Every month on Team EVO we have a new theme of the month that guides our progress and personal development. This month we’re all about that self-awareness.

We’re looking at our physical, mental, and emotional states multiple times every single day to take stock of how we’re doing and make any changes we feel we need.

When you’re in a funk, it can negatively affect you, your work, and any progress you’ve been making toward your goals. But you don’t have to let it! 

Learn why it’s important to combat a bad state (and how to get started!) based on your Brain Type…

Alchemist​

In a bad state: as an Alchemist, your focus diffuses and you hop from one thing to another without really making progress on anything. 

Your superpower is that you generate amazing ideas when you’re getting inspiration from multiple sources regularly. But if you’re in a bad headspace, you’ll find yourself unable to take away anything meaningful from the information you’re consuming, and you’ll find it even more difficult to make progress on what you’re working on because you’ll have a tougher time staying on task. This means that not only will your flow stall out, you may lose that spark of inspiration that makes you, you.

To overcome it: catch your bad states early and put your energy into improving that feeling immediately.​ Completely disconnect from whatever you were doing as soon as you can, and think of what is causing this state and how you can improve it. List out everything that happened to bring you to this point and think of a solution for each little thing that has built up to this bad state. 

If it helps you, talk it through with a friend, co-worker, or even just out loud to yourself. Look up other people’s experiences online to see how other people have overcome these things successfully before and see if that gives you any ideas to apply to your situation. Then, try as many solutions as you need to in order to get back to your equilibrium. 

Even if it takes 30 minutes away from whatever you were doing at the time, you could end up actually saving hours of procrastination and frustration later on, which will happen if you leave a bad state unchecked. You’ll be back to your old, knowledge hungry, idea-generating self in no time.

Architect

In a bad state: ​​​as an Architect, you feel out of control and your stress levels skyrocket. 

Your superpower is that you are a person who keeps everything running smoothly when you’re able to keep things in order. But if you’re in a bad headspace, you’ll feel more overwhelmed by normal tasks, and it will start to feel like you’re carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders with no end in sight, which will make you feel chaotic and like you have no control over how things are going in your life.

To overcome it: catch your bad states before they snowball​​ into a meltdown. As hard as it may be, in this state what you really need to do is stop trying to work on whatever it was you were doing, sit down, and take a few minutes to think through the steps you can take to get back to equilibrium. 

As hard as it may be to take a break when you’re feeling overwhelmed, the only way to stop the overwhelm is to break the pattern causing it. Go do something completely unrelated, take yourself out of the situation, and do something completely immersive that has historically made you feel good. Continue to try other enjoyable activities until you actually do feel better. 

This isn’t a waste of time… If you give in to the bad state and continue whatever you were doing, you’re only going to feel more and more out of control and it’s going to become harder to lift yourself back up. But when you make time for self-care, you’ll gain a better, fresher perspective, feel calmer, and be able to return to your tasks with refreshed motivation.

Explorer

In a bad state: as an Explorer​​​, you start catastrophizing and can’t imagine how your life will ever improve. This is because whatever is happening currently is your reality. 

Normally this is your superpower because it allows you to live in and make the most out of the present moment, enjoying all the best that life has to offer. But unfortunately this can also mean that when your present reality is terrible, you feel like your entire life ​is terrible, has probably always been terrible, and might never get any better. Whatever is happening currently is your reality.

To overcome it: start by recognizing that you’re in a bad state and find out what’s off. Take a moment to think about what might have contributed to you getting here… It’s probably not because your life is actually terrible—more likely, it’s due to a set of circumstances that will eventually pass or change, one way or another.  ​​

It’s helpful for you to talk to people who know you really well (like a friend or family member) to identify the pain point(s), and understand the history of events that led up to your current reality. Keeping an audio, video, or written journal can be helpful for this, too—if you’re already doing so, go ahead and look back through the past few entries to see what was happening in the last few days, weeks or months to understand what may have contributed to this current issue. 

You want to spot any patterns to determine why you’re in this state, and how you have overcome similar things in the past. Not only will this help you improve your state, it will also give you the reminder you need to spark hope and remember that life isn’t always bad, it can actually be really fun! And before you know it, you’ll probably find yourself in a much nicer reality.

Oracle

In a bad state: as an Oracle, you start a downward spiral toward complete despair where the only outcome you can see is probably something akin to your worst nightmare. 

Your superpower is being able to narrow your focus to predict how a certain situation can play out far into the future. However, when you’re in a bad state, this ability can become tainted because all you see are bad things on the horizon: i.e. one little neck pain might end up meaning you have some rare brain tumor that’s growing into your spine and the next minute you start picturing your funeral and worrying that you haven’t set your family up with the proper life insurance policy to help them make it through when you’re gone. 

One little pain in the neck, and the next thing you know it, you’re panicking about how your family is going to survive your untimely demise!

To overcome it: you’ll need to do something to ground yourself. Whether that means doing deep breathing exercises, meditation, or just going outside, taking off your shoes and letting your toes connect with the earth—that’s up to you. Whatever works to get you back into the present. Then, remind yourself that you have control and influence in your present circumstances.

Take one concrete action that could change the terrible outcome you imagined. If you have a pain in your neck that worries you, make a doctor’s appointment to get it checked out. Changing or doing even one small thing has the potential to completely change the outcome of a situation.

And once you’ve done that, put your energy toward something else, especially something you really enjoy, and ideally something completely immersive. If and when that negative spiral starts again, do whatever you need to do to ground yourself and remember that you won’t actually know the outcome of the scenario until you have taken the next step. And the step after that. If you can just keep focusing on the next step, you’ll feel much more in control of the outcome. 

Did this post help you overcome a bad state? Do you have any questions, or suggestions for future blog posts? Email them to me at hello@bta.projectevo.org, or hit me up on Instagram!