Therapy can help you define your personal values and the direction you would like to head in through practical tools and engagement.

Want more ways to move forward when you feel stuck? Try therapy. Read our article on How Gratitude Can Change Your Life to learn more. Practice gratitude to shift your focus from what you think is lacking in your life, to what is a source of happiness and something to be grateful for. Part of living in the present is focusing on what you do have in your life. Doing so will make you feel connected and grounded to the here and now.

Instead, surrender to the present moment and focus on what is in front of you. Placing conditions on your happiness will only create suffering, and will keep you waiting for the next condition to make you happy. Saying, 'Everything will be better when I get that promotion,' or, 'I'll be happy when I lose 10 pounds' is continuing to add fog to those lenses.ĭon't place conditions on your happiness. Stop waiting for life to be perfect for you to be happy. Read more on How Routines Benefit Your Mental Health. Start a new hobby, read a self-development book, find motivational videos online. Try to switch up your routine and surround yourself with inspirational content. Why do you want to accomplish them? What benefits will they bring to your life? Focusing on the positive effects and the reasons behind your goals will encourage follow-through.īeing in a rut can stem from repeating the same things on a daily basis. In addition, determine the why behind your goals. What has been helpful for my clients is discussing control such as what are things that remain in their control versus what continues to remain out of their control in order to see what could be a barrier that is getting in the way of progress. Consider the progress you have already made, the progress you would like to continue to see in order to achieve your goal(s), and take time to perhaps research necessary next steps. When you feel yourself getting stuck, now is a great time to re-evaluate the goals that you are wanting to achieve. Alissa Christenson, Psychotherapist and DBT Therapist at Nystrom & Associates, shares how to go about this process: Re-evaluating your goals is a valuable tool to help you move forward when you feel stuck. Constantly reliving moments will keep you feeling stuck and drain your energy. While there’s no changing the past, hopefully, you learned from it. In order to move forward, you need to let go of what is no longer serving you. The past could be in the form of a person, memory, or a period of time you long for, or one you regret. Unfortunately, you can’t go back in time. As hard as it may be, let go of the past. You can rip it up, or safely burn it.Īttaching your value to the past is a sure-fire way to make us feel stuck in life. One way to help you move forward is to write a letter to a person you feel has wronged you (even if it's yourself), and then let it go. Accept the role you played, and continue forward. Don’t continue wasting your precious energy blaming others for your circumstances. Stop playing the victim, and ask yourself how you played a role in where you are. Part of moving forward involves accepting responsibility for your choices, along with where you are at in life. Reflect on your session, it may determine the root cause of why you're feeling stuck, or discover feelings you may not have been consciously aware of. Don’t judge your handwriting or what you're writing, and keep writing until you have nothing left to say. Let whatever comes to you, be written down. It allows the pen to take over and criticisms to be set aside.

Brain dumping is when you 'dump' all of the contents of your brain onto paper, without filtering yourself. Put pen to paper and determine why you're feeling stuck. Here are seven ways to move forward when you feel stuck.

However, there are ways to clear the fog off those lenses and start moving toward a progressive state of mind. Feeling stuck can happen at any point in life and to anyone. Or you may feel like you don't know the next step to take, making the view cloudy and your perspective even more hindered. Your mind may keep drifting to the past, which limits your hope for the future and inhibits your ability to be happy in the present moment. When you feel stuck, life can seem like it's filtered through a pair of foggy lenses. The Nystrom & Associates provider consulted for this article is Alissa Christenson, MA, Psychotherapist and DBT Therapist.

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