Episode 478: 5 Ways to Pull Yourself Out of a Slump (Mindset & Self-Care) with Megan Porta

EBT478 – Mindset & Self-care

Intro  00:01

Hey food bloggers. Thank you so much for joining me in this mindset and self-care focused episode here on Eat Blog Talk. One of the reasons I started Eat Blog Talk was to hold a space to talk about the importance of mindset and self-care. Being an entrepreneur can be a lot. If we are not taking care of ourselves, then getting actionable information about SEO, Pinterest or whatever else is all moot. I will meet you back here every Wednesday to discuss various mindset and self-care topics. So you have the energy and space to tackle the rest.

Sponsor  00:37

Hey, food bloggers have you always wanted to diversify your income with brand partnerships but don’t want to feel gross and salesy or maybe you’re just overwhelmed by all the advice out there about working with brands and don’t even know where to start. I’m Brittany Roche, a food blogger at PlantPowerCouple.com and a blogging coach who focuses specifically on helping bloggers like you build a system for working with brands that helps them reach their business goals, but also feels natural and genuine to them. Whether you’re looking to make brand partnerships a consistent part of your monthly revenue or just want to have a solid system in place that you can pull out of your back pocket. Anytime you see your RPMs take a hit and you need to bring in some extra income. My three month goal and mindset based coaching and support program can help you break through your own mental barriers and start making it happen. If you have any questions about coaching or want to sign up just send me an email at [email protected] That’s Brittany with two T’s A N Y You can also sign up for my free weekly blogging email for brand work focus tips, ideas, motivation and support by going to plantpowercouple.com/coaching. Thanks for taking time out of this episode to listen back to you, Megan.

Megan Porta  01:47

Welcome to the first ever episode that is focused on self care and mindset here on the blog talk. I’m going to try this format for a few months just to see how it’s received. And just see how it goes. So please give me some feedback if you like it if you don’t like it, and we’ll kind of go from there. In today’s episode, we are going to talk about five ways to pull yourself out of a funk. Now my funk I am talking about a life funk or a work funk. I am talking about those times when for whatever reason, we just feel like someone is trying to pull us underwater by the ankles and we’re having a hard time surfacing. I’m not talking about depression or anything more serious. Obviously, that is something that you should bring to a medical professional. I just wanted to preface this episode with that disclaimer. Within the past year, I have experienced my own personal funk, I think a lot of us go through this from time to time, unfortunately, it’s just part of life, especially post pandemic, people seem to be a little bit more prone to getting into these slumps, which is why I think we should talk about it. In October of 2022, my mother passed away. That in itself obviously is a big deal. And it was a lot to process just emotionally, I had never experienced grief before the way that I experienced it with my mom. So I really didn’t know what to expect when she died. And the months kind of afterward were really hard just because it was a wild journey that was not expected at all. I didn’t really feel like working or doing much of anything besides just kind of being sad and grieving her loss. So that happened in October. And then Q4 came so there was kind of the stress of Q4 with food blogging, and then winter came here in Minnesota. So I felt those winter blues come on. I had stopped exercising regularly. I wasn’t really taking care of myself in the way that I previously had been. All of this was spilling over into my business. 

Megan Porta  03:52

By January of that next year, actually of this year, I just knew that I needed to make some changes. But I knew I didn’t have the energy to do anything drastic or big. So I went back to something that had worked for me in the past. And that is just taking little tiny steps, doing little bits of things that over time add up to huge gains. I just made the decision, I was going to implement a few things in my life every single day that I would consistently do over and over because little changes when consistently acted upon turn into big changes over time. I had seen this in many areas of my life in the past, very different from this situation. But I knew this concept was really powerful. So I just wanted to try it because I didn’t want that slump that I had gotten into to turn into anything worse because I’ve been to worse. I don’t like worse. I didn’t want to go there. So this was kind of my last ditch effort to pull myself out of this funk that I had found myself in before something worse happened. Okay, so I’m going to talk you through these five things that I implemented into my life. I did these consistently for three months. Since a lot of these things that I did turn into habits that I’m still doing today. So if you have found yourself in a funk, a slump, you just feel down, maybe you are feeling really discouraged about work or something in your personal life, commit to just five minutes a day for each of these five points that I’m going to talk through. That’s only 25 minutes a day total. That is not a huge time investment. I also want to say have grace on those days when these things just don’t happen. Self-care never involves beating ourselves up or striving for perfection. So if you go for a day, or a week or whatever, without doing these things, don’t write it off, don’t get mad at yourself, just keep going. And when you feel ready. 

Megan Porta  05:43

Number one is create daily quiet time do this for just five minutes a day minimum. Our brains are constantly on information and thinking overload, especially as entrepreneurs, they rarely get a break. And we have trained them to know that this is the norm for us, which is kind of sad. And it’s also why we have to be really intentional about introducing quiet and space to allow our minds to just be once in a while. It can be so hard to make space for quiet time. But it is so vital to achieving peace and happiness and pulling yourself out from a bad place that you kind of feel yourself going into. When I started implementing this into my days, I made it a part of my morning routine. So I wouldn’t keep putting it aside because this is definitely something that previously I would excuse like, I’ll do it later. I’ll do it at lunch. I’ll do it in the evening. But I just never get to it. So I decided to incorporate it into my morning routine, which was already established. And that made it really easy for me. At first, those five minutes even seemed kind of like a chore, I will admit, but I just kept at it. And eventually, over time, it became something I would look forward to each day. Now I actually crave that quiet time. A year ago, I did not at all it was something I resisted big time. And today 15 minutes at a time feels like too little I actually want to go more. So if you keep at it, this will probably happen to you as well. 

Megan Porta  07:10

Just a few recommendations on how to get started with this. Start your day with it. You can play music when you’re in the shower, if that is easy, you just close your eyes, let the water fall on you. Just try to clear your mind. You can do guided meditations, there are so many options on YouTube, if you just type in guided meditation, and then maybe like quiet or peace or anxiety or calm or whatever, you can just sit in a quiet place and listen to calming music. There’s also a huge selection of calming music on YouTube or just whatever your favorite music is. Or you can just sit in total silence while focusing on your breathing. That’s a really good way to get your mind off of thinking and all of the things you have to do throughout the day. Just count your breaths, do like four big seconds in, hold it for a second and then do four to six seconds out. And if thoughts come into your mind, just observe them, be aware of them. Don’t get mad at them, let them pass and just get back to your breathing. You can also save this quiet time for a time during the day when you’re feeling anxiety creep in. So that could be a trigger like okay, I’m feeling the anxiety, I’m going to stop what I’m doing for five minutes, go to a quiet place and just try to refocus, reset, or you could do it right before bed. That does not work for me. I don’t know why I’ve tried it before bed is not my time. But do what feels easiest to start with easy and build from there. 

Megan Porta  08:42

Number two is upgrade one thing in your life every day. Making those small improvements, I call them upgrades to your life can really add up over time in the best way. Whether it’s an upgrade you’re making in your house, your car to your wardrobe, or maybe it’s an upgrade to the way you’re taking care of yourself or in the way that you show up for people throughout the day. Intentionally focusing on this every day is going to raise your energy, it’s going to improve the way you present yourself to the world. It is going to increase your competence it will improve the quality of your life overall and your business overall. And it will slowly pull you out of any funk that you’re in. Some examples of upgrades that you can make you could declutter your closet, you can declutter your car, you can organize a kitchen cupboard or a junk drawer. You can replace old items such as holy socks or towels. One of my favorites is cleaning out old files on my computer or organizing photos on my phone. Everything just feels so much more free when I do that. Get a haircut or color. Paint your toenails your fingernails do something that makes you feel good about yourself. There are so many different ways to upgrade your life and doing this regularly really does make an impact. When you’re clearing things away that don’t need to be there. It’s a signal to the universe that new, better things can come in including better energy. When you do this consistently, it creates a transformation that will help to pull you out of the funk that you have found yourself in. You could even start the day asking yourself the question, How can I upgrade my life today, write down anything that comes to mind throughout the day. And before you know what you’re going to have a long list that’s going to excite you because it’s really easy to check these little things off the list. And when they’re done, they feel so good. 

Megan Porta  10:34

Number three, this is maybe my favorite one extend love to someone every day. Acts of love toward others is one of my favorite ways to get my mind off those times when I fallen into a funk. It just feels good to love on other people. And there’s that whole positive karmic energy thing that we want to release. So it comes back to us. We don’t do it because of that. But that is the way that it works. Some ideas about how to do this because we can get so in the groove of just living our life, living for us, living for our family that it’s a little bit hard to think outside of that scope. So I wanted to give you a couple ideas, you can send a thoughtful text to a friend, a family member, maybe a long distance family member that you don’t talk to very often, you can send cards or notes to loved ones. You could even send notes to people that you don’t even know very well, maybe an entrepreneur who you admire and respect. And who doesn’t know you yet, but you want to tell them how much they mean to you. When my mom passed away, she left behind all of her amazing artwork. And we found this huge box full of cards that she had painted artwork on. This is kind of ironic, because my mom did not know many people. So I like to think that she made these cards for us after she left us to use. So I kind of saw that is such an opportunity to send love like, I’m not going to let this beauty sit in a box. So I’ve got to share this with the world. So I took that opportunity to just start sending cards, I would do it I don’t know a couple times a week, I would pull out a card, I would just sit and feel inspired by who I wanted to send it to the smallest gesture, even just a text message or a DM in someone’s Instagram inbox can go such a long way. Please don’t minimize the power of this. There were times when I would send a two sentence text to someone and I would get the biggest notes of appreciation back. 

Megan Porta  12:31

Number four is spend time creating something each day. There have been so many studies that have been done that have shown that creativity is an antidote to anxiety and sadness, and all those icky things that we feel sometimes. So if you’re in a funk, spend a minimum of five minutes each day, being creative in some way you can engage in creating some art if you have art supplies on hand if that is your thing. There are so many avenues there painting, drawing, knitting, crocheting, I mean, I could go on and on with that you can get in the kitchen and cook or bake in a way that has nothing to do with work. If you love writing, you can sit down and do some creative writing, you can write poetry, if you love music, you can play music, or just sit and listen to music that kind of stirs up creativity. That’s something that I do sometimes as well. I have found personally even as a creative person myself that it can be really hard to make time for this. So I imagine if you’re not a creative person, if this is not something that you’ve regularly done in the past that it can be especially hard, I strongly encourage you to make time for it and do it. Even if it feels super weird. You will eventually see those great benefits, just be consistent with it. 

Megan Porta  13:42

Number five, practice gratitude daily, there is a massive amount of power in the simple act of gratitude for regaining and maintaining a positive mindset. Gratitude is the easiest, quickest way to pull yourself out of a funk in my opinion. If this is something that does not come naturally to you, I’d encourage you to start your day by thinking about one to three things that you’re grateful for and do this before you even get out of bed in the morning. So you’re laying in bed thinking I have to get out of bed and start my day. That is your signal. That’s your trigger your prompt to go through some points of gratitude and it really doesn’t have to be many start with one. I am grateful for my warm cozy bed. I mean, it could be as simple as that I am grateful that my husband got up this morning and be breakfast for our children. Whatever it is, say it, feel it and then get out of bed. You could also have a gratitude journal sitting next to your bed that you could write in right after waking up just jotting a few things down really quick if that is your thing. Something that I’ve gotten into the habit of doing is writing 10 things in my gratitude journal every morning. I only write down things that I truly feel grateful for. These things range from the delicious coffee that I’m sipping on to the beautiful leaves on the trees outside to thanking my body for being strong enough to complete the workout that I just did to our comfortable home. If you’re new to this, it might feel hard thinking about items of gratitude at first, but eventually, you will have a hard time stopping. 

Megan Porta  15:15

One really important thing to note here is that after I’ve written down my 10 Gratitude items, I go back over each item, and I underline them one by one with my pen while saying thank you, thank you, thank you. I’ve heard that there’s power in saying thank you three times. I don’t know who told me that, but I believed them. So I just do that. And as I do this, I pull up an image in my head of each thing that I’m grateful for. And I just feel immense love and gratitude for it. Tapping into that emotion of it really intensifies the feeling of gratitude. That’s really where this power comes from. As you go through your day to day mentally note the things that you’re grateful for and just say thank you either out loud or in your head. Anytime you encounter something. I so strongly believe that if there are any of the five points that we’ve talked about in this episode, not to miss it is this one, it will help you get out of any funk you’re in more quickly than any of the other points. Gratitude holds so much power, and it is the easiest thing to do and has the best return. 

Megan Porta  16:22

To summarize, there are five things that I encourage you to do daily to get out of any funk that you’re in. Create quiet time daily, at least five minutes a day. Upgrade one thing in your life each day. Extend love to someone every day. Spend time creating something each day and practice gratitude daily. Implementing these practices will help you overcome funks and improve your mindset which will improve your business. I’m here telling you that this strategy totally worked for me. 

Megan Porta  16:54

Thank you so much for listening to this mindset and self-care episode here on Eat Blog Talk. If you are a food blogger providing a service for other food bloggers, and you want to spread the word about the value that you offer. I would love to offer you a free way to do just this. Send me a 60 second audio clip to be featured in a mindset and self care episode here on Eat Blog Talk in 2024. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.