“How I would get out of a rut”
This day and age there’s so much demand for our attention, often resulting in a high stress load, or what’s known as allostatic load. Allostatic load is basically the wear and tear on our bodies from chronic or repeated stresses. It’s important that you take time out to reduce the flight and flight response in your body and focus on ramping up your parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the rest, feed and bread state. - Meaning that when you’re in this state you are better equipped to do these things. Whereas your sympathetic nervous system is your flight and fight system (high stress) - great for survival but not great to be on all the time. If you don’t prioritise keeping a balance between these states you will begin to experience the symptoms of chronic stress. (Illness, inflammation, gut issues and metabolic syndromes such as diabetes). What does this have to do with being in a rut? Well I believe that in many cases we fall into a headspace that is not driven, inspired or motivated to do many of the things we normally enjoy or do without an issue because we have failed to keep a healthy balance of ‘Working hard’ and ‘resting well’. So one of the things I do is writing prompts. I use an app to give me a topic, sentence or fictional scenario, then just set a 10min timer and write whatever comes to mind. For no other reason or outcome than to switch off from the daily grind, allow my head to go somewhere else other than work etc. My writing prompts aren’t always serious or meaningful, but recently I had a topic pop up that asked me the question: “How Would You Get Out Of A Rut?” Here is what I wrote:
This is a common question I am asked and I really believe the first step is accepting it as perfectly normal and part of the process.
The pressure to be “On” 24/7 is real and exceptional for me, from my team, our members and my family but also from myself.
However, it’s important to remind myself that I’m human there’s going to be times of high productivity in many areas of my life and also times of very little.
When I find myself in a rut again, I’m going to take a step back and look at everything from a different perspective. For example; if I’m in a rut with my health and fitness, is it really that I’m not ‘motivated’ for my health and fitness goals or.. Does it mean I have a large amount of stress and pressure from other areas of my life, that I’m not managing well, which is then effecting the amount of (mental and physical) energy I have to put into my health and fitness goals?
I really don’t believe you fall into a ‘rut’ in an area of your life in complete isolation. It is just like a series of cheques and balances. I am probably depositing more (time and energy) into an area of my life which means I’m withdrawing (time and energy) from another.
To get out of the rut (for lack of a better term) I would look at how I can manage all areas of my life to free up more time and energy for the area of my life that I want to improve on, in this case, my health and fitness.
The thought that I’m going to be on my A game every day, year in, year out is just not a true reality. I’m always striving to be consistently progressing, giving my best and certainly never being complacent, but I accept that at times I may not operate at the same level and that’s ok.
If you are currently experiencing what many would refer to as a ‘rut’ maybe it is time for you to step back and evaluate each area of your life and see where you can make some changes to free up the time and energy you need for what is important to you right now!
Hope this was of value to you, if it was please share with your friends by copying the URL above. - Coach Brad
