Choosing NOT to be stuck

Image by Rafa from Brazil via Flickr

If you’ve ever felt seriously stuck before, it feels like the loneliest place.

Life becomes this great dead weight, a kind of 24/7 depression funk with a ton of added guilt, blame, and self loathing.

See if any of these sound familiar:

“I have zero clue what the hell I wanna do with my life and not only should I have decided something by now but I’m an idiot for not knowing.”

“This job/boss/situation royally sucks. What the heck was I thinking? I’m spending every moment watching the clock. I hate this.”

“Who does he / she think he/she is? I gotta get outa this relationship/marriage/partnership. What the heck was I thinking to assume I could change him/her?”

“No one cares what I have to say/paint/sing/create. And what I have just written, sung, painted, created sucks anyway. So why bother?”

No matter what the ‘stuck,’ no matter what form, the feeling tries to consume you and imprison you like you’re one big waste of a life loser and everything you’ve chosen for yourself is wrong and everything you think you want you don’t have any right to have.

I know this. I’ve been there. Countless times.

There’s a constant murmuring, oppositional voice constantly laughing at you, reminding you you’ve screwed up too much in life, missed the ship of opportunity and thus aren’t entitled to anything worthy of joy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay. Pause. Deep breath.

I know all that was kinda dark, kinda grey, very depressing, sounding.

But for anyone that’s been there, that’s not only a feeling, it’s very much a reality.

So here’s the thing: I don’t know what frame of mind you’re in right now as you read this.

Maybe you’ve been stuck and now aren’t but you can relate to how you once felt.

Maybe you are stuck right now and don’t feel an ounce of hope of anything getting better.

Ponder this for a moment:  being or feeling ‘stuck’ — no matter what the form — is a perspective, a reaction, a consent.

Now, ponder this for a moment: I can choose NOT to be stuck.

Why?

Because you can. I can. We all can.

All of us can choose a different response to whatever situation we’re in.

Still with me?

I know it can seem bleak–very–at times.

But there’s never a moment when the only option is immobility. There’s never a moment when you don’t have any other option.

Why?

Well, everything about our lives and our journey is thought.

We experience what we think and believe.

Because of that, even when you don’t see a way out, even when you can’t find an immediate solution, there is one.

Stuck is simply the wrong conclusion. And it’s rather inaccurate too.

Thoughts are like drops of water….constantly moving. Immobility is simply not an option.

And yet, when I’ve been at my wits end and felt it the most, the ONLY thing that has pulled me up– aside from the criticisms and assertions of well meaning loved ones– is getting into the core of my thoughts and facing down the cackling, accusing voices of opposition trying to convince me I’m stuck and there’s no way out.

There is ALWAYS a way out. And the most important thing you can ever do is choose this thought:

‘There is a way out. I may not know what it is. I may not have a clue to the right answer but there is a way out. And nothing–“no thing, mind or power” is going to convince me otherwise.’

That last quote is from Mary Baker Eddy’s work: Science and Health, a book that explores and discusses in depth why any negative feeling is a suggestion in thought and how we can refuse to consent to those suggestions.

Instead, each one of us at any moment is receptive to the ideas of the universal Mind.

There is no wall–no force power or system that can block our thoughts or immobilize the good our lives are about.

So the first thing you have to do is realize you have a choice, that feeling stuck is a reaction that you don’t have to give your consent to.

The next thing you can do is work with your whole might to mentally ensure that you stay in charge of what kinds of thoughts you allow yourself to dwell on. Get into thought. Sift it. See what you’re consenting to. And start refusing to believe the scenarios that your life is stagnant, that there’s no way out–any of those ‘stuck’ tendencies.

Lastly, though this may feel the hardest, defend you will only consent to thoughts of truth, even if you don’t know what they are at that given moment.

There IS always a way out, even if you don’t know what it is.

Moment to moment our perspectives can and will change.

And every moment there is a new possibility, a new scenario, something that you can be receptive to that you weren’t before because your thoughts were too wrapped up in feeling stuck.

In short, choosing NOT to get stuck is really a conscious choice to remain OPEN….OPEN to possibilities.

You know if a choice isn’t working for you.

And you know if you haven’t budged and chosen something else because you’re simply flat out fearful of the unknown.

If you think you don’t know, think again. Look within. You know.

If there’s heaviness around your choices, something needs to shift.

Allow yourself to ponder choosing something OTHER than feeling stuck.

Give yourself permission to choose NOT to be stuck.

Possibilities for good are endless.

You can choose to be stuck and not enjoy any of them or choose to NOT be stuck and allow yourself to start perceiving them, one moment at a time.

What are you gonna choose?