TO BE HUMAN IS TO FEEL “MEH”
Image Credit: Unsplash
How are you hanging in? How are you really?
The most common reply I’ve heard from clients lately when I ask, “how are you?” is – “meh.” If I’m honest, I’m feeling it too. I had a hard time approaching this month’s blog topic as I just wasn’t feeling the original theme I had planned. I too was feeling “meh.” So, I decided to dive into this state.
“Meh” is a very human mood. It is different than depressed. There’s not necessarily something wrong in one’s personal life. But you just don’t feel like yourself. You can do the essential things but find it hard to motivate oneself to complete the extras. One feels uninterested or lethargic. Life might feel or look a little dull. This mood may last a handful of days, but less than 2 weeks. Eventually, the “cloud” lifts and you see and feel life in color again.
Being in a state of “meh” right now is easy to understand. Consider the impact of continued living with COVID, the violence on the news and in local communities, the unrest with politics and SCOTUS, accumulation of heat from summer, and the looming school year. There may be low level grief, fear, confusion and even frustration. All this combined may lead to feeling “meh.”
You have permission to not pathologize feeling “meh.”
Instead:
Accept
Support
Rest
ACCEPT
Accept that feeling “meh” is part of being human.
Emotional health is not about the absence of negative feelings, but the ability to feel it all and not react frantically about any one mood.
Refrain from the following:
pathologizing this state
making this about someone else
ruminating and adding content to the mood
making any major life decisions
scrolling excessively on social media to pass time
Instead, stay out of your head:
Be kind to yourself
Look up Kristin Neff and her work on self-compassion. This link takes you to meditations and exercises.
Read
Connect with friends
SUPPORT with Yoga
It is thought that engaging the higher chakras can help to heal the lower ones of safety, creativity, and self-definition.
To engage the heart (compassion, acceptance, peace, trust):
listen to music with violin
practice alternate nostril breath
open chest and shoulders with yoga postures or this video
eat vegetables
engage senses with the following smells: Rosewood, Pine, Neroli, Jasmine, Marjoram, Eucalyptus, and Yarrow
To engage the throat (self-expression, truth):
listen to music with flutes
practice Ujjayi breath
open neck and shoulders with yoga poses or this video
sing
journal
eat fruits
To engage the third eye (insight):
listen to music with crystal bowls
engage in gazing meditations
To engage the crown (wisdom, intelligence, presence, open mindedness):
practice alternate nostril breath
practice balance poses or inversions in yoga
meditate or pray
REST with Ayurveda
Sleep is so nourishing and healing!
Check out Tracee Stanely on deep rest and yoga nidra, as well as Octavia Raheem for stillness practices in times of change.
Also, a mid-afternoon nap of 30-minutes or less is encouraged!
Just a like a snow globe, while feeling “meh,” parts of you will feel shaken, but those parts will settle and re-ground to where the heart always waits below.
