5 ways to get out of a funk

Life has its ups and downs, and sometimes it's hard to get back up

I’m in a funk right now.

And that’s not super uncommon, it’s something that happens to me quite frequently, actually - my creative process isn’t particularly disciplined, it’s quite capricious and fleeting, and I’m often low on energy for various reasons - both physical and mental.

But because it’s always been this way for me, I have a few things I try to break out of it and start being productive again. They don’t always work, but when they do it’s quite nice! So I thought I’d share, in case it helps someone else as well:

1. Do something nice / say something nice to someone

This is my go-to, if I’m feeling blah, I like to give someone a compliment or let them know something that I noticed that I thought was cool, or something along those lines. It’s easy, it’s free, and spreading good vibes also grants good vibes.

In general, I don’t think people say positive things often enough. There’s enough criticism to go around at all times, and life in general can be pretty rough. People appreciate hearing nice things, or simple kind gestures.

2. Go through your previous creative work

I write music, so if I’m feeling uncreative and want to get the juices flowing, often I play some of my older work that I thought turned out pretty well. It’s a nice reminder that I can actually be competent at times! For writing, sometimes I read my older articles, or older stories I’ve written.

This doesn’t always work - sometimes I’m just like “man how did I even do that” and start spiraling negatively, but most of the time it helps fight back against the more negative thoughts that I tend to have when my energy is low.

3. Take a walk

Legitimately one of the best pieces of advice, for all sorts of situations, is to take a walk. Not only is it just generally good to do some exercise, it stimulates the mind. It also works much better to go outside and walk than just go to a gym and walk on a treadmill - something about the outdoors assists in the process.

When my stepdad passed away, I was having a really hard time processing everything and thinking about what to say in a eulogy. It felt impossible. But I drove to my favorite hiking spot and walked around for a few hours, and in doing so, it eventually came to me.

4. Do some chores

I basically only clean my apartment when I’m procrastinating, preparing for visitors, or trying to bust out of a funk - but hey, whatever works, right? It’s the best when I can add some chores to a to-do list and check them off, very satisfying, and it’s just nice to do something easy that also feels productive.

And it’s never a bad feeling to have a clean place.

5. Just grind it out 

This is what I’m doing right now! I haven’t written an article in a few weeks, and I thought, y’know what, I’m just going to open the app up and start writing about whatever. Eventually, I stumbled on this topic, as it was on the top of my mind, so I thought, why not. And then this article popped out. It’s not the best thing I’ve ever written, but hey, at least it’s something productive, right?

And maybe it’ll help someone get out of their funk, too.