Living through a time where the best type of action is unclear can elicit feelings of hopelessness. In a crisis situation, when nothing good is happening around, it is very easy to succumb to negative feelings. Sooner or later they will lead you to unhappiness and anger. However, this can and should be dealt with. There are many ways to stay positive. We bring to your attention the main ones.
Appropriately assess the situation
Stress activates our ancient defense responses that helped humans survive millions of years ago. There are three such reactions to danger and threat: hit, run, and freeze. They occur automatically and out of control. And this is normal in terms of survival. But after the impulse has passed, you can turn on analytical thinking and track this trigger: is something specifically threatening me now or am I panicking?
There is our interpretation of current events, which causes fear. And you need to work with this fear.
See the future and set goals
Instead of focusing on how you feel, consider how instability affects others. Most people feel anxious or worried about the state of the world. If you want to stay positive, you can’t just think about your problems. Think about how you can help other people. If you have the opportunity to support someone in difficult times – this is one of the best feelings to experience.
Responsibility is a word that many people don’t like to hear because not everyone has this feeling naturally. It may take years of practice, but how else can you change the world if you don’t start with yourself. Instead of worrying about everything that can’t be changed, why don’t you start setting goals and achieving them? This helps a lot when you’re trying to stay positive.
Control Thoughts and Emotions
The most important thing here is to recognize your own thinking. We must ensure that our opinions are grounded on facts. We must assess whether our perspectives of our current circumstances are based on truth or have been exaggerated by the uncertainties.
While remaining informed is crucial, spending too much time on the news will cause negative emotions to rise. It is vital to take the time to assess our sentiments and determine what is generating the anxiety or discontent. It will be easier to keep a positive baseline for ourselves if we can reinterpret the way we perceive whatever we are going through.
Occupy yourself with what you like
First and foremost you have to understand what can bring you pleasure even in such a difficult situation. This is important because many people in such periods are pinched and think: we are trying to survive, there is no place for something good in such a situation. This is fundamentally wrong.
Write a list of what brings you joy. For example, reading tales to kids, exercising, cooking, and planting seeds. Try to add new pleasant activities every day. This will pull us out of negative thoughts.
Do practical exercises
If a disturbing thought is stuck in your head try one of these techniques.
Technique 1
As soon as you feel inexplicable anxiety, try to concentrate on some subject. Try to consider it to the smallest detail. This will change the focus. And when you return to real life, there will be no more disturbing thoughts in your head.
Technique 2
Without raising your head, look slightly above your usual eye. Usually, people do this when they dream. This simple exercise activates the parts of the brain responsible for imaginative thinking. It is simply impossible to think about problems with this position of the eyes.
There are many other ways to stay positive in the most difficult and critical situations. We tried to choose for you the main, universal, hundred percent working methods.
