self-control
Keeping Your Cool In These Stressful Times
This is a stressful time, but my feeling is the Covid-19 pandemic has happened in our world for a reason. It is has been making us take a real long look at what is most important in life. It has been teaching us to not take our daily lives and our loved ones for granted.
The situation has been causing tremendous stress for many of us and has been challenging many relationships. And some of us are dealing better with it than others. If you have been struggling too, then there are some simple self-care strategies that could be helpful if you are feeling overwhelmed by a situation at home.
Start by holding some space for yourself, by carving out some time to just be by yourself, even it is just an hour. Use this time to do whatever makes you happy. If it means doing absolutely nothing, that is fine too! Having some ‘alone time’ helps to declutter your mind, improve your mood and restore your sense of self. If you cannot find peace at home, then go for a walk, or just go get cup of coffee somewhere nearby.
Meditation or quiet contemplation is a wonderful tool to gain a sense of calm and clarity. Take a moment to reflect on whatever may be bothering you, and try to gain a new perspective on the situation. There are always more than one side to a situation, and many tensions and conflicts can be resolved with cool heads and calm discussions.
Improving Your Emotional Responses To Change
Change is inevitable, yet most people don’t know how to manage, or accept it. Living to the fullest is about constantly adapting to different stimuli and changing situations, as we go about our daily lives.
The change I am referring to is not about major socio-economic changes or political events in the world. I’m talking about personal growth, life transitions, and emotional and psychological challenges.
Knowing that personal changes and challenges are inevitable in our lives, how does one handle it in a more positive manner? First and foremost, you have to have the desire and will to succeed in making a change for the better. It must come from within, or it will feel as if it is being forced upon you.
Let’s look, for example, into emotional changes as a result of circumstances or events we may be able to control, or not. Emotional expression is innate in all of us. We can however choose how, and when, to express our emotions, and to what degree. For some of us this is easier said than to done, but never impossible. We can choose to be happy, sad, or even mad. How we choose to react in any given situation is the one thing in life we always can control.
To change a negative emotional response, we have to first understand what brings on that emotion and how the trigger affects us in a given situation. We must acknowledge the stimulus, as well as the emotion I tends to trigger. Finally we must choose how to address it, so it no longer is a negative response.