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What To Do To Get Unstuck Or Make A Decision

I’ve put together 7 very low effort things you can do to help your brain get unstack.

I am often amazed at how quickly you can make progress in life when heading in one direction. And equally amazed at how much time and energy it takes to do nothing.
According to Neuroscience Professor Andrew D. Huberman (whose podcast is, by the way, a godsend), it takes the brain the same or almost the same amount of energy to be deciding on doing a thing as it does to be doing it.
You know you are burning precious time and brain energy on nothing, but just knowing that doesn’t help much. Especially if you’re caught in a challenging period of your life, decision paralysis can be a real issue.
So let’s cut to the chase; the following are some easy and mostly effortless actions that you can take to help your beautiful brain out of the vicious circle of being stuck.

This is a low-effort one but very powerful.

Changing your routine doesn’t have to be an enormous effort; the idea is to get any sort of new input in general: new colors, streets, faces, buildings, trees, or animals, as unrelated to your situation as it may seem.

Some simple ideas about changing your scenery today:

Be creative, have fun with it.

Laughing might be one of the most potent home remedies. Having a serious, honest, all-body-affecting laugh makes a real difference in your overall state of being.
(Having this sort of laughter on a regular, consistent basis will make you a much more tolerant, happy, and healthy person.)
And since it’s pretty pleasant, there is no reason not to do it, either. I was, however, surprised that it’s not so easy for me to laugh hard. I have TV shows that I like, but I mostly just lift a corner of my mouth to the jokes and release a bit more air from my nose. Not the kind of laughter we’re looking for.
Every time you laugh wholeheartedly, make a note of what it was that resonated with you so. Make an emergency list of authors, shows, jokes, and situations that make you feel like this. This can be a lifeline in many cases. Whenever you feel like you have little energy left or like you hate someone, if you’re sick or depressed, reach out for your list.
When it comes to decision-making, it is similar. You’re stuck anyway; you’re bleeding time, decide to use some of it to laugh your ass off. The worst-case scenario is you’ll feel good for 15 minutes.

Move the body, do your favorite exercise. If you don’t have one, go outside somewhere, walk or even run errands, but try to walk briskly so that it is a bit of an effort for the body. The harder you work out, the better results you will get, but anything is something.

Get sweaty, make the body put an effort. Whenever the body is required to tap into its resources so that you “survive” the situation you’re in — walking fast, running, cycling, boxing, swimming, it really cannot waste time spiraling in stupid thoughts and emotions. It focuses on the task at hand and keeps the emotions at bay.

Listen to something you find interesting that will give you new information. Like a podcast on your favorite topic, a guy talking about trains you love, or a documentary. Something you enjoy and still can learn about.

Just generally try and learn new knowledge of any sort. It’s been said over and over again that after you learn new skills and information, your brain is never going to be the same.

And that’s what we want, as our old brain couldn’t get unstuck so far.

Do you plan to take out the trash in the following hours or days? Do you need to go pick up the dry cleaning? Do you need to renew your license? Do you need to shop for groceries? Have you been needing new shoes for some time?

All of these are running in the back of your head at all times, even if you’re not always aware of it.

Try to get rid of whatever small thing to-do item you can, and you will get some brainpower back; plus, you are going to be a bit more chill.

Just open a new document on your computer, make sure no one can read it (it makes you relax and write more openly), and start writing.

Write at least 750 words on whatever comes to mind. It can be about your day or the issue at hand, about your new shoes or your childhood dog. Just sit and write until the marker hits 750 words.

Even if you start by trying to fill up the words with “this is so stupid, I have no idea what to write here,” in some tens of words, it should get boring, and you’ll get whatever is there in your head on the paper.

In this amount of words or more, you should be able to uncover at least one or two thoughts you didn’t know you had and some angles that you don’t see right now.

[Why 750 words? A cool website called 750words.com made me start my journaling and writing for the first time. They keep things interesting by keeping your streak for 30 days (for free, then you can pay a membership, or you know, go to google docs). There is a bonus though, the next day, you can open an analysis of your writing — what words you used most, what sentiment was in your writing, and so on. I can’t recommend them enough as I discovered my love for writing because of their sneaky streak-keeping ways.]

This one works best if you know how to do it and “feel it”. I personally didn’t “get it” for years. I felt nothing when listing the things I was grateful for and never managed to practice it for longer than a week.

When I finally understood the technique and made it work for me, oh my. It is now one of my favorite weapons. I guess everybody needs to “get things” at their own pace.

If you are familiar with the concept, you know what to do.

If you are not, just take a pen and paper, phone, or your computer and write down the things that you really do appreciate about your current situation. Today, this week, or in your entire life.

A “relief” technique might help if you feel stuck as to what you are grateful for.

Just a few examples:

The best gratitude statements are the ones that make you feel positive emotions. In my opinion, the real reason this technique is so powerful is that these emotions can light you up like a firework. So look for writing things that make you smile, feel warm, relieved, happy, and positively shining.

A tricky part of being stuck is all the wasted time on your plate right now. All the responsibilities delayed, people disappointed and the time continuing to slip by. You might be feeling completely inadequate and to blame for all the mess, not understanding what the hell is wrong with you.

There is no shortage of ugly thoughts and beliefs about yourself that you now get to listen to 24/7 in your head. Which is real food for the stuck monster.

Look, you do not have to be proud of anything you might have neglected, delayed, or messed up. But do not get sucked in the loop of guilt and shame, it only makes matters worse.

You should develop your unique technique to forgive yourself and be nice and kind to yourself. One that resonates with you.

I promise you, if you master the skill of being kind to yourself, you will reach new levels in every aspect of your life. It is a skill to be learned.

When I first tried this whole “be kind to yourself” idea, I was constantly rolling my eyes at what I tried to say to myself. It all sounded like sarcasm to me. “Yeah, it’s great you fucked it up again, you had so much on your plate lately, like watching TV.”

Things clicked when I realized that the way I talked to myself would horrify me to death if I heard people talk to each other like that. I wouldn’t treat that way, even someone I despise.

Talking to yourself as you would to your friend is the real deal. “I know it sucks that you forgot about this; people are disappointed. But you will be OK, you’ll try better next time. It’s not like you did it on purpose. You did a lot of stuff lately, good stuff. One mistake doesn’t define you.”

Life is fucking hard. For everyone. There is no way not to fuck up a lot if you want to do anything other than watch Netflix all day. And even though there might be some truth to the ugly things you may be saying to yourself, it simply does not help you be better next time or at all. So it can and should be almost completely ignored (apart from taking a note for the future).

Remember, you are trying your best at all times, and your best is getting better and better by the hour.

If you’ve made it down here, I just want to say big thanks; you’re amazing. I know this was long and maybe messy, but you are trying to solve your problem, so you stuck to it, and that‘s wonderful. There is no reason why a person with this attitude shouldn’t get anywhere they want to go in life. And you will.

Remember, life is as amazing as it can be hard. You’re doing fantastic. Thank you, and I wish you the very best of luck.

And also, remember, any decision is (in most cases) better than no decision.

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