Beating the Blahs

 

 

 

“Thinking, “Here goes nothing,” could be the start of everything.”
—Drew Wagner

It has been coming, slowly, slowly, and we have tried to ignore it, but, it keeps layering and layering, and suddenly, one cannot ignore it any longer.  The blahs have taken up residence.

Are you having trouble concentrating?  Is life holding less excitement?  Does it feel like your brain has shrunk?  Is there an emptiness?  Are you just bone weary?  Are you unsettled, irritated easily, burned out?  Not hopeless, not depressed, just blah!

Have you ever been startled and there was a dire emergency and you jumped into action and did what you could, and did not emotionally feel it until afterwards?  Well, that is how the brain works.  Covid and its restrictions have been with us too long.  First there was shock, then fear, and we all masked up and were afraid of each other, losing less and less trust as divisiveness cam into play (and yes, there was some anger too) and then on and on it has gone until we just don’t feel any more one way or the other.  We are just putting one foot in front of the other and getting through, and through, and through, and it seems like waiting for a second coming.  And then, wave after wave, and now monkey virus.  It doesn’t end.  There is a low-level type of grief.  There is lethargy.  Yes, I feel lethargic.  No fight or flight is left to it all.  That amygdala ha nothing to alert about, just passively sitting there, tired of fake news and worldly things that just do not seem to matter.  (Unless there is the shooting of 20+ grade four students and two teachers, but are we even becoming immune to hearing this tragic horrific news.)  There is no sense of real safety any ore.  There is no real sense of well-being.  It just is what it is.

How do we add some spark to our lives in all this lethargy?

Seek out Awe:

 Try to go for a walk, somewhere new, and search for awe in nature. Look down for a change. Find pretty rocks.  Find a flower you do not know the name of.  Find a pool teeming with life. 

Look, really look at a tree.  Describe the bark, the texture, the smell, the little life beings that call it home.  Seek out nests. 

And, while you are there, listen for sounds you might not have noticed for a while.  Look for bugs.   That tree is their whole life, each raindrop, slithering down the trunk, is a tsunami, a raging river, a soft flowing rivulet, and where water pools on the tree is a lake.  Imagine their world. 

Take a panoramic view and see who trees chose to grow with.  See the symbiotic relationships.  Take a camera and catch the perfect in-frame moment.  

Keep your thoughts shifted outward.  Watch for the dear small things you can focus on.  Look for unexpected things. 

We cannot force anything, but we can practice focusing on things we have been too busy to pay attention to.  As we begin to do more and more refocusing, it is as if the soul makes muscle-memory and wants more and more of it.  You cannot force it, other than getting out there in the first place.  The more you do it, the more that your brain starts thinking more positive things… little moments of awe add up.  The more you do it, the more that you will notice, the more you notice, the more you will crave that.  It begins as practice.  Then, the practice, becomes inevitable.  There becomes a natural flow into all areas of your life.  You begin to notice things you had forgotten to notice.  It shifts self from Ego, to soul. 

I wish you awe.  I wish you the fortitude, like I need, to simply get out there and get started.

©Carol Desjarlais 5.26.22