They don’t teach you in school how to get out of a funk, but they should do.
And no, I don’t meet the cool kind of 70s groove funk, I mean the kind of funk that sucks the life spirit out of you, stops you from taking action on your goals and just enjoying yourself.
Luckily, your friendly mindset and behaviour change coach Alison is here (hello!) to tell you how to de-funk yourself and go from listless to loving life again.
What is a funk?
First, let’s just clarify. When I say funk, I’m not talking about clinical depression or a natural, normal reaction to a challenging situation. I’m talking about the kind of funk that appears seemingly out of the blue and makes you feel dissatisfied and blue even though you have no real reason to.
And even though you feel funky, it may take a few days to admit that you feel funky.
Because you feel guilty for feeling funky.
You think you should be enjoying your awesome life and making the most out of this precious time you have on the earth instead of what you’re actually doing which is doomscrolling, trying not to eat the house supply of chocolate in one sitting, and watching late night trashy TV instead of going to bed at a reasonable time.
And all this guilt just adds to the funk by the way creating a weird, sad funk spiral.
If you’ve ever felt like that, you’re not alone. I’ve felt that kind of funk and I felt it recently too.
For the last few days, I’ve felt my funk brewing and it peaked today. At first, I thought it was just a regular meh mood. I tried being kind to myself, I tried the self-care stuff but after a few days, I noticed my mood deteriorate more and realised that no amount of meditating, practising gratitude, napping or journaling was going to help.
There was only one thing for it.
I had to find the funk, fight it and win. And the only way you do that is by getting out of your head and going into your body.
The physiological blueprint
Did you know that when you feel an emotion, you feel it in your mind and your body? Emotions are therefore both a psychological AND a physiological experience. When you feel a feeling like sadness or stress a cocktail of hormones and neurotransmitters get released into your body affecting your tissues, organs and brain. It’s like a chemical party that you never asked for and don’t want to attend.
Sometimes these chemicals, especially the stress ones don’t turn off. Your body gets stuck in a state of “fight or flight” and this then negatively affects your mood.
This is the inception of the funk.
Emily and Amelia Nagoski authors of Burnout, say that we need to ensure we return to baseline and “complete the stress response cycle”. In other words, our chemical party guests have overstayed their welcome and they need to skidaddle pronto so that we can return to feeling good again and clean up the mess they’ve made.
De-funking
There are lots of ways to complete the cycle with physical activity being the most effective. Crying is also on the list as is laughing, creative expression, deep breathing, touch and positive social interaction.
So to get rid of my funk I exercised hard and thought I would sweat it out. It didn’t work. So then I did some tapping and thought I’d cry the funk out. It still didn’t work. So then I did breathwork and finally breathed that mother-funking funk out.
The funk lifted and now I feel night and day different. I feel myself again. And the cherry on the 70s cool funk cake was the positive social interaction I had during the co-working session The One Life School hosted that evening.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to de-funking yourself, however. Depending on how stressed you’ve been, your situation and your unique physiological make-up you may find that you need different activities in more or less quantities to effectively complete your cycle.
Just try something out and then pay attention to how you feel afterwards because if you have completed your cycle, you will feel different, lighter, better, like the weight has lifted off you or you’ve shifted gear.
And when you do, you will woohoo because that funk has gone!
Sometimes you can solve your problems through thinking (and did you know that hiring a coach can help you to think more effectively?😉) But sometimes you need to STOP thinking and instead speak the language of your body.
What helps you get out of a funk?
