Dealing with the Mental ‘Slump’

A little expressive piece on facing a mental downer spiral.

So, let’s talk about when things get a bit heavy and your body and mental energy goes into that little slump pit. We’ve all been there, right? Well, this is where I am at as I write this.

I’d been doing pretty well, having a lot of fun engagements with people, a seemingly never-ending list of TBR’s and ARC’s to focus my mind on, and as always my brain is overwhelmed with so many imaginative story ideas.

But then a few things happened that knocked me back to the floor, you know what I mean, when loads of things happen at once? Negative situations always happen and we ride through, but when they all seem to come at the same time it’s very overwhelming.

I’d reached a bit of a blank spot with one of the novel pieces I’m working on, I was beating myself up that I am never going to be good enough as a writer, so that’s never a good mentality to be riding with. Then I got stuck down with a head cold, which ruined multiple evenings where I couldn’t do anything because all my body was forcing me to do was sleep, then I tried to reconnect with someone I thought cared about me and got ghosted. Ghosting is always a brutal and horrible experience, and that just made me sad and my slump pit deepened.

I hadn’t read anything in days, and when I go out and I’m surrounded by other people I’m fine and can engage and act normal, but as soon as I’m home everything hits me again, and it’s the super low moods that keep kicking at me.

So how do I overcome it? Or find a way to work through it? Well, multiple things really.

Some of these things inspired me to write poetry again. I do have a little side poetry project I’m working on, but I’m not ready to share all of what that’s about yet. But I look at the moments where I manage to write a poem on something even if that’s the only thing I do that day, it’s a plus. (I wrote a poem called ‘The Ghost’ which I am actually really f-ing proud of by the way)!

I have also been learning a lot about manifestations and how we mirror what we’re feeling in our everyday life experiences etc, now, a lot of people get very judgy on things like law of assumption and manifesting so I won’t go into all that, but I’ve started trying things like scripting where I write out the things I want in my life in a more positive way, with the mental impression that at some point those things will materialise, like if I write about great feedback on a book I write or how happy I am that my poetry book kicks off among other things then maybe it’ll gradually become something real. I guess watch this space on how that turns out!

I am also starting to practice Gratitude. I got a gratitude journal a couple of weeks back that I’m filling in every day, but I’m now starting to take it a bit more seriously. I’ve also read about the idea of every morning when you wake up, write out 10 things you feel blessed to have and why, and practice doing that for 28 consecutive days.

So I am giving this a go. Now, anyone who knows me well enough knows that regular routine is a struggle for me. I always dive into a certain kind of new routine or practice, and by week 2 or 3 I have ended up forgetting or giving up. So this is a new big thing for me to try and do.. 28 days is a lot. I’ve done 2 days worth so far and it really does get your brain into thinking properly about all the little things you don’t think about day to day that you should be grateful for.

I’m intrigued to see how it plays out, as 10 things a day does seem like it’ll be pretty tough once you get to day 4 onwards. But I am going to try it. And hope this will also somehow help my brain to rewire and get me out of this damn mental slump.

The point is, I’m still here, I’m still trying. It’s just universe be testing me right now. Yet I truly believe I will get there, and you’ll see a lot more from me yet 😉

Until next time.

An 8 Day Social Media Detox

A little reflection on my social media break

In July, I made a decision that due to extreme over-stimulation, I was going to spend my holiday completely off of all social media app’s, including Whatsapp.

It may sound like a bizarre decision to make but it was something I thought I really needed to focus on. The last few months have been a complete whirlwind for me, I’m still struggling with certain things but I’ve been extremely active regularly on my social media pages with my reading updates and writing (even though, I struggle a lot with the latter lately).

It was brought to my attention that I was overstimulated, working 40(+) hours a week and then trying to keep up to date with being relevant online plus organising your own living space, trying to find the time to write anything etc. my phone was stitched to my hand pretty much. And I was doing that annoying thing I think most of us do with our phones – the looking at an app, coming out of it, only to jump back in 2 seconds later (honestly, what do we think is new at that point?).

My detox was from the Friday evening, right through to the following Saturday evening. I put screen limits on my phone so that all my apps were not accessible while I was away. As I was going on a family holiday I had to leave texts/calls open but other than that I restricted everything.

The initial goal I had was: have time away from the apps, use it to clear my head, spend some free time writing and doing some self-development work.

One of the bizarre things I felt when I started this was guilt. As someone who struggles a lot with anxiety, I can be the first to understand how much silence from another person can trigger someone. However, I am a bit on the fence with some areas of this, I think as a human race, we have become very dependent on immediacy, especially from others. We need to learn to slow down (I know, I am not one to talk on this) and also appreciate that not everyone is available 24/7. No-one should be.

I did respect others in my decision though by sending messages to the people I am likely to hear from to advise them I would be off grid for just over a week. So nobody panics. So once that good deed was done, I shut it all off and went ahead with my plan.

Did it all go to plan? Almost.

I did manage to go the whole time without opening any of the app’s. It was hard at first, but I never caved. The things that didn’t go to plan was the other bits. Turns out, when you’re holidaying with family and having to share a room with a younger family member, your personal plans and requirements go out the window a little bit.

It was also a difficult process because I also decided to quit vaping cold turkey at the same time (a separate post on nicotine withdrawal to come later), and still coming to terms with my thyroid medication being a bit all over the place and the nonstop heat. So there were times I could have done with distracting myself on social media, but I still was determined and didn’t cave 🙂

(I would also like to randomly push in here that in case you weren’t aware… you can get sunburn on your feet. It’s not comfortable. Cream up).

But all my little obstacles and dilemmas aside, here are the positive things I have taken away from my detox:

A change of plan with some writing – Although I got zero writing done due to distractions, I did have a lot of time to think about why I was struggling a bit with my novel I’m trying to write. It occurred to me that there was an underlying issue with my general idea, so I am now taking it on from a whole new plot point, but I feel more confident about where this one is going now. It also gave me time to come up with some other novel draft ideas. (Yes, this does mean I am starting my novel again a little bit. But I am still going with the wing it plan and am hoping to get a massive chunk of it done by September).

I had fresher ideas and perspectives without social media influence – I cannot begin to tell you how much clearer my brain felt after being completely ignorant to social media for a while. There was no algorithm suggestions making me rethink things or influencing my ideas. I just had time to adjust to and think the way I wanted to.

I now know that although it’s a necessity these days, I don’t have to be on it all the time – Spoiler alert – the detox and not using apps for a week did not kill me. I didn’t miss anything life threatening or critical. The world carried on without me, and I caught up in my own time. I think this is an important factor for me to focus on, especially now that I’m back online and trying to regularly post again.

Yes, it’s good to stay in the know and updated on everyone and everything, but we let FOMO hit us way too much I think. After doing this detox, I am now trying to be a bit more disciplined with my usage… I have screen time locks at night now, I put it on dnd whenever I am out or about to work or do something that needs my attention, I turned my notifications off – so I only go into the apps when I want to.

I am hoping I can stick to these routines now (it would really help my writing motivation if I could) but I am not only proud of myself for managing that whole time without it, but I’m confident that I am another big step closer to not letting my anxiety overcome me when it comes to phones and communication, and maybe I will be able to achieve my 2026 goals after all?