Do you fancy a drink? I know a place called The Brink. D’you wanna go there? The opening line from a brilliant song, To The Brinkby I am Kloot. It’s full of melancholy and longing and John Bramwell’s voice can’t help but pull back the veil to give us a glimpse of how lonely isolation feels. But it is done beautifully.

Well this week I took a little shuffle towards The Brink. Then thankfully managed to get back. I am blessed with what is known as a happy amygdala. I am naturally positive. Throw me a disaster, and I can only see the silver lining.

But this week something shifted. I woke up exhausted. I’ve been sleeping well, exercising every day and my nutrition has been peachy.

I don’t drink during the week, I have a cold water swim every day, and I’m out in nature whenever I can. So, I just didn’t get how I could feel tired. I had Covid-19 a couple of months back and some people kindly explained to me that it comes back in waves so I should just take it easy.

Regardless for the cause of my lack of energy; it deeply affected my happy amygdala. It became a sad one. I could not see the positivity in anything. It’s as if I was looking out of somebody else’s eyes.

There was no hope.

My wife asked if there’s anything she can do. My response jokingly was that a bottle of red wine might sort it. Although I wasn’t serious, I think my subconscious may have been. If one was opened, I would have dived right into it. Anything to stop the negative emotions.

I was totally out of sorts. My mental well-being was showing cracks and my classic response was to try and paper over them by being busy, beasting myself with harder workouts and watching Killing Eve.

Yesterday, I came back from The Brink by using the simplest and most beautiful technique – Talk It Out. It was dusk and I’d had enough. So, I put my EarPods in, went for a walk, and recorded myself ranting into my phone about what I was feeling and what’s going on in my life.

Within minutes the clouds started to lift.

I quickly started to get perspective and realise that the downward spiral was sparked by lack of energy rather than any real change in my life. Yes, I was frustrated that in lockdown things happen way more slowly and that I couldn’t do certain parts of my work that I love; but I’d become blind to the amazing opportunities we are experiencing right now.

When things are so uncertain, and the end is not in sight; I had forgotten to embrace what is certain.

As I spoke into my phone, I realised how lucky I am. The time that we are having right now is a time we will never have again. We dream of having space to be with our families. Well that is happening now. We dream of being able to learn and grow and read and create. Well that is happening now. (New song to be released soon! Watch this space)

We dream of being able to breathe deeply and connect with the world in which we are living. Well that is happening now.

Whilst we are living in this maelstrom of emotions we can easily get confused and can take on negative perspectives. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. It’s part of our human condition. But when it does happen; it needs to be acknowledged and it needs to be welcomed. When our emotions become negative it’s a message that in some way, we are finding things tough.

Those emotions are often created by our subconscious processing. Therefore, we are feeling things that have no real awareness of and yet they are creating a very real and challenging day. By just walking on your own and ranting into your phone; you will become aware of what your subconscious is telling you and therefore you will get more choice about how you want to think and what’s going to give you better energy.

The shift can happen incredibly quickly. It all depends on how close to the surface as emotions are. As mine were ready to pop, it didn’t take long.

I believe that the mental well-being challenges that this planet is facing right now will take years for us to understand. I am also convinced however, that we have a solution in our hands that is so simple and elegant and available to all. Talk it out brought me back from The Brink. Try it for yourself. And if it works, please tell others. And let me know what you learn. It could be just what we need right now.

Talk-it-out.app is a is a human, simple way to develop positive mental well-being. It’s not the only answer, but from our experience it can help. It’s free, it’s easy and it’s fun.

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Photo by Aakanksha Panwar on Unsplash

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