Building a healthier relationship with shifting - My experience and advice
If any of this doesn’t resonate, just don’t take it lol.
How do you know you’re obsessing over shifting?
I think it’s when shifting starts to affect your daily life in a negative way.
In my case, shifting used to be the first thing I thought about when I woke up and the last thing I thought about when I went to bed. Throughout the day, I was almost always thinking about my DR or what I could try next to shift. I knew something had to change because shifting didn’t feel enjoyable, it felt like a habit.
Tips & things that worked for me
1. Reflect and be honest about when you tend to obsess over shifting the most
For me, it was when I felt the most anxious. I became honest with myself about my anxiety, which led to me opening up to family about mental health and getting more support from them/ getting outside help if needed. This really lessened my reliance on shifting as a coping mechanism.
2. Embrace your emotions - let yourself feel angry or sad
It sounds simple, but sometimes I make little video diaries talking about how I feel about my shifting journey. I avoid dwelling on it (ex: listening to a bunch of sad music or doom scrolling on shifting social media).
3. Stop looking at shifting as black and white
“I can only shift through the void state/ law of assumption techniques, using xyz method, etc”
Everyone has their theories on shifting, as do I, but at the end of the day, we can not say for sure any method will guarantee a shift. Personally, that kind of thinking led me to a lot of rumination, which was a hard hole to dig myself out of.
4. Reflect on the motivation behind your DRs
I asked myself why I wanted to shift to certain DRs - validation? Exploration? Relationships? After figuring this out, I stopped trying to shift to DRs I don’t actually want to *live* in.
I noticed I used to script DRs where I didn’t seem to grasp the reality of it, and saw it as more of an OC, fanfiction-type thing. Trying to shift to DRs I can ACTUALLY see myself living in helps keep me from excessively daydreaming, and keeps me grounded in the .. well, reality of reality shifting.
Remember, your mental health in this reality should always come first. No one can guarantee if you will wake up in your DR tomorrow, so the best thing we can do for ourselves is keep a healthy balance with shifting.
You can shift, and you can do it in a way that adds to your life, not subtracts from it.
Happy shifting <3
