Overcoming the Feeling of Being Trapped
To overcome the feeling of being trapped, you need to start with acknowledging your emotions and experiences of being trapped or stuck. Then, identifying the reasons why you are feeling stuck and when you know the first two, then you would be able to work through the steps and ways to change those feelings and stay positive to move forward in your life.
Everyone now and then experiences this feeling but the reasons and causes may vary. The most common causes of feeling trapped can be:
- Constant rumination
- Low motivation
- Stuck in the past and not able to move forward
- Being indecisive
- Feeling afraid or scared of the outcomes
- Resistance to Change; etc
When you feel you have one or more than one reasons mentioned above, it means that you are trapped and unable to take action in order to bring the necessary change and positivity in your life. In that state, you can reach out to a well trained therapist or counselor who could help and guide you through this process.
Treatment Types
Therapists offer personalized mental health services to their clients once they are able to identify what their client is going through. This is why it is important to talk and share with them openly and tell them anything or everything that can be related to the experiences and challenges you have. Based on the causes that made you feel stuck, they will suggest to you the different approaches that may help you get unstuck. Some of the approaches that they may offer under Psychotherapy or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) are Clarity Approach, Evaluation Approach, Transparent Approach, Theory Approach, Feedback Approach etc.
Staying Positive
To stay positive, it all starts with self-reflection. Getting your life unstuck can be a daunting task. And the first step to get it started is self-reflection and self-awareness. In order to move forward, you need to pause and take a moment to breathe and slow down and think about your life. Thinking about your life and asking yourself some of the self reflection questions like your goals, dreams, the steps you are taking and the outcome those steps are giving are well-aligned or is there a mismatch? And then identifying the steps that may help you move forward or get unstuck from the present situation you are in.
Getting clarity in your thoughts, reconnecting with your purposes and visualizing your future would allow you to try something different and new in order to move forward and help you stay positive about the path you are on. When you achieve clarity on your thoughts and goals, you would know that even if it is taking a bit longer to achieve it, you are on the right path and continue to take steps that lead you to achieve them.
Methods to Pushing Forward to Regain Movement
Some of the steps that can help you push forward and break out of the mental loop are:
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Defining Your Objectives Clearly
When you feel trapped, you may not be thinking clearly about why you do what you do. And, in order to get things straight, it is important to know and understand your objectives. The reasons why you started doing what you are doing in the first place. When you allow yourself to think through and be open and gentle with yourself about the bigger picture, it helps you build self awareness and fill any leaky bucket spots to take the next step confidently.
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Reframing Negative Thoughts
When you are stuck, you may feel trapped with negative thoughts. They may take place often every day like a cassette and it makes you believe that whatever you are thinking is actually true. But, practicing cognitive reframing will help you stop those negative thoughts cycles, improve your problem solving skills, challenge and address your self-doubting thoughts and practice the thoughts that help you think positive thoughts.
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Be Present in the Moment.
When you are trapped in the never ending cycle of feeling stuck, most of your thoughts represent either past or future. But a very small chunk of those thoughts would be focusing on the present moment. But in order to regain movement, it is important to focus on the present instead of thinking of the past or future. When you practice mindfulness, grounding and other coping skills, it helps you cope up with your stuck feelings and move forward positively.
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Visualize
Being indecisive is one of the causes of feeling trapped. But when you take a moment to visualize the outcomes of all the options or alternatives you have and reflect upon what option is closely aligned with your vision or goals. Then it allows you to break the indecisive cycle and make concrete decisions to progress and get unstuck.
Mentally Keeping Your Head Up and Confidence High
Often confidence plays a critical role in how you see yourself and actions to achieve your goals. Taking steps to build the confidence you need to take the next step forward and make changes to unstuck yourself from the situation you may be in.
In order to mentally keep your head up and confidence high, taking the following steps may prove to be helpful.
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Stop Comparing Yourself
When you compare yourself with others and find that you are not doing so well in comparison to them, you start doubting your actions or motives and the point of your thoughts and vision. When you compare yourself with others, you get distracted from your path and instead start envying others for what they are doing or achieving. That is why stop comparing yourself with others and instead take your steps to take the next step forward.
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Be Kind to Yourself.
Often people are trapped into a vicious cycle of self blaming or criticizing themselves for the unfavorable outcomes. They feel like they could have done things differently, the outcome would have been different and better. It is hard to feel good about yourself when you are hard on yourself. On the other hand, if you practice self-care, kindness and compassion, you nurture your mind to be kind to yourself as well and naturally start feeling confident.
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Surround Yourself With Positive People.
How others make you feel plays a role in how you feel about yourself. If they make you feel negative, judge you, blame or criticize you, then you may start feeling the same for yourself. But if they treat you positively and with kindness, you practice the same and feel confident about yourself and your efforts too. So surrounding yourself with positive people helps you boost your confidence but also helps you focus on taking the next steps forward to achieve your goals.
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Positive Self-Talk
No one knows you better than you. You might have heard this from many and it is true. And most of the time our mind is engaging in self talking. So whatever you talk with your mind, it will believe that. This is why it is needed to practice positive self-talk. It helps you deal with your negative thoughts, self blame, self doubt and self defeating thoughts.
Accepting and Loving Yourself Through Psychotherapy
If you’ve already tried some of the steps mentioned in this post and yet nothing you feel helpful or changed anything. Then, it may be helpful to [connect with a therapist] (https://www.7cups.com/online-therapy/?_cta[type]=therapy&_cta[location]=expert+topic&_cta[subLocation]=getting-unstuck ) to seek therapy. Working with a therapist will help you figure out what is stopping you from moving forward. Seeking support and help is not a sign of weakness. But it represents courage.
Therapists work with their clients closely to guide, listen without any judgment and support them through the process to heal. Changes are an inevitable part of life but it can be frustrating and upsetting for anyone. It is difficult to deal with them and as a result you start self-doubting or negative talk which may worsen the mental health problem you may be experiencing. That is wh, if you have any doubt, or problem, consulting with a therapist or counselor help you get expert perspective and help you identify the obstacles, barriers and underlying roots and work through them in a self-empowering way.