Everyone struggles with day to day hassles. Maybe your sick child needs to stay at home from school and you had other plans or a traffic jam is keeping you from being in time for that important meeting. There are also moments in life that are really rough. Moments you feel you are really being put to a test. Maybe someone you love dies, you get laid off while you are in debt or you are facing a divorce.
Especially at those moments it might be hard to look at life from a positive side or to keep your balance. The below listed 7 habits will then guide you through. And if you start incorporating them when your life seems pretty good, you will already be two steps ahead when the unexpected happens.
1. Meditation
Every day take a moment to withdraw yourself from everything. Find a place in your house where you feel comfortable. Lie down for at least 30 minutes on a couch or stretcher, preferably not in your bed, and focus your attention on your breathing. Follow the inhale and the exhale. If your mind wanders off, kindly bring your attention back to your breathing.
2. Feel your emotions
When something is happening that distresses you, retreat yourself. Find the word that best describes your feelings, for example ‘grief’, ‘restless’ or ‘nervous’. Then say the sentence aloud beginning with “I feel…” followed by your feeling. For example “I feel restless”. Subsequently determine where in your body you feel it, for example in your chest. Then place your hand on that part of your body and feel it within. Feelings just want to be felt. No more or less. You can even literally say “Welcome feeling of restlessness”. Once you open yourself up to feel it, it can let you go. Possibly another feeling will come up and you repeat the same process.
3. Keep your focus on your own goals
In everyday life you are disturbed by events originating from your outside world. Maybe it is your boss or a colleague with an emergency. It could be your spouse or a child that needs you. Or all kind of things that you feel you ‘have to’ do. You cannot completely shut it out. Things that you ‘have to’ do, might help you further, but it also takes up energy. Therefore it is very important that you bring your focus back to your own goals. Especially to those that are related to what you want to achieve and contribute to in life. If you do things in order to achieve these goals, it will give you energy rather than it costs and it will bring your life in flow.
4. Set your boundaries
If there are too many distractions from the outside world to keep you off your own goals, set your boundaries straight and protect them. It might feel a bit harsh, but if you do it in a friendly way, your clarity might be better for your environment too. Like with children, even though it might seem contradictory, boundaries might even make them prosper.
5. Plan things that make you happy
When things in your life overwhelm you, you may feel like retreating yourself. You may wish to stay under that rock until the wind blows over or you might drag yourself along the road. Especially at those times you need to do fun things too. Plan yourself something you like. Meet up with friends, go dancing or treat yourself to a day at the spa. Do whatever makes you happy. It will bring some positivity to your life.
6. Find yourself supporters
Find people in your life that you feel safe with. You need people that you can say to whatever is going on inside of you without holding back. People that listen to you without judgment. Especially when your life is rough, it is good to have at least one person that is unconditionally there for you no matter what. Share with them what is going on inside of you. At difficult times they might turn out to be your lifesavers.
7. Take action
Keep in mind that whatever goal you have or whatever path you are walking, you need to take action to achieve your goals. If you want to be successful you will have to step out of your comfort zone over and over again. And even if you do not know how to achieve your goals, take one step at a time and see what new possibilities will come up along the way. Opportunities might arise that you would never have thought of yourself.
You cannot prevent rough things from happening in your life. It is the way you look at things and the way you deal with them that determines the impact it has on you. And this is not predetermined. If you change the way you look at and act upon situations, the apparently heaviest weather in you life might even turn out to be somehow a blessing in disguise.