How to get through a dark period

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How to get through dark periodBy Rachel Rofe

• There are always ups and downs in life, and
  unfortunately sometime the downs last longer than
  wed like.
• This episode goes over some of my best get out
  of a funk techniques, including everything I
  used to get out of my own recent not-so-stellar
  period.

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I had recently gone through a pretty dark period
where we just had, my boyfriend and I had all
kinds of things happen to us. It all started
early September. We were at the airport, moving
to our new house, and literally at the airport,
we went on our emails on our phone and we got an
email about basically a lawsuit for something
that we're actually completely innocent on it.
It's the craziest story.
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The first thing that really, really helped me was
just to be able to get it out. I would just email
my friends, I'm in a mastermind, and I would just
email them and vent everything. I would get it
all out, I would say exactly how I'm feeling,
what's been bothering me, because it feels to
just be able to be heard. Even if you're not in a
mastermind, ask somebody you can trust if you can
just vent to them. Say, "I don't need advice,"
but be very frank about what you want.
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Something else that has been extremely helpful,
and I know they say that this helps depressed
people in general, it's one of the best things
for depressed people, is to help somebody else.
Because that gives you perspective, especially
when you're helping people in a less fortunate
position than you are.
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The next thing is, feel it. So whatever is
bothering you, don't try and trick yourself into
thinking positively or thinking that you can just
change your mindset and it will go away. Because
that's just really like a short term band-aid.
It's kind of like putting your hand over a fire
hose, and then as soon as you go sneeze and you
go to cover your nose or something, water's just
going to come pouring out at you. It's the same
for your qualms. So you've got to be able to
release them.
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The next thing is, make changes. If you're
feeling depressed, then there's things that
obviously need to change, right?
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Another thing is get into nature. As humans,
we're meant to go outside. It's how we developed.
For years and years and years, we were always
outside. Being inside all the time is just not
natural, and I know now if you're listening to
this in the winter, it's cold.
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Another thing is to eat better food. When you're
feeling like crap, it's easy to want to eat like
crap. It's easy, I know I was just craving chips.
That's kind of my weak link, chips. But you are
what you eat, and when you're eating poor food,
when you're eating crappy quality food, you're
just going to feel sluggish. You're not going to
have a lot of energy, and it's just going to
continue the cycle of feeling bad.
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Another thing is look for the lesson. Sometimes
you can't. Truthfully, sometimes you can't find
the lesson. When I was going through all this
stuff, I kept asking myself, "What is the lesson
from this?" It was like "There is no lesson. This
just sucks." Sometimes I can't find the lesson.
So it's worth at least asking yourself, "Am I
learning anything from this?'
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Another thing is learn something new. So we
thrive when we're growing. That's one of our
biggest happiness points, is when we're growing
and learning new things, we feel better. And if
you are going through a dark period - really at
anytime but especially when you're in this dark
period - take some time to learn something new.
You're going to experience that novelty, which is
great for growth.
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Another thing is get together with friends. One
of the things that was most helpful for me is
when I moved to Las Vegas, I found some amazing,
amazing friends and I just scheduled time to get
together with them. Now I know when you're not
feeling good, it's easy to just want to stay at
home and just veg, but I know I felt so nourished
every single time I went and hung out with a
friend. It didn't necessarily last for weeks.
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So I mean that's it. Those were some of the
things that helped me. Listen to see if any of
those help you. Maybe right now - thankfully -
you're not in a dark period, and maybe you just
think about this later on, if you happen to go
through something later on which I know that we
always will. I just think that these are some of
the core things that you can do to be able to
lift yourself up and start to feel better.