Affirmations can be a simple way to address your fears and make progress in a non-threatening way. Affirmations are just positive statements that you make to yourself that have the potential to change the way you think and behave.
Affirmations seem simple on the surface, but there are several details that must be understood in order to use them effectively.
See how you can use affirmations as a useful tool in overcoming fears:
Keep affirmations positive. Affirmations work better if they’re positive rather than negative. For example:
“I am not afraid of heights” isn’t as effective as “I find heights exhilarating”.
Your brain has a better understanding of what you’re trying to accomplish if your affirmations are stated in the affirmative.
Negative statements seem to confuse the part of your brain that you’re trying to reach. You might end up with more of what you’re trying to avoid!
2. Use the present tense. It’s also important to keep your statements in the present tense. The affirmation “I will be brave around women” is stated in the future. If this affirmation actually came true, you’d never be brave around women because this is a character trait that you plan to have in the future!
“I am courageous when speaking to women” is a more effective affirmation.
3. Avoid using too many. Repeating 150 affirmations means that you can’t repeat them too often or you’d never do anything else. Too many affirmations also scatter your attention over too many items. Five to ten affirmations are about right.
4. Use them regularly. Repeat your affirmations a few times each day. Preferably at least three times if you’re serious. That’s three times every single day. It’s only a few minutes each time. You have time for that.
5. Make your own. There are endless lists of affirmations but be choosy. Find affirmations that appeal to you or make your own. The most effective affirmations are the ones that you create but look at the affirmations of others for ideas.
6. The best affirmations elicit an emotion. Every affirmation you choose to use should make you feel something when you repeat it. Affirmations with an emotional jolt are more effective.
We like to think we’re logical, but we really aren’t. If we were actually driven by logic, we’d never overeat, skip the gym, or procrastinate. Logic only shows us what we should do, but often fail to do.
7. Visualise. Have an image in your mind that represents your affirmation. It might be you eating a healthy meal, meeting the person of your dreams, or fearlessly giving a speech. If you can’t imagine it, you can’t accomplish it.
8. Make use of the time just after waking up and just before falling asleep. The two best times to repeat affirmations is right when you wake up and right before you fall asleep. You’re in that dreamy, half-awake state. It’s like you have a direct connection to your subconscious.
Affirmations are a free, easy, and effective tool that can help you to rise above your fears.
If you have fears, and who doesn’t add affirmations to your toolbox. Affirmations can be useful in getting over the hump to the point where you can take action. That’s all you really need. You don’t need to be fearless. The fear just needs to be reduced enough that you’re able to pull the trigger.
Begin by making a list of affirmations today. Give them a try for 30 days and decide for yourself if they’re worth your effort. You have nothing to lose!
The winter blues can affect you in a number of ways. Your experience could vary from a minor irritant, all the way up to severe depression or a seasonal affective disorder. This means that the winter blues is something to be taken seriously.
If you’re concerned about feeling down this winter, you can go into the season with a game plan to get through it with a smile.
Why The Winter Blues?
The winter blues might affect you just because it’s a cold season that can get tiresome after a while. You may have to do some serious preparing just to travel outside and the lack of fresh air and indoor activities might make you weary.
Winter also follows a string of usually happy holidays. You might look forward to the holidays all year. Once they’re over with, you might feel a little empty inside. Or perhaps, you find it difficult to begin a new year with a renewed attitude.
How to Survive
With a proper positive attitude, you can sail through any situation. Even if the going gets rough, you know that better times are just ahead. The winter blues are certainly no exception!
Try following some of these tips in order to beat the winter blues:
Plan indoor activities. If you’re the type to go a little stir crazy after a while, maybe you should brainstorm some new and exciting ways to have a good time indoors. You can invite your friends over to play board games, watch movies, or just chat.
Make new season’s resolutions. Resolutions aren’t just for the New Year – you can make them any time. Winter is a great time to revisit your resolutions, see what’s working, what needs adjustments and make plans for the final six months of the year. Make some realistic goals for yourself, and as you achieve them, you’ll likely beat the blues in the process.
Maintain your health. It’s easy to forego healthy habits during the craziness of the holiday season. Festive treats are thrown around and you may not have time to continue your exercise routines.
If you’ve neglected your health during the holidays, then it’s important to get yourself back into shape when they’re over. When you’re not treating yourself right, you won’t feel right. This may be one of the reasons why you’re having a challenge with the blues.
Think positive thoughts. Negative thinking clouds your brain and brings more negative things into your life, so it’s important to stop these thoughts in their tracks. You have the power to turn it all around. If the blues have gotten you down, chances are that there’s a silver lining somewhere. You just have to do a little digging to find it.
Enjoy family time. Throughout the year, it’s important to continue traditions of family togetherness. While you might not always have the ability to eat meals together, it’s vital to schedule some special time for everyone to share together.
Plan ahead. It may help to plan your next summer vacation. You might even find some excellent deals by booking your vacation early. You can then escape the winter blues by visualizing yourself enjoying your summer vacation. An exciting activity to look forward to also reduces those winter doldrums.
If the above suggestions don’t bring you relief from the winter blues, remember that you can always talk with a psychologist about your feelings. The winter blues may affect you more severely than others, so, for your own sake, you don’t want to let it go untreated.
In most cases, if you follow the tips above and make a conscious effort to engage in exciting activities during the winter, you can survive the winter blues and finally enjoy winter!
Journaling isn’t just a way to practice your handwriting in the digital age. Learning how to use journaling effectively is a great way to reduce feelings of stress and anxiety, so you can enjoy more of your life panic-free.
Journaling helps to lessen your feelings of distress, get your thoughts out on paper, and even work out solutions for your challenges.
female hands with pen writing on notebook with morning coffee and croissant
There are many different ways to get started with journaling. The strategy you choose depends on you and what you want to accomplish.
Today, we’re going to look at the easiest way to tackle your anxieties with journaling. You can use these strategies on a daily, weekly, or as-needed basis to handle anxious thoughts and feelings. Who knows, you might even sleep better!
Write Down Your Worries
The first step in journaling to overcome anxiety is grabbing a pen, a piece of paper, and writing down your worries. If you don’t want to use actual ink and paper, don’t worry. You can still benefit from journaling on your smartphone or laptop instead.
The aim here isn’t to write great prose. You’re probably not going to show this journal entry to anyone, anyway, so don’t worry about making it sound good. Instead, focus on letting all of your thoughts and feelings flow out naturally.
You can describe the events that you’re currently dealing with in your life and address all the negative thoughts that have been building up for you throughout the day. Think of it as purging all of those dark thoughts and feelings, so you don’t have to keep them bottled up anymore.
Seeing your anxieties written down can help you to realize that many of your concerns about what might happen next may be exaggerated.
Read It Back
Once you’re done writing, review what you’ve said and reflect on your thoughts and feelings. Avoid judging. Just think about whether you might be looking at things in the wrong light. As you read through each concern, ask yourself questions to challenge your thoughts.
For instance, you might ask:
How likely is it that this will happen?
What are the realistic outcomes for me?
What’s the worst-case scenario, and is there a way to avoid it?
Could the outcome be better than this – what might that look like?
How can you change your current circumstances to attract a better outcome?
Taking the time to sort through your thoughts in this way can help you to challenge the negative ideas that are causing the highest amounts of anxiety for you.
It’s also a fantastic opportunity for you to put your creative skills to the test, by looking for potential solutions to your problems.
You could even start a mind map of ideas on the next page of your journal.
Flip the Script
If you’re still feeling anxious after you’ve explored the thoughts in your journal, it’s time to flip the script. Move to a new page in your journal and start writing again. This time, force yourself to look at the concept from a different perspective.
Imagine a friend or loved one of yours was going through the same situation as you and feeling the same anxieties. What might you say to them to help them feel better?
As you’re writing, try to draw attention to your strengths. We all have strengths, and they can help us to deal with a wide range of complicated situations. Ask yourself how your strengths can help you overcome the obstacles in your path right now.
For instance, if you know that you’re resilient in times of trouble, you might be able to bounce back even if the worst should happen.
Try creating a plan for what you will do in any scenario.
For instance, if you’re anxious about losing your job, what would be your next steps? Would you dive into your savings fund? Would you need to ask people for help? Where would you start looking for a new job?
With your plan in mind, you might even realize that losing your job wouldn’t be so bad if it meant you could pursue your passions or another part of your career.
Nurture Yourself Right Now
Finally, when you’re done journaling, think about the other things you can do to give yourself a sense of strength and comfort.
Maybe you can reach out to friends and family in advance to let them know you’re worrying and that you might need their help. Perhaps, if you’re worried about losing your job, you could work on brushing up your resume or looking at the job market.
Focusing your anxious energy on doing positive things is an excellent way to use journaling to direct your focus in a way that helps you and can bring positive results to your world.
Relationships can be wonderful things. They’re a chance to connect with someone on a deeper, more emotional level, and even discover new things about yourself. However, when you’re sharing your life with someone else, things can sometimes be stressful too.
The unfortunate truth is that everyone will feel stress connected to their relationship at one time or another. You might be worried about approaching a complex topic with your partner, or you could be facing a challenge together, like an unpaid bill.
The key to success is ensuring that you don’t allow stress to take over your relationship.
Instead, figure out how to work things out together, and you could make your relationship stronger than ever.
Here are some of the best ways to reduce stress in your relationship.
1. Listen
Lack of effective communication is one of the most common issues that many people encounter in their relationships. Either they don’t know how to approach the other half when they want to talk, or they don’t know how to listen when their partner comes to them.
The most important way to minimize stress and strengthen your relationship at the same time is to listen to each other.
Recognize the symptoms of stress in your partner, such as moodiness, restlessness, or agitation, and ask them if they want to talk about it.
If your partner wants to talk to you about their stress, the important thing to remember is that you don’t necessarily need to fix their problem.
Most of the time, when your partner is stressed, they know you can’t handle everything for them. Instead, they just want an opportunity to vent and get some basic reassurance. Sit, listen, and only offer advice if asked for it.
happy couple running on the beach
2. Always Be Yourself
Relationships only work when people are honest with each other.
When you’re attracted to someone, and a relationship is just starting out, it’s tempting to try and build an image of yourself that matches what you think the other person wants. However, the reality is that it’s impossible to keep up with this charade long-term.
You’ll end up causing yourself a lot of additional stress if you attempt to be someone who you’re not.
At the same time, your other half is going to get the sense that something isn’t right. This causes stress for them, because their mind will try to help them figure out what’s going on.
Ultimately, being honest will save you both a lot of stress and tension. If your partner doesn’t love the real you, it likely wouldn’t have worked out anyway.
3. Look After You
Sometimes, the best way to care for a relationship is to look after yourself.
Stress is contagious. If your other half notices that you’re constantly stressed, they’re going to start picking up on that feeling too. Sometimes, this can lead to your partner becoming self-conscious, or feeling nervous that they’re doing something wrong. Even if you explain, the self-doubt can linger.
Stress also emerges when your partner tries to take control and fix the problem for you. We can often end up feeling overwhelmed and frustrated when it seems like we can’t help the people we care about.
So, if you focus on looking after yourself, this should reduce feelings of tension.
Don’t feel like you can’t go to your partner for help but remember that self-care is important too.
4. Be Open in Your Communication
Communication and honesty are the pillars of a great relationship.
Most of the time, arguments and sources of stress come from us trying to figure out things on our own. For instance, if you notice that your partner is a little withdrawn one night, you might find yourself wondering whether it’s because you didn’t make their favorite meal.
Even if your partner tells you that’s not the case, if they don’t give another explanation, the thought will grow larger in your head, causing feelings of resentment, anger, and upset. You start getting defensive, and that’s where arguments begin.
If you’re honest about why you’re acting a certain way, and explain your feelings to your partner frequently, there’s less room for assumptions to cause problems.
5. Give Each Other a Break
Finally, if there’s one thing you can do to reduce stress and arguments in your relationships, it’s to give each other a break.
When we fall in love, it’s easy to place another person on a pedestal. We see them as perfect and believe they can do no wrong. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. Eventually, you’ll begin to notice your partner making mistakes.
The important thing at this time is to let your partner know that, while you might be disappointed by the mistakes they made, you can get through it together.
Giving each other a break and forgiving your loved one for the things they do wrong is essential to reducing stress.
Remember, you’re both only human.
Keep these ideas in mind. They can help you to reduce relationship stress on a daily basis and make your lives more fun and fulfilling.
When was the last time you felt relaxed? It’s easy for stress to build up without you realizing what is happening. After a while, you might think that feeling irritable, sad, or restless is just your natural state.
Meanwhile, chronic tension affects your body too. It can weaken your immune system and increase your risk for many health issues, including heart disease and diabetes.
Stressful events will happen, but you can control how they affect you. Try these ideas for building your resilience and creating a calmer environment.
Increasing Your Resilience:
Slow down. You’ll probably accomplish more if you stop rushing around. Cut your to do list down to a realistic size. Schedule breaks throughout the day.
Breathe deeply. Your feelings are closely tied to your breath. Lie down on your back and place one hand on your abdomen. Your body will naturally start to breathe more fully from your diaphragm rather than taking shallow breaths from your chest.
Laugh it up. Humor drives away tension. Look for the funny side of difficult situations. Cheer up after a hard day by calling a friend who cracks you up or watching a funny movie.
Eat healthy. Sticking to a balanced diet will make your body more effective at tolerating stress. Get most of your calories from natural whole foods. Cut down on added sugar and salt. Lose excess weight gradually and safely.
Sleep well. Aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night. Move your bedtime back an hour each night until you are able to wake up feeling refreshed. Maintain your new schedule even on holidays and weekends.
Work out. Exercise is a constructive way to handle disturbing news or conflicts at work. Buy resistance bands so you can do strength training movements at home. Attend a yoga class online or go for a walk.
Create something. Creativity is another stress buster. Find a medium that you enjoy. You may want to paint with watercolors or sculpt metal. You may prefer writing poetry or folk dancing.
Reach out. Build a network of mutually supportive relationships. Connect with family and friends on a regular basis.
Advocate for yourself. Let others know how they can help you. Ask for what you need tactfully and directly.
Adjusting Your Environment:
Clear away clutter. A tidy home and workspace will reduce your anxiety levels. Get rid of anything you seldom use. Donate it to charity or sell it online. Throw it away or or store it out of sight if you’re unable to part with it right now.
Add scent. Fragrance is invisible but powerful. Wear your favorite perfume. Practice aromatherapy with soothing essential oils like lavender and chamomile.
Play music. Use sound to create the mood you want. Put together a playlist for different activities. You might relax with soft piano music or show tunes.
Enjoy silence. On the other hand, the lack of sound can also be soothing. Turn off your devices for a designated period each day, including mealtimes and before bed. Order a pair of noise cancelling headphones if you need to block out noisy neighbors and heavy traffic.
Decorate naturally. Green spaces are energizing. Spend more time outdoors and bring nature into your home. Grow ferns and herbs. Cover your couch with a floral print throw.
Create a refuge. Design a meditation room or space in your home. If you have trouble meditating, you can use it for reading or relaxation practices.
Dealing with stress is an ongoing process. Take time each day to think about what you can do to make your surroundings more peaceful to protect your health and wellbeing.
