When You’re Feeling Stuck, Look For The Love

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Some of us are stuck under feet of snow. Some of us are stuck at home. Some of us are stuck professionally. All of us are stuck in something. If to be human is to change, it is also to have moments where nothing feels like it will move or grow. Especially right now.

Love can help us get unstuck, or it can nourish us when we can’t quite move. In moments of immobility, we must commit to accepting love from ourselves and from others in our lives. It behooves us to be gentle with ourselves in these moments. To speak kindly. To allow rest to come as it will. To not exhaust ourselves with “what if.”

We are trained to keep going. Move forward. Move anywhere. Just move. But, sometimes when we are in life’s version of molasses, we can find necessary stillness in stuck-ness. Loving ourselves when we are stuck is to accept this stillness. To look around and find things to love about being where you are now. Even if it isn’t where we want to be or where we think we should be. Shoulding ourselves won’t get us unstuck. Showing ourselves compassion will. Sitting with being stuck is the only way to move forward from where we find ourselves. It may sound counterintuitive, but accepting being stuck is the only way to eventually move forward.

In a year when community and growth can seem perpetually on pause, finding peace in this mandated stillness can be a beautiful thing. There are also many un-beautiful things about it. It can feel too still. To love through this stillness is also to love others who feel stuck. To find ways to sprinkle non-monotony in another’s life can be a creative exercise in unsticking you both.

Find love in small steps, even if they can’t lead anywhere. Make a bit of room for yourself if you can. Find ways to befriend being still, and do so with love.