‘Everyone just seems to be feeling a bit “meh” right now,’ I told my team in the morning features meeting. ‘The news is bleak, the weather is cra* and everyone is ill. I’ll come up with a better term for it but I want to write an article on how to combat it'. Whilst I haven't come up with a better term than ‘the meh mindset’ for the way we all seem to be feeling RN, I have spoken to an expert about how we can shake off this ‘languishing’ mood and replace it with some sparky energy.
The ‘meh mindset' is the overhang of languishing, the pandemic-fuelled mental health phenomenon. If you're struggling to recall the languishing era (we don't blame you for putting the pandemic firmly in your subconscious), allow us to refresh you. The New York Times at the time explained the psychology behind that feeling, and it perfectly encapsulates how we all felt: "Languishing is the neglected middle child of mental health," writes US psychologist Adam Grant, author of bestsellers including Think Again: The Power of Knowing What You Don't Know.
"It’s the void between depression and flourishing — the absence of well-being. You don’t have symptoms of mental illness, but you’re not the picture of mental health either. You’re not functioning at full capacity. Languishing dulls your motivation, disrupts your ability to focus, and triples the odds that you’ll cut back on work. It appears to be more common than major depression — and in some ways it may be a bigger risk factor for mental illness."
Fast forward two years and we are still feeling the languishing hangover. Covid has depleted our immune systems so we were all ill over the festive period and the cost of living crisis continues to bite, leaving us all too sick and broke to do anything fun. Sound familiar? To combat the meh mindset, we've enlisted Emma Lucy Knowles, a renowned healer, energy & light worker, spiritual coach, meditation guide and author, to share 5 simple ways you can shift this feeling and replace it with amazing energy to take into a new year.
1. Set intentions instead of resolutions
New Year's resolutions are very 2022. Instead, Emma believes intention is the only way to create the life we want. “While resolutions create stress and a way to kick yourself when you didn’t deliver, intention allows us to navigate towards a desired feeling," she says.
So how do you set an intention? Emma advises keeping it small and begin by asking yourself ‘what’s the feeling I desire to feel this year?’. “Sit with that question, move through the feelings that pop to mind and explore how that emotion feels to you. Does it fill you up? Would you like more of it? If so, then we need to give that emotion a name, a word that resonates, like love, joy, peace or success and then we can create a mantra.”
2. Create a mantra
Mantras are moving mediations and manifestations. “What we see, we become,” claims Emma, so by setting a mantra (or intention you meditate on in the hope of bringing it to fruition), you can create the life you want by focusing on it over and over again. If you're struggling to devise a mantra, Emma has created a framework everyone can use and insert with their own personal mantra. It goes like this… “I move each and every day to and in (insert intention here). I am deserving of it.” Emma suggests repeating it to yourself over and over again to evolve your outlook on life - and you might be surprised by how quickly it materialises.
3. Get breathing
According to Emma, when we become energetically ‘full’, when times have been tough, we often swallow our emotion and ‘get on’ with stuff. Over time, that sinking of energy starts to build and build in the body, so she believes it’s super important to give it an outlet - and the breath is the ideal release. “You don’t need to be meditation pro to tap into the breath - it’s for us all, it’s the most uniting thing we have,” she said.
Here, she shares a simple breathwork practise she suggests doing whilst looking in the mirror, gazing into a candle or a picture of those you love.
Start by breathing in for a count of five, in through the nose out through the mouth
- In for 6 out for 6
- In for 7 out for 7
- In for 8 out for 8
- In for 9 out for 9
- In for 10 and out for 10
Get to where feels comfortable, if breathing in for 6 or 8 is feeling good and any higher feels a pressure - don’t do it, build on it. The focus here should be on letting you and your body start to move with the breath to come alive.
4. Invest in crystals
“Energy is everything and we often could do with a helping hand in filtering what may be coming up and out for you. Crystals are also an amazing way of helping you align with what your intentions are.”
Emma's top two crystals for this are: Carnelian - the energy bouncer that brings energy up just like when you’ve had your morning coffee or a good gym session. And Pink tourmaline - the shifter of the junk, which will clear out your energy closet.
“Use these when setting intentions, or when doing your breath work,” she suggests. “Carry them with you or pop them under your pillow when you sleep.”
5. Give up force, let focus build
Emma says the best part of these gentler energy boosters is that they can be used as ‘focus tools’. “When you think ‘ah I’ve not done my mantra or breath work’ instead of putting it until tomorrow or giving yourself a kick for letting yourself down, instead let that be a gentle call just to do a little right there and then. If you force something you’re not flowing with life, it takes time to soften the blows we give ourself, but with self support, your focus will turn to enjoyable practice that changes the waves of life.”
Meh mindset, be gone.
This article was originally published on Glamour UK.
