Navigating Your Annual Low: Embracing the Nadir with Self-Compassion

Happy Nadir! How are you celebrating?

As predictable as any celestial event, when the nights grow long here in the northern hemisphere, I hit my annual low point in energy and productivity, my “nadir” or moment of least achievement and of hope. The “hope” part comes about because each year I am absolutely convinced this has never happened to me before, or at least not quite like this. Let me explain.

The return of Comet Nadir is accompanied by the Ennui Meteor Shower. I desperately seek to pin my malaise and sloth on something tangible and run down the checklist. Have I been working and/or training too hard? Am I getting sick? Are my iron levels low? How about Vitamin D? Too much holiday stress? Oh no, maybe I am deficient in Goji berries, Acai, or Spirulina…? Perhaps that Youtuber is right, I do need Ka’chava or Athletic Greens posthaste! 🙄 

My mind settles on the only obvious conclusion, this is the “new me,” how things will be from here on out. Tragically, I have enjoyed my last hard bike ride and unbridled ski. Well, it was fun while it lasted. Maybe I can start a scrapbook? 

Projects that once had me eager to get going in the morning will now forever be a slog. Creativity has left the building. Forever hereafter I will need a daily nap just to stretch bedtime to 9PM (ok, that is not completely new). “Such a sad pitiful creature. To think that merely a month earlier he was thriving. Let that be a lesson to you kids….”

[cue the tiny violins and pass the tissues]

 Based on conversations with coaching clients, friends, and loved ones, I am willing to bet that a fair number of you are kindred spirits. Regardless of when the Comet Nadir is visible in your skies, I have some good news. First, Edward Gory gets us (image below). But wait, there’s more!

Our minds have a strong and automatic tendency to predict the future based on the present. Probabilistically speaking, it is a great strategy. But it can also cause us problems by generating the sense that we are stuck, trapped forever in the low spot when in truth this that this is simply part of our natural annual cycle. 

That discomfort we are feeling? It is being created internally, and that means that we often have the ability to make it stop. The ticket out for me is tuning into my rhythms, respecting them, and figuring out how to adjust my expectations TEMPORARILY. 

Important disclaimer: I am not talking about true depression here. If you think that you might be clinically depressed please seek help ASAP! 

Merry Nadir to all!