Episode 667: 5 Strategies To Recover From A Week Turned Upside Down (Mindset & Self-Care)

EBT667 – 5 Strategies To Recover From A Week Turned Upside Down

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 a 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.

[00:00:33]  Megan Porta 

Food Bloggers hi, how are you doing this week? I hope you’re doing great. I am so excited to be back recording another episode that is focused on mindset and self care. My favorite in today’s episode we’re going to talk about five strategies to recover from a week that’s been turned upside down. We all have those weeks, unfortunately, and I know that you know exactly what I’m talking about when I refer to a week turned upside down.

[00:01:04]  Megan Porta 

Things can be humming right along, going just swimmingly. Then something happens to change the trajectory of the entire week and not for the better. Maybe it’s a sickness, you or someone in your family, a surgery, upsetting news you received, or something unexpected happening to you or a loved one. It could be an injury or grief over the loss of someone or something.

[00:01:32]  Megan Porta 

Whatever it is, it came at you quickly and unexpectedly and you just didn’t have the time to prepare to deal with it. Here’s this thing, whatever it is, in your face. And now everything you’d previously had planned for your week has been tossed out the window. Ten years ago, weeks like this absolutely sunk me.

[00:01:52]  Megan Porta 

I did not know how to handle them. I didn’t have the systems in place or habits established so that I didn’t absolutely sink to the depths of despair. I would find myself unable to resurface from these upturn weeks. I can remember certain events that would literally stop me from resuming, working out, or insert any other good habit for years.

[00:02:19]  Megan Porta 

The aftermath was too much for me to handle at the time. After lots of investment in personal development and some years under my belt maturity maybe, I have some strategies that massively shorten the time from I’ve completely lost my footing to look, I can kind of stand up again. Why am I recording an episode on this topic now?

[00:02:43]  Megan Porta 

Well, because I’ve just experienced a week, or actually two weeks that was completely turned upside down. I’m talking let’s take the drawer filled with important things that are all well organized and dump it out and not just dump it out, but maybe kick everything around a little bit just for good measure. A couple weeks ago, it was a Saturday.

[00:03:05]  Megan Porta 

I had grand plans for the following week. Things were going great and perfectly as planned. My exercise routine was happening daily. I was meeting all my goals. With that, my mindset focus was excellent. I was doing all the daily things I strive to do. Reading, goal setting, gratitude, journaling, et cetera. I was on track with all my work and home projects.

[00:03:31]  Megan Porta 

I felt on top of everything. Plus I had a big retreat I was hosting. That following week I host a yearly retreat for my Mastermind members so we can all connect as a cohesive group in person to start the year. This retreat is a big, big deal for me. It’s a huge priority and something I plan extensively for and really look forward to every year.

[00:03:55]  Megan Porta 

The following day on Sunday, my throat started feeling a little bit scratchy. I figured it was a light passing cold, so I didn’t think much more of it. By Monday, things had gotten worse. I was not doing well. I was feeling awful. This felt like a bigger deal than a light cold. Tuesday, yeah, way worse.

[00:04:20]  Megan Porta 

And Wednesday, even worse. The symptoms were piling up and by this day I was unable to get out of bed. I remember at one point that day I said to my husband, I think I’m still going to try to go to the retreat tomorrow. And I’ll never forget his blank stare back at me.

[00:04:38]  Megan Porta 

He said, you kind of need to be feeling a little bit better than you do now if you’re going to fly tomorrow. That was when I realized he was right. I felt like a few semi trucks had hit me, all from different angles. This was not your typical sickness and there was no way I could get on a plane like that.

[00:04:59]  Megan Porta 

The doctor ruled out Covid and the flu, but told me I probably had this week long virus thingy that was floating around at the time. I didn’t believe him. Well, Thursday came and I was even worse. Definitely unable to fly, which meant I couldn’t go to my own retreat. I was absolutely devastated beyond words.

[00:05:20]  Megan Porta 

In a bit I will talk about how the retreat was still able to happen without me. Friday. Worse yet, I was starting to wonder if I would ever start feeling better. Saturday, the minutest bit of improvement came my way. Sunday, still really sick. Monday, still sick. You get the picture. This went on for a while.

[00:05:40]  Megan Porta 

The longest lasting virus on the planet infiltrated my body for two weeks. I’m going strong with two weeks now and I still am feeling it, leaving me unable to do a lot of things. Exercise, think, talk, do anything at all in my home, work, attend my retreat, function really at any level. There were a handful of straight days when I could barely get out of bed to pee.

[00:06:06]  Megan Porta 

This was a significant illness that will go down in history in the life of Megan. It turned everything upside down and I’m still climbing out of the pit of the whole situation. As with any perceived negative experience, I always look for lessons to take away because that’s life, right? Why endure a perilous stretch without finding something or multiple somethings?

[00:06:30]  Megan Porta 

You can learn from the experience. So in this episode I am going to talk through five strategies to recover from a week turned upside down. I really hope you don’t have weeks like this in your near future, but if you do, I encourage you to find the lessons and hopefully some of mine will help you to navigate future difficult weeks. 

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[00:07:32]  Megan Porta 

Number one embrace the climb back up the mountain after days on end of not physically moving and feeling like a giant pile of useless poo, it felt really hard to envision leading the life I led a week before. How will I ever get back there? The working out, the working, the being upright, the doing laundry and picking up wrappers and dirty plates that my boys leave all over the house.

[00:07:57]  Megan Porta 

It just felt so impossible that I would ever be that functional again. It’s like being dumped at the very base of an intimidating and massive mountain and being told you have to make it to the top where you’ll feel good and free and in tip top shape. That is an overwhelming feeling to say the least.

[00:08:15]  Megan Porta 

How can you possibly climb the beast of a mountain that lies before you? But we all know that it’s not impossible. It can be done. People climb mountains both figuratively and literally all the time. With a little strategy and patience baked in, it can go pretty smoothly. Actually, once My sickness started to fade a little bit.

[00:08:35]  Megan Porta 

I began feeling this dread I’m talking about. It felt draining, taxing and impossible to be the human I was a mere 10 days before. A previous version of Megan would have succumbed to this dread and gone back to sleep, ditched any good habits that I’d managed to set in place before the sickness, and maybe started binging ice cream or something instead.

[00:08:59]  Megan Porta 

This time I faced my mountain with grace and intention. I knew it would be slow going for a while, and it still is until I really get my footing. For the first few days of healing, I celebrated every little win. The day I stopped taking cold meds was a big deal. I also celebrated walking on the treadmill at 2 miles an hour for 15 minutes, being able to sit at my desk again for a 90 minute call, putting my 14 year old to bed at night, waking up with him in the morning to get him off to school.

[00:09:30]  Megan Porta 

All of these things would have been commonplace prior to the sickness, but felt like huge momentous events during healing. During a climb up a significant mountain, you have to find and maintain a pace that is steady and slow and you have to celebrate little wins along the way to keep your spirits up and keep the momentum going.

[00:09:51]  Megan Porta 

Fighting the slow, steady climb will bring disappointment, discouragement, and will possibly keep you from climbing at all. Whatever you’ve just experienced, whatever has turned your week upside down has taxed your system in some way. Recovering from this event requires a system reboot, a reset that will require grace and patience. Embrace this and your healing will come much more quickly than if you resist it.

[00:10:18]  Megan Porta 

Final tip on this point, Start small. When you are recovering from whatever it is, it’s tempting to look at everything you can’t do and to become discouraged. Instead, I encourage you to celebrate the tiny victories. Getting out of bed, taking a shower, moving your body. Even if it’s just for a few minutes, each little win gets you one step closer to being whole again and final thoughts Progress does not have to be fast.

[00:10:46]  Megan Porta 

Be patient with yourself. Consistency and perseverance trump perfection every time. You’ve climbed mountains before and you’ll do it again. This time you’re doing it with more wisdom and more grace. So keep moving forward, even if it’s slow. Number two, the importance of having a trusted circle of people. Earlier, I mentioned that I’d explained how in God’s name my Mastermind retreat was able to function without me.

[00:11:14]  Megan Porta 

100% of the reason for this is because of the incredible trusted relationships I have built in my business. My community manager, Taryn was already slotted to join us at the retreat, as was my awesome assistant Cara. When I realized I would not be able to travel, I immediately knew that Taryn and Cara would not only have my back, but that they would absolutely crush it.

[00:11:38]  Megan Porta 

There was zero doubt in my mind about this. Both of these ladies stepped up in the hugest way to support me and deblog talk. I was so impressed with their level of commitment and dedication. They did all this stuff for three days to ensure my mastermind members were happy, well fed, learning from each other, and that they had a cozy place to lay their heads at night.

[00:12:02]  Megan Porta 

Without Cara and Taryn, I would have been in big trouble. First of all, just having a team that I trust implicitly and that I know and love is a system that I had put in place. Secondly, including these important team members in big events like this one is another system that I had put in place.

[00:12:22]  Megan Porta 

Not that I ever want or expect Cignas to take me out for an entire retreat, but as we all know, life happens. I knew it couldn’t hurt to include both of these ladies in my initial plans to host the retreat, and that foresight paid off. They would have been helpful if I’d been healthy and present, but they were essential in my unhealthy and not present state.

[00:12:46]  Megan Porta 

It’s not just good team members that we should surround ourselves with having trusted people in your wider circle so peers, partner, kids, friends, family will always benefit you. During my week of sickness, it benefited me tremendously to have an awesome, supportive husband who picked up the slack with laundry and cleaning and who brought me meds and made sure I was still breathing.

[00:13:09]  Megan Porta 

It also helped to have two gracious teenage boys who were careful not to ask me to bend over backwards when I could hardly stand upright. The members in my mastermind group, the ones who attended the retreat, were also so gracious and understanding that I couldn’t be there. Create a trusted circle filled with respect and love and treat your circle like gold because they are gold.

[00:13:32]  Megan Porta 

When you treat your people like gold, they will do the same back to you. Also, when you have this awesome trusted circle of people in your life, bouncing back from whatever has taken you out becomes a lot easier. Here’s my final tip on this point. Build relationships before you need them. It is so easy to overlook the power of community until life throws you a curveball.

[00:13:55]  Megan Porta 

Nurture your trusted circle, whether it’s team members, friends, family or peers, so that when you do need them, they are there for you. Final Thoughts the people you surround yourself with can make all the difference in the world. A strong supportive circle can help you weather the storms and celebrate the good times.

[00:14:14]  Megan Porta 

Trust, support and love make recovery feel easier and lighter. And with the right people around you, you can overcome anything Number three the Importance of Having Good Habits Established When I began healing from my week turned upside down, one of the things that really helped me was having solid habits already in place.

[00:14:35]  Megan Porta 

Those habits didn’t stop the virus from invading my body, obviously, but they provided a foundation for me to lean on when things felt chaotic. In the past, a week like this would have completely thrown me off. I would have stopped exercising, I would have stopped eating well. I would have generally just stopped taking care of myself, honestly.

[00:14:55]  Megan Porta 

But this time, because I already had cultivated these habits like daily gratitude, goal setting, walking, working out, meditating, etc, I was able to slowly get back into them as soon as I started feeling a little bit better. Even when I was still too sick to work out, I got on the treadmill at a very slow pace, just for a few minutes at a time.

[00:15:15]  Megan Porta 

Even if I didn’t feel up for reading for big chunks of time, I would focus on journaling just for a bit or setting small goals for the next day in my journal. Even if I didn’t feel like sitting at my art desk and having a full blown gratitude journaling session, I would intentionally close my eyes and think through my points of gratitude.

[00:15:35]  Megan Porta 

Even if I didn’t feel like working for an entire day or even a half day at my desk, I’d at least take a shower and get dressed in something besides pajamas and sit at my desk for as long as I could. Even if I had to go back to bed after my boys left for school, I’d at least get up with them to help get them breakfast and spend a few quality moments with them.

[00:15:56]  Megan Porta 

My previously established habits acted as anchors during this time when everything felt chaotic and out of control. I grasped onto small versions of each habit and continued building on them as the healing has progressed. My final tip on this point make your habits flexible. Definitely don’t make them rigid. When you are recovering from an unexpected situation, rigid habits can feel overwhelming and can cause you to stop doing them altogether.

[00:16:26]  Megan Porta 

Adapt your good habits to meet you where you’re at. If journaling or exercising feels like too much, try a much simpler version that works for you while you’re recovering. Final thoughts on this point Good habits provide structure and stability, especially when everything feels uncertain. By sticking to even small foundational habits, you set yourself up for a quicker recovery.

[00:16:50]  Megan Porta 

Even during the chaos Consistency with your habits is what allows you to rebuild your footing with confidence. Number four, the importance of taking care of you. When things get flipped upside down, it’s super easy to start neglecting your own needs. You might feel like there’s no time for you, and that might actually be true.

[00:17:12]  Megan Porta 

There was a stretch during my sickness when any thought of taking care of me was off the table. My only goals at that point were to try to breathe through the snot and stop coughing long enough to get a few minutes of sleep. And once things start to look up after going through an upending situation, it can feel like focusing on yourself feels a little bit selfish, like you’ve been out of the loop with it for a while, so it just feels so foreign.

[00:17:38]  Megan Porta 

But let me tell you, taking care of yourself is one of the most important things you can do during and after adversity. I know it feels weird, but prioritize this even if you have to force it. At first, when I was at my sickest, I had to let go of guilt and just let myself rest.

[00:17:55]  Megan Porta 

I would start panicking at the thought of not being at my retreat. Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening. What could I have done to prevent this? The guilt of not being there would just about start to melt me into a puddle. There were a few times when I would have to have a stern talk to myself.

[00:18:14]  Megan Porta 

Listen up Megs. This is not your fault. There’s nothing you could have done or can do. This is how it is now. Rest. My body definitely needed that time to heal and adding guilt to the mix was not going to help me recover. I knew that whether you’re dealing with sickness, maybe a surgery or injury recovery or emotional recovery from something big, give yourself reminders that you have to protect your physical and mental well being.

[00:18:45]  Megan Porta 

Life is life. Unexpected things happen to us all the time and we cannot carry on as if we’re always feeling good and healthy. Sometimes we just have to stop and have a little bit of reverence for the situation. And that includes giving yourself extra care and love and grace during challenging times, even though it felt wildly uncomfortable and not aligned.

[00:19:11]  Megan Porta 

While I was sick, there were a few times when I made a point to meditate or just sit quietly, which helped ease my anxiety about the situation. My final tip on this point is to give yourself permission to rest. Guilt often creeps in when we feel like we’re falling behind, but the truth is, rest is actually really productive.

[00:19:32]  Megan Porta 

Prioritize your well being and trust that taking care of yourself now will help you bounce back stronger later and final thoughts you can’t pour from an empty cup. Taking care of you is not selfish, it is necessary. Be kind to yourself during difficult times. When you focus on self care, you are actually rebuilding your strength physically, mentally and emotionally.

[00:19:58]  Megan Porta 

So give yourself grace and honor your recovery. Number five the Power of Flexibility and Acceptance. One of the biggest lessons I learned from my upside down week is the importance of flexibility and accepting that things don’t always go as I plan for them to go. It is so easy to get frustrated when life throws us curve balls, am I right?

[00:20:21]  Megan Porta 

But embracing each situation as it is will seriously reduce stress and allow us to adapt and heal much more easily. This was hard, but I had to let go of my expectations for the retreat to go just as I had wanted it to go. I had to let go of that desire to keep up with my awesome workout streak I’d been on, as well as all of the positive changes I’d implemented to start the year and had kept up with once I got to the point of acceptance.

[00:20:51]  Megan Porta 

Because I did fight it for a bit, this realization was so freeing. Once I accepted that things were out of my control, I was able to focus on what I could do like take care of my health, rely on my team and look for the positive lessons in a tough situation. I acknowledge that this point is extremely hard to do.

[00:21:13]  Megan Porta 

We want things to be how we want them to be, and when they don’t turn out in that exact way, we start to flail and scream and pout a little bit. If you’ve had your world upended in some way, just deliver this simple reminder to yourself in the gentlest way. Once you accept the situation as it is, everything will feel better.

[00:21:35]  Megan Porta 

My final tip Release control. Accepting that things don’t always go according to plan allows you to adjust much more easily. Embrace the flow of life and recognize that even when things aren’t going as expected, there is an opportunity for growth and final thoughts. Flexibility and acceptance are life skills we can all improve upon.

[00:21:57]  Megan Porta 

The quicker you accept a situation, the quicker you can pivot and move forward. Life is unpredictable as we know, but by letting go of the need for control, you’ll find peace in knowing that you can handle whatever comes your way. That is all I have for you for this episode, we covered five strategies to recover from a week turned upside down.

[00:22:19]  Megan Porta 

1. Embrace the climb back up the mountain. 2. Have a trusted circle of people. 3. Have good habits established. 4. Take care of you and five flexibility and acceptance. Life is unpredictable, but by applying these lessons, you will be able to navigate even the most challenging weeks with grace and resilience. You have got this.

[00:22:44]  Megan Porta 

Thank you so much for listening. I will see you next week and I hopefully will be sounding much better by then. Finally. Bye everyone. 

Outro 

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. Go to eatblogtalk.com/audioclip to learn more.