Hey guys! It’s been a while since I posted, I know. Life has been incredibly busy, with my intense pre-med class schedule, Yoga training, sorority and philanthropy events, and plenty more extracurricular commitments.

I’m sure many of my readers also find themselves incredibly busy, maybe even overextended at times. Maybe your motivation is dwindling, your cognitive functions are rapidly declining, and you find it hard to stay awake in class without a Monster. I can speak from experience when I say: I get it.

Too much time in this state of overextension and exhaustion can cause you to burn out and fall into a rut. While we try to avoid this at all costs, all that really matters is that we can ultimately recover. And you can.

Today I’m going to go through a few tricks that I have found helpful for getting out of a rut.

Find a creative outlet.

One of the best ways to process my emotions and stress is to explore my artistic side. Sometimes, this means taking out my ukulele and playing my favorite songs. Other times, this means painting a sunset in my art notebook.

A creative outlet can be anything that speaks to you, whether you are expressing yourself through visual art, music, language, or movement. I promise that whatever you do will help to ease your worries and stimulate the right hemisphere of the brain.

Practice Mindfulness.

Yoga, meditation, and journaling are three super simple ways to exercise mindfulness. All three practices emphasize knowing yourself to your absolute core, acknowledging that the state you are in today is perfect.

I promise that introducing at least one of these practices into your daily life will make you a lot more in touch with your inner self, and therefore a lot happier.

Implement self care.

Whether I’m in a mental or emotional rut, I find that my body reflects that physically as well. Maybe my skin breaks out because of stress, or maybe I’m not in great physical shape because lately I haven’t made time to go to the gym.

This is a perfect time to reinstate self care practices into your daily and weekly schedules. For example, a healthy diet and regular exercise keeps me energized during the day and improves my body image. So, I’ve been making sure to go to the gym as many times throughout the week as I can, because I’ve been slacking lately.

Also, my face is tragically breaking out. Like, more than it’s ever broken out before. [Enter face-washing 3x/day, face masks, and pimple drying cream.] Oh yeah, and an obscene amount of water. Let’s hope this works.

Surround yourself with good energy.

I’m an incredibly social person, so I tend to recharge best when I’m around my friends. If you’re an extravert like me, I advise you to spend more time around your closest friends, maybe even make some new friends!

Let them know how you’re feeling, or don’t. One on hand, it may help a lot to talk through your emotions and struggles with someone. On the other hand, distracting yourself may be just as therapeutic.

Get rid of bad energy.

Ridding your life of bad energy can manifest itself in many ways. Whether this means cutting off toxic ties with people who bring you down or simply venting to your therapist, it can help you get to a much healthier mind space.

Once you are clear of all the negative things that occupy your consciousness, you can start to focus on the positive. Once you are focused on the positive, you can push yourself to be productive, efficient, and inspired. Once you get to this point, it’s easy to maintain: the pure feeling of accomplishment and progress is enough to motivate you to keep going.

Push yourself.

Once you’ve taken stock of your mental, emotional, social, and physical state and then taken preliminary measures to improve them, the final step in getting out of a rut is to push yourself out. You can do this. Give yourself permission to be sensational.

From a girl currently getting out of her own motivational rut: the key is really to just do something about it.

Ultimately, the thing that held me back from getting out of my own rut was the belief that anything I did wouldn’t be quite enough. I thought, “it’s not going to make much of a difference, so I might as well do nothing at all.” I also thought that perhaps the motivation would come back on its own, that I would have one magical day of revelation and be back to productivity and creativity.

It doesn’t come back on its own, you do have to put in some work. The nice thing about it, though, is that you can start small. Starting with one gym session might inspire you to go again the next day. Writing in your journal about how unmotivated you felt at the library today might inspire you to get off your ass and do some work. Taking a walk outside to the coffee shop might even be enough.

Whatever it is, I promise that you’ll be so grateful that you did it.