Stuck In a Rut? Explore These Tips to Help Break Free

RUT. Just the sound of the word is unpleasant. And getting stuck in a rut feels like the word sounds: flat, boring, empty.

Most of us have fallen into a rut at one point or another — eating a certain meal for lunch every day, doing the same unfulfilling workout, or maybe hanging around a toxic group of friends you’ve known forever because, well, they’re there.

Ruts often stem from once-comforting routines that have grown stale. “Routines are typically consciously designed or developed for functional reasons,” says Pilar Gerasimo, author of The Healthy Deviant: A Rule Breaker’s Guide to Being Healthy in an Unhealthy World and founding editor of Experience Life.

An established routine can minimize our mental burden. Making decisions takes time and mental energy that could be better spent on the good stuff, like pursuing creative passions or connecting with others. When we observe a basic routine, we don’t have to spend as much of our precious energy deciding how to structure our day.

Unfortunately, a once-helpful routine can easily become a rut, says Gerasimo. “That happens the minute we start losing energy to it, begin resenting it, or recognize it’s being maintained at a too-high cost — yet we can’t muster the courage or capacity to adjust it.”

But even if a rut is deeply ingrained, escaping it may be easier than you think. Sometimes all it takes is a little change of scenery.

START TINY

Ruts can wreak havoc on our self-esteem. “There is a painful gap between what people want and what they actually do,” writes behavior scientist BJ Fogg, PhD, in his book Tiny Habits. When we don’t close that gap, we may internalize a cultural message that our inability to change is our fault.

Fogg argues that the problem lies not with our willingness to change but with our approach to change. Rather than setting out to overhaul our lives overnight, he recommends breaking goals down into smaller behaviors.

Say you’re in a rut of avoiding the gym. Instead of vowing to work out every day, start small by doing squats while your bread is toasting before breakfast or by going to a fun dance class.

These small wins remind your body how good it feels to exercise — perhaps leading you to another workout tomorrow. Over time, little victories add up and contribute to bigger lifestyle changes.

Other tiny actions can help too:

• Fogg recommends a ritual he calls the “Maui habit” to start the day on a positive note. After you wake up, put your feet on the floor and say, “It’s going to be a great day.” As you say the words, try to feel optimistic and positive.
• Consider livening up your living space with a new plant or piece of art. Giving yourself something new to view can make your familiar surroundings feel fresh.
• Speaking of art, consider visiting a museum or an outdoor sculpture garden. A systematic review published in The Journal of Positive Psychology in 2025 suggests that viewing art can help us feel that our lives have meaning.

GET CREATIVE

Playful creativity is an excellent way to escape a rut, says clinical psychologist Michael Alcée, PhD, author of The Upside of OCD: Flip the Script to Reclaim Your Life.

When one of his former patients, a classically trained pianist, had grown bored of playing songs she knew, Alcée suggested that she transform one of them. “Have fun with it,” he said. And she did.

Her feeling of stagnation vanished when she took a familiar tune and mashed it with something she’d just composed, Alcée says.

For those not artistically inclined, there are plenty of ways to be what he calls “mindfully creative”:

• Do your work at a coffee shop or a library for a few hours during the week (if your job allows). If you’re a regular somewhere, try a different time — or a different place.
• Strike up a conversation with someone you see regularly but haven’t talked to before. Connecting with a new person and getting out of your own head for a bit can work wonders for the doldrums.
• Along those lines, the next time an old friend pops into your head, text them or (gasp!) even call.
• Go on a solo date. Getting out and following your own desires can be restorative. (See “Build Your Own Retreat.”)

OBSERVE YOURSELF

“Get curious about the exact moment when your pattern-shifting methods meet resistance,” Gerasimo suggests. When you’re intent on making a particular change but struggling, notice the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations at play, then jot them down in a journal or describe them in a voice memo. “Think of it like taking lab notes,” she advises.

Observing your behavioral dynamics in this more curious, nonjudgmental way might ease feelings of shame. Documenting the experience and reflecting on it later, Gerasimo notes, can help you identify where you might have one foot on the gas and the other on the brake.

Gerasimo suggests an exercise called the Trouble Clock, which she says helps her students and coaching clients identify the times of day they’re most vulnerable to problematic behaviors or patterns — and the underlying reasons for that.

Once you become aware of those self-diminishing patterns, Gerasimo notes, it becomes easier to prepare for and preemptively interrupt them.

When you find yourself feeling stuck, try these strategies:

• Mentally scan your lived ­experience of the previous few hours and the effect it has had on your energy and mood.
• Ask yourself when you last had a nutritious meal, ­adequate hydration, a little rest and recovery, or some social connection, fun, or outdoor time.
• Consider that your rut-vulnerable moments may have their origins in periods of depletion and dysregulation.

DEFOCUS YOUR MIND

Ruts can develop for physiological reasons as well: “We become stuck in ruts due to our brains’ habitual electrical patterns,” writes psychiatrist Srini Pillay, MD, in Harvard Health Online.

“Faced with new situations, our brains will apply rules based on prior events to match the current context,” he adds. “There’s a part of the brain that is especially wired to do this.” Pillay, author of Tinker Dabble Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind, calls it “the brain’s pattern seeker.”

The pattern seeker helps reduce the brain’s energy costs: By finding old rules that can be applied to a current situation, the brain circumvents the energy-draining chore of learning something new.

Building unfocused time into your day may help counteract these tendencies.

Try one of the activities recommended by Pillay for 15 minutes a few times a day:

• Go for a meandering walk (or try forest bathing).
• Daydream.
• Doodle.
• Nap.

This article originally appeared as “How to Get Out of a Rut” in the July/August 2026 issue of Experience Life.