mindglobe
04-27-2016, 11:45 AM
In the last 8-9 years I have had to face so many changes happening in my life. Firstly, talking about them to my family and my friends, I kept calling them endings, but afterwards I began to feel as if it was a process of renewal.
There is a Chinese byword that says “if the old doesn’t go, the new cannot come“. Keeping that in mind, I’ve begun to view these difficult events as a set of things giving me the possibility to grow forward, and so I’ve come to call them “changes” instead of “endings”.
This post is really for people who are going through tough changes in their lives, because I want to share with them some tools I’ve found to be useful for me in managing my emotional state to navigate through difficult times and overcome them. I’m prone to worry and accuse depressive states for myself, so I’ve had to learn how to pull myself through hard times and then using different techniques, figured out to be really helpful:
1) It is not necessary to understand the cause of the problem to solve it.
Most people believe that it’s essential to know the roots of the problem before they can change. ‘If only I knew why I’m so…I’d be able to change myself’. Unfortunately, this is not true. Understanding does not always create change. Solutions are often new elements injected into the existing situation.
2) Spend only 20% of your time on what’s wrong, and 80% on what’s right.
If you spend 80% of your time focusing on the problem and only 20% on the solution what do you think is going to happen? It’s easy to complain. It’s easy to be a defeatist. You need to make it. Spend your time trying different solutions
3) No matter what else is happening, you are at least doing one thing right in your life.
No matter how badly you think your life may be going, or how messed up you think you are, there is at least one thing you are doing right in your life or you would not be alive in this moment.
4) Problems aren’t always there!
You may think you’re always depressed, or sad, or down and out… only because you haven’t noticed when you haven’t been depressed. You know when you are depressed…how about when you aren’t? For example, from my personal experience, it is physically impossible to be depressed all the time, and you know it. Learn to appreciate also the moments in which you find yourself laughing or smiling.
5) You are more than just your problems.
You are not a depressive. You are not bankrupt. You are not a retrenched worker. You are not a rejected salesman. You are not a last place. Let’s not lie, you are responsible for the results you create in your life, sure. But you are not your problems. You are a living breathing human being who is infinitely more complex than even all of your problems added up together.
6) If what you are doing isn’t working, do something, anything, different from what you’ve been doing before!
If you find yourself stuck in a rut, maybe it is because you are doing the same things over and over again in that same spot. If you really need a change, just challenge yourself to do one thing differently from before. A little shift already creates a different result, and little shifts build on to create bigger shifts in time.
7) Today is a new day.
The past does not equal the future. The future can be even better than the past, unless you make it worse. You can focus on what is over and unchangeable and miss making it better here and now, or you can do better. Leave what is past where it belongs. Create hope for your future. You are the master.
8) See what you want in the future.
Not what you don’t want. What you do want. Since the future’s a blank canvas, you are free everyday to paint it as you wish. You can choose to paint a bleak picture, but is that a quality choice? If you can see, hear or feel it, you can go toward it. Do this as often and as much as you can.
9) What are you grateful for in your life right now?
And finally, the most spiritual and uplifting quality I know: living the attitude of gratitude. No matter who, where and when you are: the fact that you are still here means that you have at least one thing you can be grateful about in your life right now. Not talking about settling for what you have, but acknowledging it, appreciating its presence, knowing that there are good things in your life, will help you attract even more.
I hope these tips about how to overcome difficult times could be a strong guide for you.
This article has been taken from the anxiety and panic attacks session (http://mind-globe.com/9-ways-overcome-difficult-times/) of Mind Globe.
There is a Chinese byword that says “if the old doesn’t go, the new cannot come“. Keeping that in mind, I’ve begun to view these difficult events as a set of things giving me the possibility to grow forward, and so I’ve come to call them “changes” instead of “endings”.
This post is really for people who are going through tough changes in their lives, because I want to share with them some tools I’ve found to be useful for me in managing my emotional state to navigate through difficult times and overcome them. I’m prone to worry and accuse depressive states for myself, so I’ve had to learn how to pull myself through hard times and then using different techniques, figured out to be really helpful:
1) It is not necessary to understand the cause of the problem to solve it.
Most people believe that it’s essential to know the roots of the problem before they can change. ‘If only I knew why I’m so…I’d be able to change myself’. Unfortunately, this is not true. Understanding does not always create change. Solutions are often new elements injected into the existing situation.
2) Spend only 20% of your time on what’s wrong, and 80% on what’s right.
If you spend 80% of your time focusing on the problem and only 20% on the solution what do you think is going to happen? It’s easy to complain. It’s easy to be a defeatist. You need to make it. Spend your time trying different solutions
3) No matter what else is happening, you are at least doing one thing right in your life.
No matter how badly you think your life may be going, or how messed up you think you are, there is at least one thing you are doing right in your life or you would not be alive in this moment.
4) Problems aren’t always there!
You may think you’re always depressed, or sad, or down and out… only because you haven’t noticed when you haven’t been depressed. You know when you are depressed…how about when you aren’t? For example, from my personal experience, it is physically impossible to be depressed all the time, and you know it. Learn to appreciate also the moments in which you find yourself laughing or smiling.
5) You are more than just your problems.
You are not a depressive. You are not bankrupt. You are not a retrenched worker. You are not a rejected salesman. You are not a last place. Let’s not lie, you are responsible for the results you create in your life, sure. But you are not your problems. You are a living breathing human being who is infinitely more complex than even all of your problems added up together.
6) If what you are doing isn’t working, do something, anything, different from what you’ve been doing before!
If you find yourself stuck in a rut, maybe it is because you are doing the same things over and over again in that same spot. If you really need a change, just challenge yourself to do one thing differently from before. A little shift already creates a different result, and little shifts build on to create bigger shifts in time.
7) Today is a new day.
The past does not equal the future. The future can be even better than the past, unless you make it worse. You can focus on what is over and unchangeable and miss making it better here and now, or you can do better. Leave what is past where it belongs. Create hope for your future. You are the master.
8) See what you want in the future.
Not what you don’t want. What you do want. Since the future’s a blank canvas, you are free everyday to paint it as you wish. You can choose to paint a bleak picture, but is that a quality choice? If you can see, hear or feel it, you can go toward it. Do this as often and as much as you can.
9) What are you grateful for in your life right now?
And finally, the most spiritual and uplifting quality I know: living the attitude of gratitude. No matter who, where and when you are: the fact that you are still here means that you have at least one thing you can be grateful about in your life right now. Not talking about settling for what you have, but acknowledging it, appreciating its presence, knowing that there are good things in your life, will help you attract even more.
I hope these tips about how to overcome difficult times could be a strong guide for you.
This article has been taken from the anxiety and panic attacks session (http://mind-globe.com/9-ways-overcome-difficult-times/) of Mind Globe.