Every day we collectively, or individually, have hardships that simply come along with life. As a human being, we have to experience emotions every day, whether we like it or not.
Bad luck and misfortune happen every day. There is an endless number of things that make us feel defeated in life, from losing an important game, to not getting accepted into your favorite college, to losing a loved one.
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So much negative emotion comes out of situations similar to those. So why not take control of all of that emotion and use it for your own benefit? These helpful tips will not be entirely about getting rid of negative feelings, but how to understand and make the most of them.
1. Move
With feelings of depression and helplessness, many people like to sleep excessively or simply sit around and replay their unhappy thoughts in their head over and over again. It sounds like it would obviously make things worse, but it is most people's initial reaction to feeling hurt.
So how about trying something different, like just getting up and doing anything? Psychologically, if your body is moving, your mind will be trying to do its part to catch up.
Basically if you do something like go out for a walk rather than sleep, your brain will too. Your brain will naturally move from topic to topic in your consciousness while your body is moving. This is why it's common for people to have issues sleeping at night because they can't stop thinking.
They are laying in the same spot all night thinking about the same thing. The more your body moves throughout the day, the more your brain processes and it becomes easier to move on mentally. As an additional benefactor, keeping moving and active is healthy!
So bring your body and the mind will follow.
2. Stop Pitying Yourself
It's a bit hard to argue that pity is the most useless emotion we possess. It literally does nothing but hurt us and hold us back. However, most of us have a very hard time staying away from feeling sorry for ourselves.
It is natural for pity to overtake our minds right away and it can feel like an emotion that never ends. Almost every time, the answer to this is acceptance. Of course you might think accepting the situation as it is can be a lot easier said than done, but that isn't true.
No one ever said you can't both pity yourself and accept the situation. The point is, the sooner you accept what is happening and really take a look at the situation, the sooner you will stop feeling sorry for yourself. The more acceptance you have, the less pity you will feel.
3. Grieve if Needed
This may seem a bit contradictory to my last point, but it is actually quite the opposite. Believe it or not, it is especially important to feel the feeling that came along with your shortcomings.
We are human beings and we were designed to feel, so feel it. Don't push it off. Experience all the pain and hurt in the beginning so you can get back on your feet as soon as possible. It might not sound pleasant, but many times things get worse before they can get better.
4. Make Sure Distractions are Positive Ones
Distracting yourself from the feeling now and then is also a good idea. I have already told you how important it is to feel the emotion, but you do not need to feel it 100 percent of the time.
Learning to appreciate the little things, like good food or a run on a nice day, can help. However if you really want to get the most out of a bad situation, succeed in every way possible. Success in every form will help you climb back up the ladder to a good self-esteem.
The best part is, you can use whatever is bringing you down as motivation to succeed and bring you back up. All you have to do is remain aware of how you're feeling and channel any negative energy toward your personal success. Also, things like drugs and alcohol obviously just prolong or intensify negative feelings.
I have never heard anyone say that drinking solved their problems in life, and I doubt I ever will. Stay focused and goal-oriented, and know which distractions are actually going to help and which ones will hurt.
5. Do Not Look Back
If you have reached the point where you feel better about your situation, keep it that way. The last thing you want to do is go through all of it again. You didn't just do all that work to end up in the same place, so again, stay focused.
There will always be temptation to look back if it fits the situation, but that doesn't mean you have to. Remember you have time on your side. As most of us know, time heals everything, so be fair to yourself and just keep moving forward even after you have healed.
If you have noticed by now, this was all about mentality. Perception is the most important aspect of getting through anything difficult. There really is no such thing as reality, because everyone sees things in their own way. The only thing that is real is how you perceive your own reality.
So if you learn to perceive things in a better way, there is no stopping you from doing anything.
