Everyday is Groundhog Day

[ABC01]

Hello,

Everyday to me right now is on repeat. Everyone else’s lives are moving ,the dates on the calendar are flashing by and I am stuck on a loop.

I feel like a record/CD getting stuck and repeating that same small sounds.

I don’t know how to get off this feeling. How to move at all.

 I make myself do one task a day,and when it is done,I am exhausted and just want to sit down again.

Do others feel like this?

Have you figured out how to change?
ABC01

[therising]

Hi ABC01

I hate that feeling, that Groundhog Day feeling. It can definitely feel like a form of torture, that's for sure. I feel so deeply for you as you experience it.

While I'm not a fan of depressing inner dialogue, such as 'You're hopeless. Nothing in your life is ever going to change. You're a waste of space' and all that kind of stuff, I am a fan of inspiring inner dialogue. Inspiring inner dialogue can be so hard to tap into when we really need it. Before I go any further, just want to make it completely 100% clear, no, I don't hear voices. I can just sense inner dialogue (words that come to mind). Whether the dialogue's coming from some positive or negative aspects of our self, some part of the brain that acts in a way of negative or positive direction or it's coming from somewhere else, who knows (everyone's got a theory), the fact remains that being able to sense it can come with a variety of challenges.

While I know for a fact my husband is feeling stuck on repeat day after day, I asked him recently whether 'There has got to me more to life than this' is something that comes to mind. His response was 'Yes, often'. I then said to him 'Consider there is some part of you screaming this at you, as a revelation'. I suppose you could say it's only half the message, with the full message being 'There has got to be more to life than this. Your challenge is to find what's missing'. So, it's kinda like 'Oh, so this is a challenge for me to take up?!'. From my own experience, I'd say the next question is 'Where the heck do I start looking, when it comes to what's missing?'. I think the most important thing to know is we're on track now or on the right path, with the first step being 'Okay, let's begin this quest to find more'.

I'm a realist when I say some quests can require some financial investment, so the next question could be 'Have I got the funds to invest in certain interests?'. If not, then cheap or free opportunities when it comes to investing in our growth becomes a part of the search. If there's a healthy budget of at least a hundred dollars or so each week or each fortnight, then that's different. On a rotating 4 week roster of growth, in the 1st week you may develop the movie goer in you, in the 2nd it may involve developing the part of you that thrives on group meditation sessions, the 3rd week may involve bringing the nature lover in you to life and the 4th could involve the student in you champing at the bit to learn from some course. After some time, 4 new parts of you have come to life and you fall in love with those parts of yourself.

Whether it's the movie goer in us, the nature lover, the high flying adventurer, the writer, the artist, the group meditator or something else, there'll be some part or parts of us crying out at some point 'There has got to be more to life than this! Bring me to life and I'll show you how life is meant to feel'. While many different aspects of us can serve the soul, they come with the added bonus of serving us up hits of dopamine too, which is good for the mind and body. A depressing lack of dopamine can become seriously depressing.

[Guest_79257959]

Hello, yes I hear you and hope you’re okay. Unfortunately I can’t offer great advice as I am looking for the answers too 

[ABC01]

Dear Guest_79257959,

Thank you. Just knowing others are in the same boat as me is a weird type of solidarity. It means alot that even if you can’t offer advice,you still replied.
So thank you and I hope you are okay too.

ABC01

[ABC01]

Dear therising,

 I see the value in self care and in turn,that helping to develop new habits or hobbies.

It may be valuable to explore some of the reasons why it feels like groundhog day. The things that are keeping me stuck are so complicated that sometimes you just don’t want to do anything at all.

With so much noise in my mind,I may have to listen harder to what is crying out to be heard the most.

Thank you for your support.

ABC01

[therising]

Hi ABC01

It's so hard when the far less helpful inner dialogue is the loudest. It ends up being all you can hear on certain occasions. While it may sound simplistic, there are times where I've come to develop and rely on my imagination to serve me. It's about finding what works and what works is going to be different for each of us.

While I've always appreciated guided meditations, which help exercise the imagination, I found they never really gave me the answers I needed. Then, one day, what came to mind was 'Create your own guided meditation and, in it, go and meet with your (inner) sage'. So, this is what I did. Through my little white picketed gate, I go through from reality into my imagination. In there, there is a forest. Btw, next level imagining involves a lot of the senses. In my imagination, I can vaguely smell the trees and hear the path I walk on. I see the creatures that live in the forest, I can feel the sun through a break in the tree canopy. As I walk further into the forest, I come to a little cottage, where I see the detail of it with great clarity. I knock on the door and my sage answers, an old and wise man with long white hair and a white beard. He greets me with a smile and invites me in to sit at a small table. He asks 'What brings you here?' and I tell him. The problem or challenge I face will be different each time I visit. What comes as a revelation, revealed by my imagined sage through dialogue or a visual, relates to my challenge. It may involve looking around the imagined cottage and seeing something that triggers a revelation. I recall once, when experiencing a long period of high level stress and anxiety in my life, looking over to find a wall of clocks in the cottage all ticking away. I came to realise my stress was largely about time, whether it involved wasting it, not having enough of it, too many people filling it with a lot of challenges or not using it in the ways I really needed to. I had never felt the need to manage time before this, in such strategic or intricate ways. Before this challenge, I'd only ever managed it in basic ways.

I always thank my imagined sage before returning back along the path and back through the gate into reality. I bring my revelations back with me and do something with them.

Our imagination can be one of our most powerful and underutilised abilities. In there, we can meet just about anything or anyone, just about any time (whether it be a part of our self, someone we've lost or someone we imagine as inspirational). We can also meet with who or what we need anywhere - in the middle of a forest, on the end of a pier at a lake, under a tree in a field or somewhere we remember loving as a kid. If we were great daydreamers as kids, it was an ability that we once exercised well, until we were conditioned out of it.

[ABC01]

Hi out there,

Sometimes,like today, I feel like the world doesn’t exist.

I stay in my home, I talk to no one all day and see no one else either.

The world could be in the grips of a zombie apocalypse right now,and I would be none the wiser.

Does anyone else feel like this at times?
ABC01

[Rosie]

Hi ABC01

You pretty much described my day.  Infact since I retired in 2019, due to the deterioration of my mental health, all my days are like that.  I'd welcome a zombie apocalypse, I'd capture one and make it sit in the other sofa chair so I'd have someone to talk to.

Rosie 

[ABC01]

Dear Rosie,

Even though I feel like this myself, I am sorry to hear you feel that way too.

I have watched TWD, so I am pretty sure they are low maintenance to keep. Don’t know if their chat would be great though. They usually just groan or snarl. But then regular people do that too.

Have a good night.

ABC01