There
are times in life when you feel like this:
When
you feel like the world and all its baggage is riding on your shoulders. And
you think to yourself. Why me? It was all going so so very well. Why did the grief chose me?
Some
of us are born optimists however – and even though you people are exceedingly
rare in today’s world, you are the people that greet misfortune with smile. You
are the people that look on the bright side and believe that a silver lining is
coming for you. You are the people who I’d very much like to tear a limb off
of.
 |
| Ah hem... |
In
all seriousness though, I salute you. I envy you, but I salute you because I am your polar opposite as I’m
sure a lot of people are. I don’t particularly enjoy stressful situations and I
am the first person to rip my hair out of my head when things go horribly wrong
– sometimes I’ll blow a casket when things go just somewhat wrong. But as with most situations in my life that involve
negatives, after twenty-four hours of brooding (sometimes even days depending
on the scope of the problem), I find a way to bounce back. And you should too
so here’s a little advice to you.
Take
a load off…literally!
DO
NOT keep the issue bottled up no matter how detrimental. Find someone and get
it off your chest. People that feel like they can’t talk to family or friends
have been known to take their problems to complete strangers. The internet is a
phenomenal place. No one knows you really and there are forums and chat sites
of all calibres (and I mean ALL unfortunately). Talk to someone. They might be
able to help you put things into perspective and even if they cannot provide
you with a solution – or even if you don’t want a solution – you will feel much
better in having gotten it off your chest.
I
don’t know about you, but at times I have a really bad habit of taking drastic
action…or contemplating taking
drastic action. I also know a multiplex of people who act too quickly without
giving things much thought. They will say the first thing that pops into their
head when met with a stressful or hostile situation and will more often, than
not, regret it later. Give yourself a moment to actually digest what has
happened. Offload – as I mentioned earlier. Scream bloody murder – just don’t
act on it. Or try my next suggestion.
Find
an outlet!
It’s
happened. And frankly, as much as you wish it didn’t – the situation has arisen
and you can’t take it back. So you need to find a way to deal with it. One of
the ways that I deal with stressful or difficult situations is to write my
thoughts down. If you’ve read this post of mine, you’ll know that I feel like I
haven’t the closest relationship I could have with my family and at one particular
instance I wrote a rather emotional letter to a cousin of mine which I never
sent. When I revisited it for the first time, all those waves of emotion came
flooding back, but recently upon finding it again, I found that I was able to
delete it possibly meaning that I’ve managed to deal with it. If writing’s not
your thing, find another outlet. Maybe something a little physical. I’ve heard
boxing is a great way to relieve stress for both men and women. Or maybe take
up something that helps you to relax. Yoga? Meditation? Pottery? Whatever you fancy – so long as it’s good for your overall well-being.
They’ve
got feelings too!
So
you decided to talk to somebody? But their words aren’t helping and you’re
starting to find every little thing they do annoying. And then you can’t take
them anymore and you bite their head off. I’ve had my head chopped off many times and I’ve probably done some chopping of my own as well, but let’s be honest
with ourselves for a minute. Did they put you in that situation? Most cases are
forgiveable but it still doesn’t give you the excuse to take out all your frustrations
on the people nearest to you – and that goes for people physically near you as well. I’m sure that woman on the train didn’t
mean to nudge passed you like that so cut her some slack.
Sleep!
As
long as I can remember, whenever I’ve been seriously upset about something, I’ve
simply gone to sleep. It could be broad daylight outside, but I would rather drift
off into the land of nod rather than work myself into a blubbering frenzy.
Considering that we need sleep to recharge our batteries as well as to work
through all the animation we’ve undergone in the day, sleep is a great way to
not only consciously get away from the issue momentarily, but to also, give
your unconscious state time to work
through the issue and potentially devise solutions to the issue and speaking of
solutions…
Make
a list!
There
is almost always a way out of a difficult situation so why not make a list of
possible solutions. Depending on the extent of the issue, even a little
research wouldn’t go amiss. You’ll be pleasantly surprised what you might find.
However, just be certain that whatever research you come up with is legitimate,
viable and more importantly legal as there
is a whole host of hogwash out there. Once you’ve got some ideas however, I
would start with the most practical and leave the last resorts to just that.
Time
is a Healer.
I
cannot remember for the life of me who gave me this piece of advice, but it has
served me well in a variety of situations. And truer words have honestly never
been spoken. When a negative circumstance is fresh, it’s all you can think
about and every time you think about it, it makes you feel even worse, but as
the days go by, it’ll get easier to put things into perspective and to make
sense of it all. Eventually, a solution will find you and the situation will
finally become nothing more than a distant memory. Heck, you might even laugh
about it.
So
chin up because I promise that even though it may feel like your world has come
crashing down. It definitely isn’t the be all and end all. How you deal with it and how you come out of it will ultimately, however, depend on you.
