3 Creative Solutions to Empower Yourself

Creative solutions can seem far away when you’re feeling stuck in life. Because part of feeling stuck is the inability to come up with creative solutions! It’s like your brain is one of those wind-up toys that runs into a wall and keeps going until it finally runs out of gas and stops.

If you know the feeling, I hope some of the ideas I’m about to offer you will help you start to get unstuck and feel hope for the future. Because feeling stuck SUCKS!

Why We Get Stuck

It’s good to have an idea of why most of us get stuck in the first place before we get into creative solutions.

So why do we get stuck? Initially, countless external circumstances and scenarios can seem to stop you in your tracks. Maybe you lost a job or went through a breakup. Perhaps you moved and haven’t found your tribe in the new location. Maybe you got in an accident and totaled your new car. The list goes on.

The real trouble starts when you can’t seem to start back up again. That’s where the feeling of being stuck sets in. And feeling stuck can usually be linked to one thing: Your habitual patterns. Where do these patterns originate? In your mind. That being the case, that’s often the best place to start if you want to get to the root of the problem.

Mind-Management

Feeling stuck is almost always accompanied by the voice of the inner a-hole. The voice in your head that takes the opportunity to kick you while you’re down. It goes by many names: the inner bully, the inner critic, your worst enemy. Whatever you want to call it, it’s the part of you that likes to remind you that you are a worthless piece of poo who deserves to be stuck because of some unforgivable choice you made or because you are just innately unworthy of being fulfilled and happy.

Newsflash: 

That voice is an imposter! It’s lying to you and keeping you stuck so it can stay in control. For more about this wretched being of mind-control and manipulation and how to change your course, check out my previous blog posts about being kind to yourself and the imposter syndrome.

So let’s look at some simple ways to start dissolving the crusty layer of bullshit this SOB has created in your mind.

How To Stop Beating Yourself Up

Simply acknowledging that this voice is not you is a big step in the right direction. You don’t have to take what it’s saying at face value. Start to be aware of when you are beating yourself up (or, more accurately, when this foreign invader is telling you shit that ain’t true). 

If you’re like many people, you grimace at the thought of meditating because that seems to be the most suitable time for this imp to take the stage. However, it’s also an excellent time for the real you to start kicking ass. You can’t make progress if you aren’t willing to acknowledge where the problem is coming from. 

Try sitting quietly and observing for a short time at first (like ten minutes, or even one minute if that’s all you can take) to face up to the bully. See it for what it is. Get hip to its game. Notice what it’s saying, and then if you can, let it go. Don’t start an argument or justify whatever it’s trying to smack you around for. Just observe and let go. Simply observing is like shining a light on the monster. Negative entities like to operate in the shadows, so just by noticing it, you give it a little pause, like a deer in the headlights.

It may help to see the negative thoughts dissolve, fade into a fog, or float away. Any visual that lets you loosen the grip of the lying bastard on your thought process is good.

The process of separating yourself from the negative inner voice is called externalizing the critic by clinical psychologist Sabrina Romanoff in this article on Upjourney.com. 

One thing that has proven highly effective in meditation is syncing up the two brain hemispheres. If you’re having trouble externalizing the critic (aka the monkey-mind), Brainsync.com has some tremendous free meditations that may help.

Empower Yourself

Feeling stuck is synonymous with feeling disempowered. So let’s get into some creative solutions you can employ to regain your power and start moving forward again.

One: Keep a self-empowerment journal.

Journaling with the aim of self-empowerment is a great way to remind yourself of all the reasons you are not what the imposter is telling you.

These do not have to be monumental events. Some days, simply getting yourself out of bed and into the shower is worth acknowledging. So keep that in mind. Did you make a difficult phone call today? Did you do something kind for another person? Did you color a nice picture? ANYTHING you do that gives you a good feeling about yourself is worthy of writing in your journal. 

If you keep it near you all the time, you can quickly jot things down when they occur to you. And when you start to feel that nasty stuck feeling, you can thumb through your journal. 

Two: Create an inspiration interval.

Inspiration intervals can entail any activity that gives you a sense of freedom, inspiration, or empowerment. And it doesn’t have to be an all-day event if you don’t have the time. However, it can be if you do. Here are some ideas:

• Go for a nature hike or sit by a flowing stream of water and imagine the water washing away your fears and doubts.

• Visit a museum, a favorite inspiring retail store, or another place that inspires you.

• Go for a drive through the country.

• Have a meal at your favorite restaurant.

• Watch a funny or inspiring movie.

• Make something (for yourself, someone else, or just for fun).

• Meet a friend for coffee.

• Work out.

Three: Have a forgive and move-on session with yourself.

Maybe you did mess up. That’s not just okay. It’s part of being human. We all fuck up from time to time. So give yourself a break. Acknowledge that you did something you’re not proud of, and devise ways to move on. What’s in the past cannot be changed. But what you do now can. If you feel you need some help forgiving yourself, check out this article on SelfGrowth.com by Colin Tipping, who wrote the book Radical Forgiveness. He’s an expert on how to forgive (others and yourself) and move on.

Conclusion

It’s tough to feel empowered when you’re stuck in life and unable to come up with creative solutions.

Regardless of why you’re feeling stuck, there’s one thing that KEEPS you feeling that way: negative thinking. It goes by many names, but it comes from within your own head, so that’s a great place to start if you want to get serious about moving forward. 

I hope this article will help you discern some creative solutions for getting unstuck. You are here to kick ass and take names, my friend. And you ARE worthy of a good life, no matter how much you think you screwed up in the past. The world is waiting for you to emerge as the badass you came here to be.