A friend of mine was asking about how to get yourself out of a funk.

Boy do I know about this one.

I feel like I’ve been in a funk for three or four years now.

That’s not to say everything is bad. Or that anything in my life, in particular is bad. Sure, there’s sad moments. Down moments. Rough times. Hard times. Real hard times. Times where I have to go back to bed and start my day over. There are days where my hormones are so out of whack I just sit here and cry tears of frustration.

But over all, I’m an optimist. I’m persistent. I’m stubborn.

I refuse to be down. To give up hope.

And still, I feel adrift. There’s far too much indecision in my life for my liking. The older I get, the less I seem to be able to focus.

There’s also a lot of overwhelm. Too much sitting around. Too much surfing the internet, watching TV, complaining, not taking action.

I think that’s what a lot of this funk feeling boils down to. Being tired and not taking action.

See, I think that for some of us, we are being driven crazy by lack of control. And it’s hard to take care of things when you’re so darned tired and run down.

Which is how I plan to attack the funk.

First, getting the energy level up. Maybe that’s a vitamin. Maybe it means exercising more. Or heck, just hyping myself up and telling myself I have tons of energy. Hello placebo effect.

Next, take action. It seriously bums me out to see all the posts going by on the internet about pollution, lack of recycling, endangered animals, etc. It feels like a massive freaking problem that there’s no solving. Hello overwhelm. But guess what? Every piece of litter that I collect is a piece that’s not destined for my local lake. Every item I recycle is a piece that isn’t in the landfill. Every person that makes a small effort will snowball into greater change. (I hope this goes for riding my bike more and shedding some pesky pounds.)

Lastly, contacting the appropriate authorities. Instead of simply spouting off online about a bad decision by XYZ, have the guts and take the time to contact XYZ and articulate why I feel that was a bad decision. And also write to people and let them know when they did a good job. Praise letters are few and far between and I think society needs to change that. I have a weird relationship with thank you letters (they make me uncomfortable to receive) but I feel like it’s changing. I think we need to send more good thoughts, more thank yous, more praise for a job well done. Even if we’re just thanking the local grocery clerk for being so pleasant.

What about you? How do you get out of a funk? Please leave a comment below.