The Struggle Within — and how to conquer every day.

When you wake up in the morning, your brain is often flooded with numerous emotions and thoughts.

These thoughts and feelings might be pleasant — enthusiasm for the day ahead, feeling energized, reminiscing about the previous day (or night 😉).

Maybe, if we’re in a relationship, we roll over and give that special someone a morning kiss.

Maybe we start our day by journaling, and planning the day ahead.

Or maybe we feel like we’re under attack.

Feelings of dread, anxiety, and fear rouse us.

Maybe our heart races and our mind is a mess.

Maybe proverbial dark clouds circle overhead, making it hard for us to complete the simple act of getting out of bed.

Instead, we hit snooze not once, but several times.

The struggle within is real.

And don’t stress, because it’s not unique to you.

It’s part of the human condition.

It’s something that all of us feel from time to time, and for many in today’s busy, always-on world, it can be something they feel every…single…day.

It can make just getting out of bed feel like a Herculean task.

So what do we do about this?

1. Accept that these feelings and thoughts are normal — that they are a function of being human, and something we all feel.

2. Acknowledge these feelings.

Rather than judge them as bad and something you’d wish would just go away — developing an antagonistic relationship with these parts of ourselves, we simply acknowledge them.

“I feel anxious.”

Just by labeling said feelings, we put some distance between them and us and get some clarity on what we’re feeling.

3. Inquire.

Is this feeling trying to tell me something?

Maybe it’s a chemical reaction you have no control over — other than to seek medical advice.

But maybe it’s life circumstances and/or your subconscious trying to gently nudge you into changing your behaviors.

Perhaps something in your life isn’t quite going as well as you’d like — a relationship, a job, a lack of joy in your monotonous days — perhaps it’s time to change something.

Whatever the case, we can’t make ourselves subservient to these voices, identify with them, and simply shut down.

Otherwise, we will cease to be useful to others and ourselves, going through life a shell of a human being, merely existing, and not coming anywhere near close to the person we could be.

4. Act.

After we’ve acknowledged and inquired, it’s time to get on with our days.

And the best way to do that when we feel like we can’t or don’t want to, is to start small.

The act of simply getting out of bed and subsequently making our beds is a tiny victory that we can use to derive a sense of momentum and esteem as we start our days.

For others it could be putting on nice clothes that make us look good and feel confident in, or making the kids’ lunches, or dragging ourselves to the gym to crank out a workout — all of which will give us a sense of esteem and momentum from which we can build from.

Start small and build from there.

Nobody, except perhaps for the constantly medicated, lives life in a constant state of euphoria.

Our emotional state will ebb and flow throughout each day.

From highs to lows, and mostly, in-betweens.

Accepting this reality, and arming ourselves with the tools to best navigate the struggle within will do a lot more for us than developing an adversarial relationship with ourselves and trying to fight our involuntary feelings and thoughts.

Accept, acknowledge, inquire, and act.

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