Getting Unstuck
“If you can’t do what you long to do, go do something else. Go walk the dog, go pick up every bit of trash on the street outside your home, go walk the dog again, go bake a peach cobbler, go paint some pebbles with brightly colored nail polish and put them in a pile. You might think it’s procrastiantion, but – with the right intention – it isn’t; it’s motion. And any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.”
― Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
Comfortably Uncomfortable
When I was stuck in my last job, the urge to quit hit me in 2014 harder than ever. I was bored at work, had lost all sense of creativity, and didn’t have much of a vision of where I wanted to go. But I had a steady salary, and so I stayed stuck. For FOUR more years.
At the same time, I was struggling with my food choices and each meal was filled with judgment for what was on my plate, and worries about what others thought of my food choices. I wanted to be healthier, feel better in my body, but the cycle of compensating for my lack of joy in my work with food, then depriving myself for a while, just had me circling round the familiar vicious cycle.
I had no energy. No motivation.
But I did keep on searching. Looking for the thing that would snap me out of it.
Small Steps, Big Change
Slowly, through choosing to do one small thing for myself, I felt the urge to start doing other small things. It’s exactly what Elizabeth Gilbert says in her book that I quoted at the top of the page, “any motion whatsoever beats inertia, because inspiration will always be drawn to motion.”
I reached out for help to a holistic nutritionist, who gave me the tools I needed to listen to my body’s needs.
- Knowing what foods help boost my energy and mood made me feel ease around my food choices.
- Thinking about how each form of exercise that I love makes me feel afterward, allowed me to choose my movement by asking “how do I want to feel?”
Learning how to listen to my body and treat myself with love & kindness flowed over into other parts of my life.
Because… our bodies respond to kindness.
Rebuilding Joy
And so I rebuilt the joy and ease into my life that seemed to have been erased by my soulless job. I began to see beauty around me and feel gratitude in my heart. My husband and I started to take mini holidays, based around concerts, museums and outdoor activities (pre-covid, of course!).
I was still in my job, but everything around it had changed. It was only at that time that I found the courage to quit in order to follow my heart.
Making those connections between food, movement, self-care and creativity were vital in bringing me to a place where I could dare to leap out of my job.
From Survival Mode to Flourish Mode
When we slow down and take small, consistent action… everything changes. No, it’s not overnight transformation that we’d all hope for, but it is accumulative. And with time, the contrast between then and now becomes more and more evident.
Go out on your first Creative Walking Tour using the PDF & audio guide I put together for you.
If you enjoy it, you may enjoy A Year of Creative Walking Tours, with weekly prompts to keep you walking in this new way!
Click the image or the button down below.
