Stuck is an Illusion (And Your Ego Wants You to Believe it)
Stuck is an illusion that keeps us… Well, stuck.
No matter what our current reality feels like. No matter how dire or heavy our situation is , we are not stuck. Stuck isn’t real. It’s a story we tell ourselves to feel safe, even when safety isn’t actually what we’re experiencing.
There’s still energy moving around and through us, even when it feels slow and low vibe. Even when we convince ourselves that nothing is happening, there is still energy circulating. Micro-moments. We blink. We breathe.
And those everyday, vital, and seemingly small acts? They’re actually macro-movers.
Okay, out of the esoteric and back into the applicable stuff.
You’ve probably felt stuck. Maybe in a job. A toxic relationship or friendship. A living situation that no longer feels like home. The list is endless. And if you haven’t felt it yourself, you’ve definitely heard it from someone in your life. At first glance (and often in difficult or financially challenging situations), it can absolutely appear that stuck is a real thing.
I want to challenge that. A new paradigm. A new lens.
To get “unstuck” requires us to take personal responsibility for our own reality. And that’s hard! Because we have to take our focus off the person, thing, or place we believe is making us stuck… and look inward instead.
Peering inward can be scary. Owning your role in the state of your life isn’t meant to be a self-deprecating process. The point isn’t to make yourself feel worse.
The point is to get curious. Get quiet. Get centered. And then collect data about yourself.
That’s all it is — data.
And it’s invaluable, because awareness is the vehicle to change. It’s okay to look at this data without judgment. It’s neither “good” nor “bad.” It just is.
Once we shine a light on our own patterns and shortcomings, we actually have a chance at obtaining ultimate freedom, autonomy, and growth!
See, getting “unstuck” requires action. Introspection is an action. But there’s more to be done beyond that.
Getting out of the illusion of being stuck may require us to be uncomfortable for a while. Which is actually great, because “a while” is way shorter than “indefinitely.” And if we don’t take action to change our own lives? Then indefinitely becomes… well, inevitable.
We might have to ask for help. We might have to downsize. We might have to utilize resources that feel “below” us. We might have to get up earlier and fire off resumes like crazy. Hit the gym. Sit in that spiritual practice we keep saying we need but never actually do because the snooze button is just so tempting.
The list goes on. And that’s kind of the whole point of this post.
There are always action steps available if we look hard enough. If we’re relentlessly honest with ourselves. If we earnestly want out of the situation we’re calling “stuck.”
And make no mistake — our egos depend on us believing the illusion.
Staying stuck is a form of self-preservation for the ego. I think dissolution is its worst fear. Very human of that scared little girl or boy. So, we can forgive it, pat it on the head, thank it, and then tell it to take a seat.
Because here’s the thing: “stuck” is a construct we created somewhere along the way. The world taught us we weren’t safe. So, we formed this protective shell (hello, ego) and let an illusory idea run the entire show.
But we don’t have to keep letting it. We can pick up the pieces and, more importantly, gently pick ourselves up and rise again.
We have the ability and the right to make anew as many times as the soul needs us to in the wild Earthly journey!
We are always one tiny decision away from a whole new life.
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