Finding a Way Forward

I haven't posted much on the blog so far this year. As I said in my mid-year reflections post, I found the first half of 2023 quite difficult. While I've still been blogging on my entertainment blog Star Sparkle Blog and seasonal living one The Seasonal Life, I've not had much motivation to post on here. I cover "deeper" topics such as self-help, spiritual methods and mental health, and just didn't feel like I had the energy to write much about them.

But I would like to get back into blogging more here, so today I'm writing about finding a way forward when you've been feeling stuck or lost in life. 

Two years ago I wrote a couple of posts about moving upwards and feeling better when you've been in a low place. You can see them here:

Starting from the Bottom- Part 1: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2021/04/starting-from-bottom-part-1.html

Starting from the Bottom- Part 2: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2021/08/starting-from-bottom-part-2.html

And last year I wrote another post about feeling better when you've been down for a long time: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2022/02/when-youve-been-down-for-too-long.html

I've spoken (or written!) before about having depression and anxiety. So if I'm really struggling it can be hard to see a way forward. Especially if I feel stuck in certain patterns.

I've long wanted to improve my life. I became depressed in my teens and then also had issues with OCD and anxiety (health anxiety in particular), so I got interested in self-help and personal development/self improvement. 

I'm also interested in spiritual subjects such as magic and the Law of Attraction. So on this blog I write about a mixture of subjects, related to feeling better and improving your life. In February it was 10 years since I started Falling Petals. You can read my 10th birthday post here: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/falling-petals-10th-birthday-fave-posts.html

I mentioned in that post that although FP doesn't tend to get as much traffic as my other blogs, I'm glad to have the space to process things here. I enjoy expressing myself differently on the blogs. And I hope that others find my posts useful (or entertaining depending on the context). :)

So this kind of leads to the next section below, Purpose. 

Purpose

Many of us are searching for purpose. I've done exercises in the past to find my life purpose but they haven't really seemed to work for me. Some people say you have several different purposes or they can change throughout your life. Maybe blogging is one of mine. Perhaps all our interests and things we're drawn to are part of our purpose in some way, along with the "big" things like career, relationships and family. 

I do find that seasonal living (celebrating seasonal events/festivals and paying attention to seasonal changes) helps me. I write about it over on The Seasonal Life. 

If you're looking for your life purpose, Celestine Chua of Personal Excellence has a series of posts on finding it: https://personalexcellence.co/blog/life-purpose/

Although exercises like this haven't really worked for me in the past, they have helped others. :)

And here is a video from Lavendaire about how to find your "why" (your purpose and life path): https://youtu.be/j4Ka90l6HAA

I'm hoping it will help me too. 

Acceptance 

I've mentioned before that I struggle with accepting things. In Part 2 of my posts on manifesting and mental health, I wrote a bit about acceptance. You can see that here (scroll down to that section): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2019/12/manifesting-and-mental-health-part-2.html

I've heard of the concept of radical acceptance before but it's quite hard for me to put into practice! Here's another video from Aileen of Lavendaire, where she talks about it: https://www.lavendaire.com/radical-acceptance/

I like the fact that she says that it doesn't mean you have to stay in bad circumstances or with bad people. It means accepting them as they are and then you can choose how you want to move forward, i.e. leave the situation. (See the video notes on the blog.)

Update 8/4/24: Here's another post about radical acceptance: https://thewellnesssociety.org/a-beginners-guide-to-radical-acceptance-in-dbt/

Detachment 

I've been thinking about detachment recently. I think it can be helpful to let go and detach from things if you're feeling really stuck or in a bad place. Although if we were completely detached from everything, we wouldn't really need to be here on earth, because we wouldn't be bothered about experiencing anything. At least that's how I see it. 

Leeor Alexandra has an interesting video about how you can live as if everything matters or the opposite, as if nothing matters. In the first case you can have the viewpoint that everything has meaning, even small things and that can inspire you. 

On the other hand if you think that nothing matters it could help you not to take things as seriously (or some "little things" anyway).

Leeor takes the view that everything matters. Personally I think that things do matter but some stuff seems like it's meaningless. If I focused on every little thing too much, it wouldn't be helpful for me.  Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/FW6fN4mMJf8

There is also the Law of Detachment which is defined as a spiritual law. You can read about that at these links:

https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/spirituality/practice-detachment 

https://iamsahararose.com/blog/law-of-detachment-in-spirituality/

And here is a good post from Zen Habits about letting go of attachments: https://zenhabits.net/attachments/

I do think it's easier said than done though, to be honest! 

So this ended up being quite a random post, but I just wanted to get back into writing here again and share some thoughts. We're already more than halfway through the year, which seems hard to believe! It doesn't feel that long since last autumn in some ways. 

Apart from my monthly gratitude lists lists, I've only written 3 other posts this year- Letting Go of 2022 (my annual year-end post which is normally written on New Year's Eve, but was later this time), the 10th birthday post and Mid-2023 Reflections.

The past few years have been difficult for everyone, with the pandemic, violent events, racial tensions, extreme weather, natural disasters and wars, including the war in Europe (I realise that there are ongoing wars and conflicts in other regions too). 

There are also endless debates (particularly online) over various things and while these things are important of course, it can all get exhausting and "toxic". Since I've also struggled with personal issues, I sometimes find it hard to see the point of things.

If you're going through a hard time you may want to read this post called When You've Been Down for Too Long: https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2022/02/when-youve-been-down-for-too-long.html

Please note: I'm not a doctor or mental health professional but the post provides links to people who can help. 

I hope this post was useful in some way! :) I'll finish with a few links that might be helpful and provide new perspectives:

Law of Attraction 2.0 (10 years ago I wrote a basic intro post on LOA and 3 years ago I did a sort of updated post on it): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2020/08/law-of-attraction-loa-20.html

Law of Assumption- An Alternative Way of Manifesting (if manifesting the "traditional" LOA way doesn't work for you): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2022/05/law-of-assumption-alternative-way-of.html

Feeling Your Emotions Recap (my FYE series about emotional healing and feeling better): https://fallingpetalsuk.blogspot.com/2022/09/feeling-your-emotions-recap.html

This is a very interesting post about looking beyond positive thinking (goes quite deep into the subject): https://www.calmdownmind.com/beyond-positive-thinking/

Kaitlyn Bowman video about how things won't always be this way and having a breakthrough: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oaq5EXz68vI

Post by Maria Kang about seeing the gaps in life: http://www.mariakang.com/seeing-the-gaps/

If you have been having a difficult time, how do you find your way forward in life? And if you are struggling right now, I'm sending love to you. :)

Photo: Shoreham-by-sea. Moonsparkle 2023.