How To Snap Out of It
Even when you don't think you want to.
We have all been told at least once to “snap out of it.”
This demand assumes that we have the ability, knowledge, and desire to do so, which is rarely the case.
And besides, there is that reaction to being told to snap out of it, which might include wanting to slap someone for saying that to us.
Still, we recognize that we need to, but how?
Here are three steps:
The first step is the desire to do so.
However, when we are stuck in unhappiness prompted by discouragement, despair, or doubt, the desire to snap out of it may have abandoned us.
So first, we have to find our happiness again.
Here are two quick ways to break that unhappiness spell.
1. Pause and remember a time you were happy. This might take some deep recall and imagination.
Compare it to how you feel now. Feel the difference. Were you more comfortable physically and mentally when you were happy?
Keep feeling the difference until you catch that glimmer of wanting to be happy again.
Think of it as a tiny flame you have to keep alive.
2. Do it for someone else.
In everyone’s life, there is someone else, or a cause, that we love enough to choose to do something for them, if not for ourselves.
Albert Einstein said, “Only a life lived for others is worth living.”
Be willing to snap out of it for someone or something else, if not for yourself.
The next step to snapping out of it is easier than the lie of discouragement would want us to believe.
The step of gratitude.
Everyone knows gratitude is the perfect remedy to snap out of it, but how is it done?
Have you ever told yourself to be grateful and heard the answer, "No, I don’t want to.”
Of course, you have! Why would discouragement want us to be happy?
Be grateful despite it!
When we fall into a funk, it is usually not just one thing that has caused us to be there. Usually, a little extra thing happens, and our internal self finally says, “I can’t deal with it!”
Uncovering all that has put us in a funk might take forever, and often, it keeps us there as we ruminate over it like a cow chewing its cud.
Instead, let’s begin with a premise, a point of view, that happiness is something we can be.
Remember, we have a right to be happy.
In today’s climate of uncertainty and change—which is always present, just more promoted now than ever—it may appear even more difficult to step away from it.
Don’t believe it.
How to snap out of it now is just as it was thousands of years ago and will be in the future because the lie keeping us in a funk is always the same.
It has a few variations, though.
Let’s take one variation and see what we can do with it.
How about the thought, “Nothing I ever do makes a difference, and no one cares anyway.”
That thought, if true, would mean an aspect of the Divine is not working.
This is impossible.
Therefore, our perception shift will be to prove this to ourselves so that we can once again experience happiness.
To do this, we must notice things that make a difference.
Notice that when you smile at someone, it lights up their face.
Notice how the dew sitting on the grass makes it sparkle.
Watch a baby smile, a bird singing in the tree, and the sunrise in the morning.
Banish the thought that none of this happens because of you.
Instead, translate what you see back to qualities you can be grateful for.
Perhaps it goes like this:
I am grateful that someone is happy.
I am grateful for all those sparkles.
I am grateful for the innocence of babies.
I am grateful for birds singing.
I am grateful that the sun always rises.
Feel the truth about this!
Keep growing the flame of gratitude.
I am grateful for the order expressed in the stars moving smoothly in the night.
I am grateful for the beauty of a flower.
I am grateful for the ability to see all this evidence of divine order, of which I am an integral part.
Keep going.
Fan the flames with more gratitude for the power of love. Become immersed in the feeling of it.
I am grateful that trees send down roots, bulbs bloom in spring, and clouds scuttle across the sky.
I am grateful for the presence of light in all its forms, for children's laughter, and for my friends' hugs.
As we fan this flame of gratitude, we will rise out of any state of mind that hides happiness from us.
We are not required to swing between joy and sorrow.
Within the Divine, there is no “shadow of turning.” There is only the eternal now of ever-present joy. Happiness is a by-product of this awareness, and we can always choose to return to it.
Next time you hear snap-out-of-it, you can say, “Okay, I know how to do that!”
And you know what? Sometimes, that statement is all it takes!