Have you experienced the feeling of being stuck?
You know the feeling when all options that would move you forward feel equally impossible?
The voice inside of you, whispering for you to go for something, follow the calling that is yours and yours alone? But for some reason you aren’t going for it.
This is stuckness in action, and it will keep you from living your life to the fullest if you don’t pay attention to it.
The good news is that on the other side of stuckness lies immense power, energy waiting to be unleashed.
Today, I want to unpack why feeling stuck isn’t the end of the road — it might actually be the beginning of something powerful.
Because the moment you feel stuck… is also the moment you get to ask:
- What am I afraid of?
- What stories am I telling myself?
- And—is there a different way to look at this?
Feeling Stuck or Just Scared? Understanding the Truth About Resistance
So what does it actually mean to feel stuck? It’s become somewhat of a buzzword. Another, perhaps more accurate, word for the experience of stuckness is resistance.
It’s often used in the worlds of creativity and work productivity to describe the feeling of being unable to move forward. But, it can also be used to describe the inability to improve, shift, change or transform any and all lifestyle and health related behaviours.
While the feeling of being stuck is real it’s important to acknowledge the fact that you are actually not stuck.
Acknowledging this truth can itself be helpful, at least it was for me. Because the words you use are powerful.
My experience is that feeling stuck usually comes down to one of two things:
- Lack of clarity – not knowing what you want, or not being honest with yourself about it.
- Fear – knowing exactly what you want, but being too afraid to go for it.
Stuckness is not that you don’t have options. It’s that every option feels bad — or risky — or like it demands a sacrifice you’re not sure you’re ready to make.
In this situation, you might tell yourself, “Either I choose THIS and suffer in one way, or I choose THAT and suffer in another.”
It becomes this black-or-white thinking that traps you in “either/or” mode.
And when you’re only choosing between two painful options? Of course you’ll feel stuck. The logical response is to do nothing.
The problem with this is not that you don’t do anything. Sometimes that is the right choice – to trust, surrender and have patience.
This is different from being stuck – which is when your thoughts are scattered, you feel uneasy, you start resenting yourself because you don’t do what you know you want to do, and you go to bed feeling unhappy with yourself.
This creates internal stress and is VERY draining.
Another common strategy you might use to beat resistance is to try to plan, strategize and set goals. You stay in our head. At least for me, this has rarely been helpful.
Turn Resistance Into Momentum: How to Use Stuckness as Fuel
How do we get unstuck?
What I’ve come to discover is that resistance actually is potential energy that can be harnessed via self-awareness and embodiment.
When you see the potential in the resistance, it’s easier to gather the courage to meet the resistance and start understanding what it is trying to protect you from.
Resistance, feeling stuck, is a feeling – it’s not something you can touch, smell or see. Feelings are the body’s way of communicating with us, the fastest way out of resistance is to meet it in the body.
When you can sit with the uncomfortable feeling, you move through it, and on the other side of that discomfort you usually find GOLD. You get access to MORE of yourself. Life just becomes better.
I’ve also discovered that when you meet the resistance in your body, it’s easier to get out of that black and white thinking, the this OR that. The truth lives in the “and”.
A Personal Story of Feeling Stuck
Let me give you an example from my own life.
For those of you who’ve heard my story, know that I had a corporate career for 10+ years. It was very exciting in the beginning, but after years of being constantly stressed, burnt out, feeling unfulfilled, and like my soul was slowly dying, I realized I had to get out.
To make a long story short, I discovered that I wanted to do meaningful work. For me, that’s helping others become the creators of their lives and have a fulfilled and healthy life.
After years of doing the work, getting trained and embodying the fact that this is what I wanted to do, I felt like I was ready to leave my job and go for my dream.
The problem? All of a sudden I felt stuck. I couldn’t leave.
I kept thinking that it would be the most stupid thing to give up a so-called secure job, steady paycheck benefits and jump into something that felt very insecure and unpredictable.
So I stayed.
And I felt more and more miserable. The more miserable I felt, the more I felt like I had to leave, but the more I felt that I had to leave, the more stress I got about the uncertainty.
I was stuck in a “either this” OR that” loop for a long time. Then the coach that I worked with at the time asked me:
What if it’s possible to do both? What if you can coach AND have financial security?
She invited me to just sit with the AND, the possibility of both options, and see what would happen.
I agreed. I asked the question of AND and what happened is that I started noticing my body speaking to me.
Having the intention to not run from anything, I decided to befriend the resistance and all its qualities – sensations in my body, emotions, memories, all of it.
Instead of running away from the uncomfortable emotions and not so nice thoughts away, I looked at them closer. I sat down with them and decided to look at whatever came up with acceptance and love.
I could sense the resistance in my gut. It felt like a painful, awful knot. All I did was feel it. If it would get too much, I would do some tapping on my body to calm myself down.
When I felt ready to be more curious, I started speaking to it. I asked the feeling, the fear, if it had anything to say to me, why it showed up, what it needed and what it wanted.
This was extremely liberating because all the energy I had used to push it down was suddenly freed.
This embodiment, sitting with the fear, the resistance, together with the fact that I was willing to open up to the possibility of “and” even if I couldn’t see it, made all the difference.
Suddenly, a door I couldn’t have predicted opened up. I found a bridge opportunity. I started building my coaching practice while still in my job. I started doing the things that I wanted to do, and started cutting out all the things that didn’t align with me anymore.
This gave me energy, momentum. I started seeing possibilities.
I wasn’t stuck.
I just couldn’t see the path because I was focused on the wrong question and I put all my energy in trying to avoid the fear, instead of meeting it.
I’m sharing this to let you know that most of the time, you don’t move forward not because you can’t — but because there’s a trapped sensation, fear or memory stuck in your body.
That’s the feeling of stuckness, not the fact that you don’t have any options.
It could be the fear of:
- Making a mistake
- Making the wrong decision or choice
- What other people will think
- How it will impact people close to you
- Succeeding or being seen
- Being misunderstood
The fear creates the resistance that stops you from action.
Your job is not to fight or even overcome the resistance. Your job is to turn to it, meet it, and see it.
When you do this, it loses power over you. If you try to avoid it, it will control your life and it will keep you from your dream life.
A Somatic Approach to Getting Unstuck
If you’re feeling stuck right now, try this:
- Take it to the body.
Bring attention to your body.
Notice the contact your body has with the environment, the chair you’re sitting on or the floor you are standing on.
Move your attention from your thoughts, to your body.
How does it feel to be in your body in the space that you are in right now?
Then turn your attention to any sensations in your body.
Can you locate the resistance somewhere in your body? Do you feel anything in your throat, belly, chest, breath/diaphragm, eyes, jaw?
Sensations and being able to locate them are like gold. If we can’t do this, they get stuck and the resistance sticks
- Befriend the sensations
When you catch a sensation, welcome it. Meet it with acceptance and love. Don’t ask it to go away or to be different, even if it’s uncomfortable.
Know that it shows up to protect you. Stick with it and notice if it changes in any way.
- Get honest with yourself
When you feel ready, see if you can get a bit more curious about the sensation.
If the sensation could speak, what would it say? Don’t judge whatever comes up.
No matter what you feel, know that it’s valid because you are feeling it. If you risk judgement, you’re not going to be willing to be honest with yourself.
- Challenge the either/or
When you notice yourself thinking “I can either do this or that…” — pause.
Ask: “What would it look like if I could have BOTH?”
Even just asking the question can shift your mindset and open up creative possibilities.
- Feel your way forward.
You don’t have to have a perfect 5-year plan.
You just have to take one aligned step forward. One tiny move from clarity.
When you take action not by pushing or forcing yourself, but from a place of clarity, from a place of awareness, the resistance loses its grip over you. More possibilities as ideas will come to you. And that’s how the path is being shown.
You don’t have to wait for the entire path to be visible before you can start walking it.
One of my favorite quotes from the poet Rumi is suitable here:
As you start to walk on the way the way appears.
When you start saying yes and acting on what feels true, you don’t feel stuck anymore. You feel aligned and you feel the magic of momentum.
You’re Not Stuck — You’re Being Invited Into Your Truth
Let me leave you with this:
You’re not stuck. You’re being invited into a deeper level of truth.
And when you meet that truth—not with shame, but with curiosity—that’s where the shift begins.
That’s it for today. Thank you so much for listening, it means the world to me.
If this episode resonated with you — and you’re ready to stop waiting and start playing big — I know I’m your person.
If your mind keeps spinning through “what-ifs,” worst-case scenarios, and half-finished dreams… and you’re craving clarity on your next step — I invite you to book a 90-minute Clarity Reset Session with me.
This is a laser-focused coaching session designed to help you move through resistance and get unstuck — so you can step into the fullest version of you.
Head to theselflovepath.com/clarity-reset to learn more and book your spot.
I’ll also link the details in the show notes.
Until next time — trust yourself, love yourself, and keep walking your path.