6 Tips to Find Your Spark When You're in a Funk

We've all been in a funk before.  Where you just feel blah. How do you jolt yourself out of that feeling? What's something simple and easy that doesn't require a lot of energy? I've got 6 things you can try. Six simple easy to do tasks that just might help you get your spark back.

Transcript

Hello, my name is Tiffany, and welcome to the podcast Working on Amazing. This is a podcast where we talk about the work that it takes to rebuild an amazing life.

Now, in today's episode, we're gonna talk about six things that you can do to help get yourself out of a funk. We've all been there, right? Where we're just having trouble getting past the blahs.

All right? If that's you, you're not alone.

And as this podcast is designed for women who feel like they're starting over in the middle of their life, I think when you're going through a lot of change and a lot of transition, it's really easy to feel like you're in a funk.

I'm going to give a caveat. If you feel like you're truly depressed, please reach out to a counselor, a licensed therapist, and talk to somebody. Mental health and mental health assistance is so much more accessible today than it was 20 years ago.

There are apps you can download and chat with somebody. You can call somebody. You can chat with them like on Zoom.

You can actually go into an office, but there's so many more options, and almost all insurances have a plan. If you don't have insurance, there's a lot of plans too. There is just a lot of resources out there.

So if you really feel like you're struggling with depression and not just the blahs, please talk to somebody. I feel like this is really, really important to really get the help you need to get over it. You got to talk to somebody.

You got to work it out. There's a difference between truly being depressed and just being in a funk, okay? And so what we're talking about today is just kind of being in a funk, just the blahs.

Like, I know I'm going to get through this, but I have really low energy. I feel a little bit apathetic and, oh, I'm just blah.

When you have a lot of stuff going on in your life, when it truly feels like you're starting over, it's easy to feel overwhelmed and just feel blah. How do you kind of snap out of it?

And what I'm talking about today, have you ever watched, like, on TV? I can't do this in real life, so I've seen it on TV, like on TV shows or movies.

When they're outdoors, they're camping or they're doing something outside and they need to start a fire and they get to flint and they knock it together and they get a spark and then they got to put it on something, you know, that's light and easy to

burn and then, you know, they get their fire going. Well, the things I'm talking about today are just like to help get you that spark. You know, we've got the flint, we've got the whatever, you know, we're just trying to get a spark going.

If you're feeling really blah, completely normal, don't beat yourself up over that. That's normal. But how do we get out of it?

Like, I don't want to feel just blah, I want to move out of this, you know, so just simple things. We're not looking for a whole wellness retreat. Sometimes when we're blah, we don't have the energy to do a lot.

I know that, okay? So these are six things that are really simple to do, even if you have low energy, even if you're just like, I'm not feeling it. These things are designed, intended to give you maybe just that little spark.

And from that spark, hopefully, you can get your flame back, right? And we can build that fire back up.

But these are just spark things, just little things, just to improve you, to get you over that hump, just to improve your mental health, just a little bit. So these aren't like drastic, big things.

I'm not talking about major mind and body resets here. I'm just talking about something little to help get you going, so you have the energy to nurture a flame, right?

We just are looking for a little spark to get us over that blah, to get us out of that funk, just a little bump to get us past that feeling. Does that make sense?

So nothing here is going to be big, nothing is going to be costly, nothing is going to be major or require a lot of energy. They're just simple things, okay? Because when we're in a funk, simple is best, right?

Because that's what we're most likely to do, is something really simple. So, six tips to help maybe boost you out of a funk if you're in a funk, just something little to get you over the edge. Number one is call or text a friend, but it has a caveat.

So, listen to the full thing before you pick up the phone, okay? Call or text a friend with intentionality, and this is what I mean.

I want you to call or text somebody with the purpose of checking in on them, seeing how they are doing, with the purpose of something that is centered around them and not you. This is the reason why I say that.

We are built for human connection, so we need that. Definitely very important. Sometimes when we call a good friend, what we end up doing is venting about our situation.

Have you ever done that? I've done that. And we say, we're just venting, everybody needs to vent, and that's true.

We do. We need to vent. But sometimes when we vent, we're just reiterating all the reasons why we're upset.

It doesn't serve a positive purpose. It just underscores. Yes, I'm right.

We revalidate why we're upset about the things that have us in a funk, the things that have kind of bothered us. That's not going to help get you out of a funk. That's going to help keep you stuck in the funk, right?

That's going to just, you're going to validate all the reasons why you're upset. And yes, we need to vent, and we need to talk about it. So I'm not telling you don't do that.

But if you want to get out of a funk, call somebody and be intentional. Call your grandmother if you're lucky enough to still have a grandmother alive. Hey, grandma, how are you doing?

How are things going? You don't call your grandmother to vent about your life. You call your grandmother to check on her, right?

So that's the type of thing I'm thinking about. Do you have an extended family member who just had a birthday, who just had this or that? They've got a major life change.

They're going through something. They had a baby. They started a new job.

They worked on a new project. Call somebody with the intention of talking about them and what they're doing. Don't call the person you normally vent to.

That's okay. It's good to have somebody to do that with, but call somebody maybe outside your really close network. Call somebody, reach out to somebody, text somebody, maybe send somebody a message.

Maybe it was a high school teacher that had a big impact on your life, and just reach out and say, hey, you know what? It's been 20, 30 years. I never told you what an impact you had on my life.

Maybe now with social media, we can be friends with people who... I'm friends with a college professor that I had back in college. And you can send maybe a message to somebody who's impacted your life.

Maybe it was an old coworker or something. Reach out to somebody intentionally just to see how they're doing, not to vent about you. Venting is okay, but that's in a different category.

So call or reach out to somebody you're not going to vent to, but somebody that you're just checking in on. It gives you that human connection. We all need human connection.

It makes you feel good because you've done something positive. You've given an emotional hug to somebody else. Everybody wants to be checked in on.

You want to be checked in on. You want somebody to just reach out to you and say, hey, you made a difference in my life 10 years ago, or hey, how are you doing? I know you had that major thing going on in your life.

That would make you feel good. So when you do that for somebody else, you get to be the benefactor, and that makes you feel good, okay?

So reach out to somebody, whether it's an extended family member who you don't check in on often, check in on them, see how they're doing. Check in on somebody, send them a message, send them a text, call them. Make it about them and not about you.

That is going to help give you a little bit of spark. It's going to make you feel good. You're going to have that human connection that we need.

You're going to have done something positive for somebody else by just reaching out and let them know somebody cares. So that's number one.

First in the list of six, just call somebody, but with the intention of just checking in on them, making it about them, not about you, but just about them. That is for the purpose of giving you a spark.

If we want a spark to get ourselves out of a funk, check in on somebody intentionally, not about you, but about them. Number two, if you want to get out of a funk, maybe it's as simple as complimenting somebody else.

It's such a simple act of kindness. I do this now all the time, it's become a habit.

But when you see something, maybe somebody's wearing an unusual piece of jewelry that catches your eye, or a pretty top, or a cute pair of shoes, or their hair is this, or whatever. Go ahead, if you see it, say it. Like, oh, that is beautiful.

Why is that important? Because almost always, not always, but most of the time, the majority of the time, when you say something to somebody else, it's like, oh, you give them a compliment, their face is gonna light up.

They're gonna be like, oh, thank you. And they may give you some feedback on it. Like, I found this at such-and-such, or this was on sale, or my mom gave me this, or my grandmother gave me this, or something like that.

It brings up a positive memory for them, okay? When you can impact somebody by having their face light up, that impacts you, right? Okay, so when you give somebody a compliment, it does something to you.

Not only does it affect them, but when you have the power to kind of make somebody's day so simply, it doesn't cost you anything, you can just make somebody smile, that feels good.

And sometimes that's just enough of a spark to help get us out of that funk, to put us in a better mood. So look for reasons to give other people compliments. Look for it.

Look for the beauty in things. Compliment it. I even compliment the sky, and I know I'm just complimenting the creator, but, oh my gosh, look at the sky, it's so beautiful.

When you see things, compliment them, compliment people. Be generous with your appreciation of the world around you and the things you see. It makes people feel good to know that somebody recognized something that means something to them.

I have a piece of jewelry that I love, and when somebody notices it, it always brightens my day. I'm like, oh my goodness, and I have to tell a story about it, I'm sure.

But, you have the power to brighten somebody's day, and in that, you have the power to brighten your day. When you realize something so simple makes such a big difference, that's powerful, okay?

And sometimes that's enough of a spark to help get you out of a funk. And even if it's not, what a beautiful power that is to help make people's days. I just, I think it's an amazing thing, and we should use it more often, right?

Wouldn't the world be a better place if everybody just complimented the beauty they saw in others? So, I highly, highly recommend this, and it quickly becomes just a habit and a way of life. And it's a positive thing.

And when you are positive, and you put positive words and actions and you reap what you sow, right? And it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, but there is this principle of, if you put it out, you get it back.

So, be positive and put positive things out there and tell people positive things. Like, I like that top. Oh my gosh, that's so beautiful.

Make somebody's day, make them smile. That might be the best thing that happened to them today. And when you realize that you had the power to make somebody's day, that makes you feel good.

So, that's number two. Number three, get up and move. Sometimes when we're in a funk, we feel a little bit lethargic, and we have to tell ourselves, all right, get up.

You just gotta get up. If you have a desk job, sometimes that's hard. I get it.

You're working on a project, you're at your computer, get up and walk around the building at the very least. If you can, on your lunch break, walk around the parking lot outside. If you can get outside for just five minutes.

Sunshine does a lot. Breathing fresh air does a lot. It makes a difference.

There's a reason people have something called seasonal depression, right? In the winter, when the days are shorter and it's darker, we're much more likely to get depressed as a human race, as people, right?

So depression is more likely when we're not in the sun as often. And so, like, we know this, you know this. I'm not telling you anything new, but we don't apply it.

We don't think, hey, I'm kind of feeling funky. Let me go recharge my batteries almost like literally, and just get a little bit of sunshine. Like, it really makes a difference.

Moving our body, just getting up and walking around, getting the blood flowing. And so many people today have jobs where they're sitting at a desk and they're in front of the computer. I'm raising my hand, you know?

And it's hard to get away when you're in the middle of something. But do, especially if you're struggling with feeling a little bit in a funk, a little bit blah.

Make yourself get up and say, okay, I'm going to walk two laps around the building, you know? Something simple, nothing that is too drastic.

But once again, we're just looking for a little spark, just a little edge, a little bit of blood flowing, a little bit of sunshine on our face.

Sometimes when we're inside all day, and even though I'm not telling you anything new, even though you know that it makes a difference, even though you've heard of seasonal depression, sometimes when we're in the middle of just feeling funky, we

don't think about it. We're not like, oh yeah. So I'm here to tell you, oh yeah, get up and move, get outside, get some sunshine on your face, just a little bit, like don't get sunburned, use sunscreen.

But yeah, just a little bit outside, just a little bit of movement, it makes a difference. So get up and walk to the break room, get up and walk to the bathroom, get up and walk around, just a little bit.

And then if you can on your lunch break, tell yourself five minutes outside walking around. It doesn't matter if other people think you look silly walking around the parking lot outside. You're trying to recharge your battery, literally.

And you know it, but I'm just reminding you, this is a simple thing you can do, like so simple, so easy. Get up, do five jumping jacks, get your blood flowing, just something simple. We're looking for a spark.

We're not looking for an established roaring fire, we're looking for a spark. So something just little to help get us over the hump, so we can then nurture that flame, right?

So just get moving, go outside, get some sunshine on your face, just a little bit, all right? So that was number three. Number four, this is a good one, tackle something you've been putting off.

We all put off task. Well, I do know somebody who doesn't put off anything. As soon as it comes up, he tackles it.

And that is my husband. He doesn't put things off. I tend to put things off.

And I feel like, especially if you're struggling with feeling in a funk, a little bit blah, we've really put things off, right?

So tackling something that you've been putting off, it doesn't have to be a big, hour long, huge remodel kind of task, okay? I know there are things we put off because they're just going to take forever to do. Try to find a simple task.

It's not going to take more than five minutes. Make your bed. Do the dishes that are in the sink.

Set the coffee for tomorrow. What have you been putting off? Go ahead, wash that load of clothes.

Fold that load of clothes. Clean, wash the sheets on your bed. Take the sheets off your bed and wash them.

You know, I don't know what you've been putting off. Everybody puts off something, right? And it's not, sometimes we don't even put it off because it's that big of a deal.

We just, I don't know why we put things off sometimes. Clean out one drawer. Not all the drawers, not the whole chest of drawers, not the whole kitchen.

Just one drawer. Take one shelf in your pantry and organize it. Take out all the food that's out of the day.

Throw it away. Organize it. Do one little task that you've been putting off.

Clean off the top of your dresser if it's gotten messy. Something. Tackling a task that you've been putting off gives you a dopamine boost.

Like, hey, yeah, I can do that. Sometimes we put things off because we almost always imagine they're going to be worse in a bigger project than they really are.

And most of the time, not all the time, but most of the time, we sit down and do it, and it's like, oh, that was so much easier. Why did I put that off for so long? Go ahead and call the bank.

Call that whatever utility company, the insurance, whatever it is, go ahead and take care of that. Just do it. Just say, you know what?

I've been putting this off. I'm going to do it. And you do it, and you get that fixed, and you're like, and it does.

It gives you a dopamine boost. It gives you that spark. We're looking just for a little spark to get over the hump of feeling and block, right?

Tackle something that you've been putting off. And don't pick a big project. Don't repaint the house.

Pick something simple that you can go ahead and handle and take care of today. Do something simple. Don't tackle something so big that you're going to get overwhelmed and stop halfway through.

The task you pick is important here, okay? So like I said, clean out a drawer. Clean off a shelf in the pantry.

One shelf in the refrigerator. Tackle something. Do a load of laundry.

Clean your sheets. I think clean sheet day is my favorite day of the week, and I always feel good when I have clean sheets. So I clean my sheets every week.

I know not everybody does that. Wash my sheets every week. Let me tell you, that just feels good to me.

Wash your sheets. You'll feel good. I promise.

Try it. Pick something that you've been putting off, that you're like, and you really do get a dopamine boost. It's a spark.

Just a little bit. Tackle one thing and pick something that you can do. Do you have trash sitting around?

Do you have Coke cans sitting on your dresser? Round those up. Clean up all the trash.

Sometimes my kids, they have trash in their room. I'm like, okay, just go through, and anything that can be thrown away, pick up things that can be thrown away. You can tackle that task in 5, 10 minutes.

It's not that big of a task, and then your room feels a little bit better, right? So that's what I tell them. What is the task you've been putting off?

Like I said, is it dishes in the sink? Is it something little? Like, oh yeah, I need to do that.

Go ahead and do it. It does give you a dopamine boost. It really does.

Like, hey, I did that. We always feel good when we accomplish something. So pick something small, something that you can accomplish, something that you can do, and tackle it.

Just be like, I'm going to do that. And that might be enough of a spark to help pull you out of that funk. Okay?

So that was number four. Number five, listen to positive music. So sometimes just a couple of upbeat songs can totally change your mood.

And you can go from feeling in a funk to dancing in your car. I mean, have you ever done that? Like, you get in the car and you're like, I got to go to work today.

But like, your favorite song comes on the radio, and you're like, singing along with it and jazzy, and you know, when you're at the stoplight and you're just kind of bouncing. Music has a powerful impact. And sometimes it's like going outside.

We know that, but we don't do that. So if you're sitting at your desk, if you're at home and you're just kind of feeling like you're in a funk, you're kind of blah, find some really positive music. I am a huge, huge fan of Christian music.

It's positive, it's encouraging, it's uplifting. It reminds me of the truths that I believe.

So I, after having walked through a truly dark season, Christian music really helped refocus my mind every time, every song, just point me back in the right direction, you know.

So I'm a really big fan, but pick something positive, pick something jazzy, pick something that you can bop your head along to. Music makes a difference. There is a reason we dance to music.

It makes our body move. There is a reason you can remember the words to a song from the 80s, but can't remember the math equation you learned the same year. Music just ingrains itself in our head.

It's powerful, okay? So, pick some music. Let the power of music help lift you up.

You don't have to do anything. You just press play. It is super simple.

This is a very low energy, low effort tip. Just listen to positive music. And you know it.

I'm just here to remind you to do it, because sometimes, yeah, yeah, I know that, but then we don't do it because we're in a funk, and we feel like we can't, whatever. I'm just here to remind you. Turn on some positive music.

It really, really, really does make a difference. All right. Last tip, number six, and this one's from my dad.

I did learn it from him. Eat something fresh, like fresh fruits, fresh vegetables. We live in a day and age where you can go days, weeks, maybe months, and not eat anything fresh.

You can survive off self-processed, ultra-processed foods. You can eat all frozen, canned, prepackaged foods. And that's okay, I guess, it's probably not healthy, but you can do that.

But when you're in a funk, eating something fresh can really make a difference. I've gotten to where I noticed I'll start craving like salad. There's a particular salad from a particular place that I really, really like.

And I don't crave it all the time, but definitely I can tell there's certain times I'm just kind of feeling a little blah, and I can eat a salad and just it's the fresh lettuce and the cucumber and the whatever.

And it just, it does, it puts me in a better mood. Eat, you know, an orange or some pineapple, some citrusy. Fresh food really does, those vitamins, those minerals, you really need it.

And it really makes a difference. And my dad, I guess he grew up eating a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. They kind of lived in a rural area, and so they ate a lot of what they grew and different things like that.

And I remember him saying, I just need some vegetables. And dad would definitely order a vegetable plate. And I realized I gravitated towards that a little bit.

And so when I kind of think, I'm just craving like I want some watermelon or I want some pineapple. It makes me think of my dad.

And I know that when I'm in a funk, sometimes just eating a salad or eating some fresh fruit really, really can make a difference. But sometimes your body just needs those fresh vitamins and minerals. And it really does.

I mean, so shout out to my dad. This is definitely him. But I have noticed it makes a difference in my life.

To the point that when I really am in a funk, I do go seek these things out before I start craving them. Now there are times I just crave certain things, but I really do go say, you know what, I bet a salad would put me in a better mood right now.

And it's not going to make a huge difference. You know what I'm saying? It's just that little bit of a spark.

And just getting a little bit more in tune with how what we eat and what we consume affects, it does kind of affect our mood. And it's a little bit.

It's not, you're not going to notice a drastic change, but all we're talking about today is a spark, right? Just kind of helping get over the hump of fill and blah. Just kind of get on the other side just a little bit, right?

So these are six tips, six little things that I came up with that I use a lot. I would love to know what you do, because I feel like we can build on this list a lot.

We could have probably multiple more podcasts of little things to do to help get you out of a funk. So I would love to know what you do. What do you do that I didn't say that helps get you out of a funk when you're kind of feeling blah?

You can find me online, www.workingonamazing.com. You can reach out to me there, or you can find me on social media. I'm on most major platforms, but I do hang out on Facebook the most, and it's just a page, Working on Amazing.

You can send me a message, you can write on the wall. Let me know what you do to get out of a funk. I would absolutely love to hear from you.

So thank you for joining me today. I look forward to talking to you next time. Bye.