22 Apr The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find Your Path Forward
In some way or other, we all want to be happier and/or more successful.
It’s great to be present and to be content in this moment, but it’s also great and most of us also want to progress, to improve, to develop.
Either way, whatever it is we’re aiming for, we all get stuck sometimes.
That’s normal. But there are ways we can work or break through this stuck-ness and this article by Britt Frank via Next Big Ideas has some great suggestions …
Britt Frank is a licensed psychotherapist, trauma specialist, educator, and former addict. She is an award-winning adjunct professor for her time teaching at the University of Kansas. She also speaks and writes widely about achieving and maintaining emotional wellness.
Below, Britt shares 5 key insights from her new book, The Science of Stuck: Breaking Through Inertia to Find Your Path Forward.
1. We need anxiety.
People often enter therapy suffering from severe symptoms and think that all they need is to “get rid of” their anxiety. While anxiety can be debilitating and, in some cases, must be medically managed before any other interventions can be applied, trying to get rid of anxiety is as pointless as trying to disable the smoke alarm in your home.
When your smoke alarm starts screeching, the noise is uncomfortable and inconvenient, but the alarm is not attacking the house; the noise is a sign that something needs attention. Similarly, anxiety is not a character flaw or an illness—it’s the “check engine” light on our brain’s dashboard. If we disable or mute our anxiety indicators, we won’t know where the problem is. Anxiety is a roadmap that points us towards either a real or imagined threat, pain from the past, or something in the present that needs our attention. Anxiety can lead us out of our chaos. In short, we need it.
2. Motivation is not a mindset issue.
We love to work with the logical, analytical thinking part of our brain, so as a result, we love to think our way through problems, strategize, and create action plans. Thoughts do help shape behavior and therefore reality; however, you cannot simply think your way out of “stuck.” Motivation is largely a physiological issue, not a mindset issue…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE