Starting today, challenge yourself to say thank you to three different people a day. Aside from close friends and family, include people in your community, co-workers, service personnel, etc.
This exercise can help you start actively looking for reasons to be grateful, and notice the impact of other people on your everyday life.
By being aware of these five stages, you can keep track of where you are and notice if you have been stuck in a stage for too long. If you have been gradually moving through them, as bad as you feel, this is a normal process, and you can find some solace in the fact that you will reach the end of it.
It is normal to feel overwhelmed after a job loss. If you feel this way, you should not feel rushed about moving forward. Give yourself some time to take a breath, sit back, and let it pass. Whether you use this time to process your grief or just let your stress levels simmer, it is valuable either way.
It is much healthier to talk about the problem, but in a healthy and child-appropriate way. Don’t overwhelm them with details, but you can share what you feel and ask for a hug. Then, say how even when times are hard, you feel lucky to have them with you, and know that you can get through this together.
“The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.” – Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean
The three themes Norman Vincent Peale explores in The Power of Positive Thinking deal with confidence, cultivating positive thoughts, and imagining an anxiety-free life. Through confidence, you’ll run into fewer problems.
Whether you are reading third parties’ vitriolic political arguments, buried in yet another rant about everything that the poster views is wrong with the country, or just reading up on the latest tragedy or injustice across the world, all of this information will bring you down, and it will bring you down hard.
It is important to note that all of the possible relationships between positive thinking and well-being, outcomes, etc., have not been explored. Maybe they never will be, but there still remains a fair amount of evidence dating back to the 1960s that shows how positive thinking can be beneficial.
Harvard Health suggests this fun game. When you feel down, flip a coin. If you get heads, do something for yourself. If you get tails, do something for others. Either way, you’ll feel better!
Repetition and kind words are great ways to bring positive thoughts into your mind space. Choose a mantra to say to yourself whenever you start feeling upset, overwhelmed, or even just first thing every morning to start your day off right.