Self-care, taking time out, having a routine, getting away somewhere less stressful – sometimes you can do it all, but the spiral continues. Why?
This is why MH is so hard to manage & why so many get so frustrated, including me! 1) It’s not a quick fix, 2) you gotta keep working on it & even finding new routines, but 3) I think the biggest reason is: human nature & the way our brains are wired, our natural thought patterns – we constantly look for answers, which leads us deeper & deeper into holes.
We have to literally fight that human nature, & rewire our natural thought patterns to stop the spiraling, plateau it, work our way back up! But why’s that so hard?
Take the above examples of the positive things we do for ourselves. What’s our natural instinct after we’ve practiced them for a while (or even practiced them for a few days, as again I’m guilty of expecting early results)? It’s to question – WHY! Why am I not improving? Why if I am improving is it not happening faster? Why did things that worked in the past, stop working as well? Why am I in a new environment where I’m supposed to be appreciating the change – weather/scenery/pace, etc., but I feel no better?
Those “whys” are human nature. Even when we give in to the idea that we have to work on ourselves, even when we do the work, when things don’t change rapidly in a positive direction, we ask why. What does the why do? It creates more angst. When we don’t have answers, the “whys” continue to build – & this makes logical sense, right? We’re wired to try to figure things out. To survive.
Listen, I don’t have answers many times. Right now, I know what the spiral feels like. I’m in a month of it, & it sucks…especially when you’re doing the work that’s helped you before, & when you’ve been at such a low place in the past, that the fear of decline is always gonna be there, even if the its only .01% of your thought process.
But my advice is, the only way to stop the spiral is to trust the process, remove yourself from expectation & whys, & surrender to the idea you’re doing all you can rise again. Dropping our whys is vital to improvement.
