Low… you know that blah feeling… not utterly depressed but kinda sad, unhappy, not very dynamic, a bit pessimistic. Yes, that’s the one.
It’s a feeling that can take you by surprise at any time. Unless you are some of those happy clappy constantly joyous persons… no disrespect to these people I honestly do not know what their secret is and applaud them for being like this despite the type of world we live in.
Low is a feeling that can take over you even more often if you are an empath like me as you can be influenced by absolutely anything: the planets, the eclipses, the full moon, the energies of people around you.
Low is different than depressed in the sense that it usually lasts less, hurts less, is less dark in its outlook on life and yet it is a very uncomfortable feeling. When you are low you can function, something you cannot do when you are depressed, but you lack energy, pleasure, spirit.
You’re easily lazy in that state and procrastinate a lot. And the problem is the more you allow that the lower you feel… self sustaining the vicious circle of low-liness…
… Pardon the play on words but it so happens that you also feel lonely in that state. It is more difficult to connect with people… especially the happy clappy ones! Or rather you prefer to disconnect yourself from people because you don’t have the energy to sustain a conversation.
States of low I have experienced multiple times in my life going all the way through severe phases of depression. Life has not been easy since last summer (thus the lack of posts) and I have been alternating phases of control of my life with phases of… blah.
Let me tell you what I think of blah… It is not cool. It is not cool because it makes you look at yourself through blah glasses.
You remember how you felt when your energy was up and you hate yourself for not sustaining that feeling. This is where ‘little victories’ come in. Instead of looking at the overall picture of yourself, energised, strong, in control, fun, full of life, you had a couple of weeks ago and feeling disheartened for not feeling like this today take a thing or two per day that you can ‘score’. Exercising, cooking for friends, hanging those pictures on the wall you have been wanting to do for 6 months, taking that class, reading that book, smoking less… writing that article on the blog you have abandoned virtually since last summer. Yes, this is my own little victory of today…
The thing about little victories is the following: they act like those ‘likes’ that your friends put on your pictures on social media.
Feels good right? Only here you are the one putting the ‘like’… on yourself. It is a powerful thing. It is called self love. Self reward. And it leads to self confidence which surely enough will switch your low energy into a high one…
Self perceived victories are important because society trains us to perform and to recognise immediately a state of under performance. We also live in times that cultivate guilt and shame like the Mayans cultivated quinoa…
So in a state of low we tend to judge ourselves quickly and harshly: “What a bum! Didn’t do anything all day” “Totally incapable of (fill in the blank)” “Can’t even enjoy an evening out”. Guilt and shame are definitely the last energies we need to feel better about ourselves.
However what is important to remember here is the key word ‘little’. In a state of low, by definition, we don’t have tons of energy so our aim needs to be reasonable. Losing 10 kgs in 2 weeks is not reasonable and not achieving it will actually increase our feeling of low… therefore not achieving anything. In that state we need to practice benevolence towards ourselves. Stop being so hard on ourselves. Accept there are days with and days without. And if the days without start dragging making small steps to feel better will slowly turn them into days with… But we need to be patient with ourselves.
So there you go. The recipe I am actually practicing on myself these days:
Riding the unicorn 