How to Get Yourself Out of a Slump

When you’re in a sad slump and find yourself with no energy, little to no motivation, and generally feeling low, irritable, or stuck, shaking up your routine and prioritizing healthy habits can help you find your way out of it.

From acknowledging your feelings to giving yourself things to look forward to, let’s look at the different things you can do to feel better when you’re in a slump.

Acknowledge and Accept Your Feelings

Slumps are a normal part of the human experience that most of us have felt at some time or another. Rather than feeling guilt, shame, or frustration about being in a slump, try to be kind to yourself by acknowledging the feelings you’re facing. Remind yourself that slumps can happen to anyone and that there are things you can do to help break out of it and feel more like yourself again.

Take Stock

Usually, a slump is a sign that something in your life needs to change, even if it’s just a small thing like making time for rest or a day off. To help you recognize where a shift needs to happen, take a look at your lifestyle and habits. You can do this by asking yourself questions like:

• How has the quality of my sleep been, and have I been maintaining a consistent sleep routine?
• What types of food have I been eating? Have I been eating more or less than usual?
• Have I been consistently exercising?
• Have I felt obligated to sacrifice the quality of my sleep, diet, or exercise routine for other areas of my life, like work or family?
• How has work been going? Am I in a period of intense stress with high demands for productivity, or are things feeling stagnant and unfulfilling?
• Have I had time to catch up and spend time with loved ones?
• When was the last time I had time off from work or commitments to others?

These questions can help you identify ways you might be adding to your slump without realizing it and find approaches to refresh your mindset.

Take Time Off

Sometimes, taking a day (or two) off from obligations to others and the expectations you put on yourself to rest can give you the reset you need to break out of a slump. This day doesn’t have to be about physical rest either; rest can come in many forms, like mental, sensory, creative, or emotional.

Listening to how you’re feeling on your day off can help you determine the type of rest you need — be it a day of lounging on the couch and getting lost in a book or movie, or spending the day avoiding devices and getting outside or doing something creative. Whatever form of rest you choose, give yourself enough time to fully immerse yourself in it.

Take a Break from Social Media

Social media can be a fun way to keep up with friends and family, but it can also become a place of comparison or breed feelings of insecurity or loneliness. Add to this the unintentional doomscrolling that social media can make so easy to do, and social media can become a negative influence that contributes to a sad slump. Logging out of social media, even for just a few days, can help improve your mood, increase feelings of gratitude, and generally help you feel more comfortable with yourself.

Tidy Your Space

Our physical environments, like our homes and workplaces, can significantly impact our emotional well-being. Cluttered homes have been linked to feelings of depression, fatigue, irritability, and overwhelm and have even been linked to difficulty focusing. Taking the time to tidy, clean, and organize your space can help you clear your mind, offer you a sense of control, and be a mental and physical reset.

If being in a slump is making tidying or cleaning feel like impossible tasks, start small. Instead of cleaning a whole room or area, focus on one small task. It could be making your bed with the sheets and blankets already on it or clearing items off the coffee table or your desk. These things can get the ball rolling for other cleaning tasks and start lifting your mood.

Exercise

You’ve likely heard this suggestion as a remedy for most things in life, and there’s a good reason for that: exercising offers a host of benefits that support our physical and mental health, which makes it an excellent way to lift you out of a slump. Whether you decide to walk, lift weights, do yoga, or get your heart pumping with cardio, you’ll get a dose of feel-good hormones that stay with you as you move on to other activities.

Connect With Friends and Family

Turning to friends and family when you’re going through a hard time can be the perfect distraction or way to work through your feelings. Whether you get together to talk or to do a fun activity, making time with the people you care about while in a slump can help break the negative cycle.

Make Fun Plans

Give yourself something to look forward to by creating fun and exciting plans with your favorite people or person. It could be something as simple as going out to dinner at that restaurant you’ve been dying to try or hosting an at-home casino night while looking for the ideal slot website to add some extra excitement.

Slumps Happen, but the Little Things in Life Help

Slumps happen, but that doesn’t mean they’re easy to deal with. Taking the time to care for yourself, starting with accepting that you’re in a slump, will help you get through it. Prioritize the little things that can be easily taken for granted during stressful periods, like healthy habits, restful activities, and time with others, to help you find your way back to feeling like your usual self.