A staggering find by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that 10% of Americans experiences depression. Life isn’t easy and when you’re stuck grinding out your mortgage or paying off student loans and other debts, it becomes even less appealing. Keeping your thoughts positive and being happy about life is imperative.
I remember back when I was in my early-20s and received my first job out of college. The excitement couldn’t be contained and I remember thinking to myself, I finally did it! All those years of schooling, late night studying, and spending frugally – I was finally on my way to becoming a financially independent adult.
The euphoria curtailed after 9 months or so and I found myself questioning everything in life – if this is the path I wanted to take, if I was making the right decisions, and if I should go back to school and change careers after finding out the job I had wasn’t my long-term aspiration. This wasn’t even close to the type of low I would fall to in my 30s. I then began to change my frame of mind, thinking about life differently.
Calm Down
Take a deep breath. Close your eyes, clear your mind, inhale deeply, and exhale slowly. Stay in the moment. There is only one thing you can control and that is now. People really get into trouble when thinking too much about the past or future and forget about what is going on at this very instant. A way to help with this is to pay attention to your senses; touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing.
Feel the cool air blow on your face and pay close attention to the sounds in the distance. Hone in on a single stimulus. Do not dwell on the past or future but stay within the moment. Do you have any problems at this very instant? No you do not. Keep focused on the now and you will quickly calm yourself. Repeat this when you feel overwhelmed.
Discuss your Feelings
Friends are there to discuss life with one another. It is enjoyable to joke around and have good times with them, but open up to your friends to allow relationships to have deeper meaning than simply talking about baseball statistics or the latest fashion fad. I imagine it as a herd of cattle enclosed in a small area pasture.
Keeping your thoughts enclosed will force you to dwell upon them and oftentimes makes your thoughts more negative. Open the gates to the pasture and allow your thoughts to roam freely. Discuss the way you are feeling with friends and loved ones. They are likely going through the same types of feelings as you are, and may be able to contribute soothing and relaxing insight to help ease your mental pain. Letting your thoughts out will be like releasing poison from your mind.
Planning things to look forward to
Fall has always been my favorite time of year. The weather is crisp but not cold, the changing colors are beautiful, and every month a new holiday appears (Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day). Once the New Year struck, I’d always find myself painfully down on life. To me there was nothing to look forward to and the weather was nasty so I’d coop myself indoors for 3 months until the sun started to shine again.
Then, I started to plan an event every 3-4 weeks. It could be a trip home to spend time with family, a three hour drive to the mountains to go hiking, or a long biking trip that you can use as an end-goal for regular exercise. Give yourself something to look forward to instead of keeping the same aimless routine of going to work, going to sleep, staying in on the weekend, rinse and repeat. Carve out events to look forward to and encourage others to join in.
It isn’t about getting through life and reaching an end goal – it should be about the journey along the way. Stay within the moment, give yourself things to look forward to, and open up to others. Life will be so much more fruitful and meaningful if you do.
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Gale Newell is always looking for ways to help others and spread of bit of her knowledge and expertise. She writes about financial planning, debt consolidation reviews, and personal motivation. In her free time, she currently finds herself watching the latest episodes of Vikings or Supernatural. She enjoys decompressing after work by taking jogs along the canal bank with her Alaskan Malamute, Tuco.
-What are some ways you remain positive during life’s challenging times?
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