Overcoming a Case of the Blahs: The Secret to Regaining the Fire in Your Belly

'Love the moment. Flowers grow out of dark moments. Therefore, each moment is vital. It affects the whole. Life is a succession of such moments and to live each, is to succeed.' 

Corita Kent

 If everything is so Good, Why Do I feel so Blah?

We've all been there. 

There's nothing wrong. But work is stressful and you've been working too many hours to finish a project. Oddly enough you might even be thinking of quitting.

You pride yourself on putting your all into your work and this focus on excellence has brought you praise and landed you great projects you can really sink your teeth into. Everyone loves your work and sings your praises-- "You're smart, responsive, creative and productive". 

So why are you now nursing a case of the blahs--feeling anti-social, wanting to take naps instead of going out, and turning inward when you finally take time off?

Burnout and the Blahs

When you feel you've lost that fire inside driving you to excel and enthusiastically jump into the next project--or you secretly fear you're in over your head and are soon to be discovered as incompetent--you've come down with a bad case of the Burnout Blahs.

Like so many others who desire to make their mark on the world you have given your all without sufficiently replenishing your energy along the way. When we fail to adequately engage in non-productive play to re-balance, our fire and drive can extinguish quickly. 

When your emotions flat-line into a case of the blahs you know it's time to re-balance.

'Burnout is nature's way of telling you, you've been going through the motions and your soul has departed; you're a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker. False optimism is like administrating stimulants to an exhausted nervous system.' 

Sam Keen, Fire in the Belly



The Secret to Regaining the Fire in Your Belly

You already know you want to excel and be the best you can be. So why is it so difficult for you to do what you already know you need to do to maintain that fire in your belly more often than not? 

So what's the secret to regaining the Fire in Your Belly?  Engaging in non-productive play in your private persona.

Times of drive must be balanced with times of idling, and you must give yourself equal time living as your private self as you do as your public persona. Staying 'on' 24/7 is crazy-making behavior that leads to burnout, self-doubts and the blahs.

The antidote is to practice doing nothing--regularly. You must consciously plan fun private time into your week or you'll find the subtle ever-pervasive infiltration of work into your mindset. 

'Find a place you trust and then try trusting it for a while.' Corita Kent

• Stop.
• Do nothing.
• Unplug.
• Give in to that nap.
• Unplan.
• Have a dream-free day.
• Lose the expectations.
• Accomplish nothing.
• Putter.
• Lolly-gag.
• Tinker.
• Find your FLOW

'Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability.'

Sam Keen

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For more than 30 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes changing easier than ever before.


If you're interested in learning more about closing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, sign up for free e-mail subscription.

Stressed Out? Calm Down!

'Personal mastery is the discipline of continually clarifying and deepening our personal vision, of focusing our energies, of developing patience, and of seeing reality objectively'.  
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline 

'You're Okay, Jessica'

Years ago I heard the story about a reporter who observed a mother in the grocery store calming her screaming toddler in full tantrum-mode. The reporter watched as this mother very calmly talked to the out-of-control child saying, "You're okay, Jessica. Everything is going to be okay, Jessica. Be  calm, Jessica. Just breathe and calm down, Jessica."

The reporter was so impressed with how calmly this mother talked to her child she followed the young mother out into the parking lot to talk to her as she strapped her child into the car seat.

"I just have to say how impressed I am with how calmly you talked to baby Jessica in the store, " she said.

The frazzled mother turned toward the reporter and giving her a tired, little smile said, "I am Jessica!"

Calming the Beast

I can't tell you the number of times that story--and punch line--has popped into my head.
I'll be in the middle of a crisis of other's creation swirling around me, thinking 'stay calm', 'breathe', 'relax'--when suddenly I see myself with that tired little smile saying 'I am Jessica'.

Most of us hate that stressed-out, out-of-control feeling. But face it--many times throughout the day we're hit with situations pushing us out of balance and giving us that anxious, queasy feeling in our gut.

So many things happen outside of our control, but our own response to those out-of-control situations IS what we have power over. The question is how do we best calm ourselves when stress happens?

Calm Begins Within

You are the only one who can calm yourself. Jessica knew this and made a valiant effort to calm herself as the situation unfolded. This is no small feat when the stress-producing factor is another human being who is tired, hungry and over-stimulated (i.e. a bundle of reactions and emotions with no ability to rationally negotiate).

But before you assume I'm just referring to the difficulty of dealing with a toddler, think again. Consider how often you begin your day frazzled when you encounter another adult who is also on her last nerve and sparks fly. We all become a bundle of reactive emotions when we're tired, hungry and over-stimulated. 

How to Step Down to Calm

1. Dis-engage. Find a way to dis-engage your emotions when stress happens. If you can--walk away from the immediate situation and keep your mouth shut. If it's not possible for you to leave the situation, dis-engage your mind  by talking yourself down like Jessica did so you don't engage your mouth.

2.  Nourish Your Body. Get in the habit of keeping your body well-nourished--eat protein every couple of hours to help keep your blood sugars even. If you discover you forgot to eat and hunger contributed to your reaction to stress, grab nourishing food as soon as you can.

3. Get Physical. Your stress response--or fight or flight response--is set up for you to take action. To dissipate the stress hormones in a positive manner, engage in something physical--pull weeds, take a walk, clean the house, dance or do yoga--anything that will burn off physical energy and calm the nerves.

4.  Sleep and Do Nothing. Sometimes the very best thing to do is to do nothing. Stop thinking about what happened. Do something you enjoy. Sleep on it.


5. Stop and Start Over.  When you're ready--let go of the anger, stress, anxiety and resentment. Restart your day and relationship. 

'If you are patient in one moment of anger, you will escape a hundred days of sorrow.' Chinese Proverb

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For more than 30 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes changing easier than ever before.

If you're interested in learning more about closing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, sign up for free e-mail subscription.

Feeling Betrayed, Bitter or Disappointed? Put the Past Behind You--Give Life a Second Chance

No Matter Your Past --Find a Way to Move Your Life Forward

Whatever it is you're dealing with bringing you down, let it go and move on as soon as you're able. Why? Because you deserve a good life. 

When you hold on to feelings of betrayal, bitterness and disappointment it only affects you and your life. If  you fail to forgive your past or only chastise yourself for mistakes, failures or wrong-doing, you keep yourself in a non-productive, disengaged state of mind. 

Choose to get back to your best self--a person fully contributing to life and doing good for those around you. Give your life a second chance. Acknowledge what happened to bring you down, and find a way to move on so your life becomes about the good experiences while the hurtful, unsavory experiences become mere blips in your life.

No matter where your past led you, find a way to take positive action to move your life forward. Be forward looking and acting to become the person you desire to be, living the life you wish to enjoy.

Plunge Back into Life to Renew Your Self-Respect

Choose to move out of bitterness. Find your sweet-spot for living a fully engaged 

life filled with meaning, friendship and love.  It is never too late--no matter what has occurred in your past. Cultivate self respect and personal power by jumping back into life.

'Be not the slave of your own past - plunge into the sublime seas, dive deep, and swim far, so you shall come back with new self-respect, with new power, and with an advanced experience that shall explain and overlook the old.'

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Tender and Gentle Welcome Back to Living

If you've been hurting from your past  and are ready to let go of  the hurt and bitterness, or shame and disappointment--imagine you are surrounded by a cushion of acceptance and safety as you step back into life.   Let Mary Oliver's poem  "Sleeping in the Forest' provide you a positive image for your  'tender and gentle' welcome back to living fully-engaged. 

Sleeping in the Forest 

I thought the earth remembered me,

she took me back so tenderly,

arranging her dark skirts, her pockets

full of lichens and seeds.

I slept as never before, a stone on the river bed,

nothing between me and the white fire of the stars

but my thoughts, and they floated light as moths

among the branches of the perfect trees.

All night I heard the small kingdoms

breathing around me, the insects,

and the birds who do their work in the darkness.

All night I rose and fell, as if in water,

grappling with a luminous doom. By morning

I had vanished at least a dozen times

into something better.

from Sleeping In The Forest by Mary Oliver 

© Mary Oliver

Thank you  Yvonne Rauch for sending me a Mary Oliver Poem introducing me to her work. 

To view more Mary Oliver Poems: http://peacefulrivers.homestead.com/maryoliver.html

 'Be silly. Be honest. Be kind.'

Ralph Waldo Emerson

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For more than 30 years, Susan Meyerott has been helping people lighten up and step over invisible barriers to change one step at a time. She speaks to your heart, puts you at ease, and makes changing easier than ever before.

If you're interested in learning more about closing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be, sign up for free e-mail subscription.