I've Hit Rock Bottom

"I think I've hit rock bottom"

For me, hitting rock bottom is the ultimate catapult up, but I know this isn't the case for everyone. I think, though, that if a person is able to see rock bottom from a view outside of their own, they will be able to really 'take the reigns' so to speak and climb back up. However, if a person hits rock bottom, and only sees it as "happening to me" and, generally, only internalizes the negative, it will consume a person's thoughts, their day, and their outlooks. Nothing good will come of this.

How to maximize the benefits of hitting rock bottom is to say

"Holy shit - I need to stop doing this, living like this. There is no way I can keep going on like this.

 I will regret this when I die if I continue." 

When that revelation hits, you know its time to change. At that instant it is important to act. It is at this very vulnerable time that this epiphany [of negativity] allows the brain to become plastic, and the person to change readily.

Without that epiphany, change is slow, boring, and tiresome. Its like picking up a new habit that you're only slightly interested in, like exercising when you've been only moderately active your whole life. Daily habit changes are difficult, but certainly not impossible. But that is another post.

For me, I purposefully hit rock bottom sometimes, when I know things aren't going to change just from "I should probably change". I need the statement to become "I need to change".

Hitting rock bottom in a useful way is the ability to see it from a new light, a new perspective. If you continually see your actions the same way, day in and day out, the negative perspective will not push you to do anything, you will simply trudge onward.

A new perspective can be created in only four ways that I know of, maybe there are more, but I don't know:
1.Meditation - meditation can be used in such a way as to completely change your perspective on something. It takes some learning, but after becoming relaxed and focusing on breathing imagine how you would want to see the world. Imagine a way to improve yourself or your surroundings. Imagine yourself being the person you want to be.
2. Hallucinogens - These can be so confronting and intense, that a new perspective is impossible to avoid. These substances cause the brain's signaling pathways to be changed and warped, and it is reflected in how we perceive while under the influence of these. Our lives become radically different as we see them from a new angle, sometimes for better or for worse. Often, people can identify their own negative perspectives here and know how to change them much easier than when sober.
3. Intense Events - evens like seeing a car crash or being in one ourselves can really snap us into reality. We 'wake up' from our daily grind and realize what we have is precious, and that negative view points and negativity overall is only slows us down. Someone who may be depressed or in a hard place of life and seeing a car accident will, undoubtedly, feel much worse. They may hit rock bottom - and realize, though, that time is short, and one must not simply wait for things to get better - they can create good around them, rather than apathetically ignoring it.
4. Completely Random - there are some days when we just wake up and its a new day. Its like someone slipped us something in our sleep. We see the world new, and people seem more vibrant. The color, the air, more crisp. Things seem to make sense on a day like this. It is enlightenment. These are "push-off" days. The days you can really use to elevate yourself to a new level, and allow it to be much easier maintained. I see them as days where the brain becomes extremely plastic, that is, its very easy to mold and change. These are days we should watch inspiring talks. Begin new habits. Talk to new people. These are our push off days.

Next time you aren't feeling so bad there are two things you can do. You can simply sit in it, and wait for things to get better which may or may not happen - OR - you can sit and feel bad, and absorb it - think about how terrible this feeling will be 10 years from now, 20 years from now if you don't change. How you will feel on your death bed if you don't change - BOOM. Push off. Get out of that state of being. Shed the negative and reach for high ground.

Just a short post I wanted to get out there...