors So I've worked with different
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  mentors and coaches, different stages, and often I need to lean on expertise.
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  I need a different perspective, and sometimes that just
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  doesn't come from my friends.
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  I love my friends, but kind of working in the world that I work in, sometimes
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  I need to talk to another entrepreneur.
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  Sometimes I need just a higher perspective.
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  Sometimes I need help channeling me and my guides again, and, , I need that help from
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  those that I know that can support me.
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  Sometimes I need clearing.
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  Sometimes I need help getting out of my own way.
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  And so working with my mentors and coaches can help me to shift reset
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  my energy, clear my auric field be able to just do some of that
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  energetic work that I am maybe not having the capacity to see for myself
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  And my coaches and my mentors have also really helped me to continue to move
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  forward as I have walked in this journey.
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  Choosing change is hard.
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  Choosing change activates your nervous system and brings up dysregulation.
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  It's going to happen because change sends us into places that are
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  uncomfortable, places we've never walked before, actions that we've never
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  taken . And so that brings up fear.
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  All of those things that activate stress responses.
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  And so the key is to not stay in that stress response the whole time, to try and
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  get yourself back to that regulated state, to shift your energy, to move your mood,
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  and my coaches and my mentors, they kind of help me to remind myself to use
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  those skills, use those tools, use that knowledge, Lynette, so that you don't
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  stay stuck in this place for too long.
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  And , my mentors and my coaches, they can see when I'm maybe needing a little bit
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  of rest and when I need, to, , retreat a little bit from the world, and when
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  I am pulling back because of fear
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  And then they can gently and lovingly help me to move forward
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  And those mentors too, they can remind us of the faith we have, that
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  there's like the ebbs and the flows.
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  They can give you that perspective for you to recognize that the funk or the
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  energy that we're in might not last as long as we feel that it's going to last.
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  And that can be like super beneficial and maybe even , help it shift quicker
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  and one of my other go-tos to help create that energy shift, get me back to me,
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  pull myself out of that funk is nature.
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  Nature can be such a soothing, supportive aspect to pull yourself out of a funk.
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  A simple walk in fresh air and sunshine can do so much for us.
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  At the beginning of my journey, I swam a lot.
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  Just having a good float in a lake just really allowed nature to kind of be this
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  sponge and pull energy from me that I no longer wanted to carry I have just
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  gone for walks or spent time outside to just see the beauty in colorful flowers.
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  In the wintertime, like, see the beauty of the snow when it sparkles in the
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  sun, see how the hoarfrost makes trees just look so lovely, and it kinda
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  just helps to ground and reset and help me move that mood that I am in.
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  we can watch a growth process in plants and it help just kind of to bring back
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  that gratitude that maybe we've kind of been missing when we're in that funk
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  And there are times, I'm not gonna lie, when I have had the urge to wrap
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  my arms around a big tree and just allow it to take all that it needed
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  to take from me, just draw it out.
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  ' Cause, you know, trees are strong.
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  They're grounded.
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  They're rooted.
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  They're powerful
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  They can withstand a lot, and they can be like a sponge for some of that energy
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  that we need , to release to help us shift
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  so there you have it.
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  There are going to be ebbs and flows.
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  Your energy's gonna - change.
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  We're gonna get into a funk.
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  Our nervous system is gonna be dysregulated.
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  We are going to have times when we feel hopeless, helpless, maybe
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  we're in super anxious places.
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  That is the experience of being a human.
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  But we don't have to stay there.
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  We can learn how to interact with those ebbs and those flows
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  and so to recap my eight ways of how I get myself out of a funk is
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  Number one,
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  I remind myself that I am safe.
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  Number two, I remember how far I have come Number three I just try not to
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  be too hard on myself Number four is I lean into faith Five, you go back to
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  the basics, back to my basic practices
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  Six, reach out to friends.
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  Let them in
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  Number seven, it's okay to ask for help.
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  Work with a mentor, work with a coach, work with a practitioner
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  And lastly, number eight Explore nature Take care, my friends