Hello, hello everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Fluently Fixed, where I am fixing one person's problem, but I think it could apply to a few different people.

This is a question about what to do when you're in a rut and how it's impacting other people and, you know, if they might be taking it personally and how you can get yourself out of a rut.

And I feel like we've talked about this in previously fluently fixed episodes, but I have different kind of theories and like instructions

for different levels of rut that you can be in and how to get yourself out of that

rut or funk or lowell period or whatever you call it. So let me read the question that came in.

Somebody said, hi, Shannon. I would love some advice. I've been in a rut for the last six months maybe, just feeling super low energy, not wanting to get up and make too many plans, and just generally being a bit of a hermit. Nothing is wrong medically or with my hormones. It's just how I've been feeling. The weird thing is that my boyfriend is taking my lull of a mood to be about him.

To summarize, he thinks that if we were super in love and he was, quote, enough for me,

I wouldn't be having such a down few months.

I disagree with this on face value.

This is a me thing.

But a few of my friends have actually taken his side, that if I was fulfilled and happy in my relationship, I wouldn't be so

down all the time. Are they right? Is a partner really enough for you? And does that make all of the

other parts of life easier? Any advice is super appreciated. I'm going to first respond to the boyfriend

part, but then I do want to discuss general being in a rutness and ways to overcome it, because

I think a lot of people go through this. God knows I do very often. And I just feel like being in a rut-ness and ways to overcome it because I think a lot of people go through this.

God knows I do very often. And I just feel like being in a rut is the worst because it isn't

the worst, like capital T, capital W. Like when you are in a rut or you're in a lull period,

you don't even really get that sick joy of getting to lick your wounds over it or really

feel like a full-ass victim or feel vindicated because something horrible happened to you.

And that's why you're in this awful mood. But when you're just in a rut, you're like, wow,

great. Like nothing horrible and heinous has happened. Like I'm not really going to be taking time off of work,

but this spark of life has just turned into a very, very low simmer. And I don't feel miserable

...