What is the ACTION Plan? 6 powerful ways to move through your anxiety and depression. Become unstuck NOW!

Are you feeling stuck in life? Do things feel meaningless to you? Maybe you’ve tried all of the miracle self-improvement plans out there on the market and none of them have worked. Or perhaps, you keep repeating the same patterns of behaviors hoping that one day they’ll magically stop or cease.  You’re overwhelmed. Ready to quit. Questioning your ability. Success is elusive.  

Well, I’m going to walk you through the ACTION plan you need to finally get out of that rut in life. Together we will customize SIX ways you can start NOW that will get you back on track!  I know you are ready to make that change and get out of that rut because you’ve made it this far, so keep reading on!

This post and ACTION plan came about because I wanted to let people know what I did during my dark times in life. Whether it was dancing through my pain, going to see a therapist (or multiple therapists), writing poetry and raps…whatever it was I did and reached for that proved to be therapeutic, the bottom line was that I took action.  Even in the moments when I didn’t want to do anything, didn’t feel like doing anything (including getting out of bed, as just one example), I eventually did.  I ultimately took action.  

Knowing how powerful the book The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod was for me, that book has been the basis of this ACTION plan.  If you haven’t had a chance to do so yet, check out that book – it truly is a game and life-changer!   

The truth of the matter is, we all get stuck in our lives from time to time and often don’t know how to become unstuck.  I see it in my work with others all the time.  They just don’t know what to do next, or how to do it.  They may even have the awareness, the insight as to why they do the things they do, yet that leads them nowhere fast.  If anything, it can lead to more frustration and a feeling of “Well, since I know why I’m stuck or feeling this way, I should be able to change it, right??”  Wrong!  Awareness is great, but it doesn’t get to the core of our essence, to our subconscious.  Our subconscious is approximately 90% of our thinking, conscious thought being 10% of it.  So insight is a small fraction of what we are dealing with beneath the surface.  If there was a way to get to the subconscious part that could lead to change, that would be the ultimate goal.

Let’s take someone who has been depressed, for instance.  This person knows exactly why they’re depressed.  They have “been like this all of their lives.”  Since they can remember, they have been sad and found it hard to enjoy those things in life that most people enjoy. They grew up in a dark and dreary household and would see their dad drink extensively, often stressed about money and emotionally detached from mom.  Mom was often scared or worried that dad would act out towards her; perhaps, become aggressive, if not downright violent.  Her sole job was to take care of the children and make sure that there was food on the table, primarily for dad, but for the kids as well.  Client X saw all of this growing up and began to cower.  Perhaps, they retreated into themselves for fear of dad’s anger being taken out on them. They found it hard to concentrate in school because they either didn’t get enough sleep the night before, or they are worried about what will happen when they go home later that day.  They worry if mom is ok.  And so that pattern continues indefinitely.  

Today, that same person finds it hard to find the joy in life, often waiting for the “other shoe to drop” for fear that something bad or negative is going to happen.  They find themselves doubting everyone they know or meet, and can’t form solid and lasting long-term relationships.  They have all that they need in their life, including a house, family, nice car, and good job, but just can’t find that spark that they see others have, especially the people they see in commercials and the movies.  The way their depression works, the way depression works in general, is that it is often energy that is unexpressed.  This energy, therefore, gets stuck in the mud.  

On the other hand, let’s take the person who comes to us complaining of anxiety symptoms.  They say that they have a hard time sitting still, always on the go, moving from project to project, can’t seem to focus on one thing for more than two minutes at a time, and can’t keep stable or long-term relationships because they don’t have the time to invest in them.  When we flash back into their past, we may see a very similar profile as the one above.  Perhaps, it’s that they had something they wanted to get out, to say or do, but were always suppressed.  Maybe mom and/or dad told them that they needed to go to school to get a degree rather than become an artist, or anything else they may have wanted to be.  So here they are in a life that never quite feels like it fits.  Their work and home life seem cluttered, literally and figuratively, and they never have enough time in one day to complete any tasks.  Sleep is minimal, at most getting 3-4 hours of sleep each night.  

The way anxiety works is that it is energy just waiting to come out; it is energy just waiting to be expressed in a manner that aligns with what your purpose or passion is.  When that doesn’t happen, that energy builds up internally.  And we know that all energy has to go somewhere.  So it stays jumbled up inside, trapped, until it becomes too much to bear and the person finds themselves in therapy, or worse yet, losing everyone and everything they have worked so hard to have in their lives.  

I can guarantee that those of you who are reading this will find inspiration and motivation to take ACTION when you read the book in its entirety.  It is my desire that there is a world of ACTION that is taken as a result of these six, concrete and tangible steps (to be outlined in further detail in subsequent posts), where you go from a point of “stuckness” to “unstuckness.”  Because a world full of people who are unstuck and free from all of their previous ‘stuff’ is a world where healing is possible, and thus love, peace, compassion, and understanding are possible.  That is my ultimate dream of what this world can be if and when we commit to ourselves, to our improvement, to our liberation, to our personal growth, to ACTION!  

Stay tuned for the next installment of your ACTION plan!