Feeling stuck? Something I've been thinking about lately is the idea of plateaus. As I personally get further into the weeds of my own transitions this past year - including going back to school, teaching yoga, and deepening new relationships out here in California - I once again catch myself often just going through the motions. When I take a step back I know that everything I'm doing now is so much more in alignment with my values and wouldn't think about giving it up for a minute, but it's a good reminder that the work never just ends.
Recently, a great article from a friend on plateaus really opened my eyes to just how normal plateaus are as part of the growth process:
“The journey of improvement is not a linear progression where one success builds upon the next. Rather, ‘you proceed toward mastery through a series of plateaus, so there’s like radical improvement up to a certain plateau and then what looks like a stall.’”
Not only did it help me more compassionately accept where I'm at right now (and oust that catastrophic thinking: I'll never grow or be happy again!), but it also got me thinking: can hedonic adaptation - the idea that no matter what we get, we always acclimate back to baseline - actually be a good thing?
For example, after a big growth spurt, where we land quickly becomes normalized. And while we often find this particularly frustrating and it still requires a certain amount of mindfulness and gratitude to be happy no matter where we are, perhaps the cognitive errors we make in continuously failing to notice just how different we are today than we were a year ago can actually be helpful in keeping us growing.
Right now, in addition to accepting a period of slow burn as simply part of the process, one of the ways I'm working through my plateau is through deliberate practice . I used my finals as an opportunity not to simply "get through" all the work, but to actively imagine myself in the therapist's role, and practice thinking through how I'd approach various situations in real life. Now that I'm on break I'm using my extra time to attend different teacher's yoga classes and actively taking notes so that I can more actively ripen myself as a teacher again. And, rather than beat myself up over not meditating every day (because it feels like I "should"), I am exploring integrating just a few minutes of kundalini yoga into some of my mornings as a way to wake my body up since I can often feel too sluggish for meditation when working from home all day (I found this video an easy intro to some of the moves for those like me who have never tried it before!)
Plateaus are a normal part of the process. Sometimes getting through takes a shift in perspective and more intentional work (join us in January’s Intentional Careering course for those of you feeling stuck right now in your career), and sometimes it really does just take being patient.
