Let’s continue to look at Cracking Your Code, by breaking non-productive cycles. When do you sense when you’re in a rut, or stuck in some way? What happens to you? How does your energy feel? These are a few great questions to ask when you feel the grind of the same old, same old.
Last month we looked at Stillness, the first in the Five-Part series. This month let’s look at what happens when we move from Stillness into Complexity—which is when you are preoccupied with complex ideas that seem to have no satisfactory resolution, then isolating from others while you spin in cycling thought patterns.
Part of cracking your code involves recognizing patterns. When you see concepts in groupings, you can create different relational dynamics with them. For example: beginning / middle / end, or spring / summer / fall / winter, or earth / air / fire / water / metal. These patterns form constructs in your mind so you can fit into your world.
Easing out of Complexity is about how you hold tension between Stillness and Complexity. When you feel stuck, there’s a rigid tightrope between the two–so you feel in control. When you try to keep things as they are you’re actually creating more of the rut. The way to re-establish the balance you seek is to do what may feel like you’re going against the flow: Shake up the need to hold everything just as it is.
Here are three things I use with my clients to shift out of, and crack the code in a Complexity cycle:
Open up to the world – do something you’ve never tried before. Question a belief you have that you believe is the Absolute Truth. (i.e. Pit Bulls are aggressive dogs and bit people).
Reconnect with your body – do something really kind for your body. Feed it nourishing food, use lotion on your dry skin, walk outside for 30 minutes.
Reconnect with friends and make new ones – when you talk to the same few people about your challenges and emotions, you can create a feedback cycle that rehashes and reopens the original traumatic incident. To break that cycle, serve your friends, and invite someone you’ve just met to an activity.