It happens to everyone from time-to-time. One minute life seems great, things are going well, or steady at least and then out of no where your mood starts declining. You’ve become distant, more negative, unmotivated a diagnosed ‘stuck in a rut’.
Sometimes life throws curve balls at us…difficult, unexpected and unwelcome challenges.
The test is how you handle them, how you adapt to ‘survive’ them.
I want to encourage you to not give up, keep going. Whether you’re going through some challenges in life, at work, at home, with education; in any area of your life keep pushing through it. Try and remember your ‘why’, the reason you started this journey, what are you trying to achieve?
Those who are successful are consistent, even when times get tough and makes you feel like you’re not good enough or you’ll never ‘make it.’ You’ve got to develop the strength to break through these feelings and not let them get you down.
It’s important to remember, the way you feel right now, this negativity is momentary. You’ll go to sleep feeling one way and wake up another.
When you feel like giving up and you don’t, you push through – that’s most often when the breakthrough happens.
Prepare a Mental Toolbox
You’re probably thinking, ‘what on Earth is a mental toolbox?’
Your mental toolbox is a hidden stash just for you and prepared by you, with a set of resources and activities that you can pull out to use whenever you feel the need. You find what works for you in different situations, things that build you back up like motivation quotes as an example. Everyone’s mind and body respond differently to stressful and anxiety inducting situations, what’s effective for you might not necessarily be what works for someone else like a friend or family member.
It’s important to prepare a ‘mental toolbox’ so that you can help yourself to get you out of certain ‘low’ feelings. If you have someone you call every time something bad happens or you’re feeling negative that’s helpful, but it’s also important to be able to get yourself out of these mentally challenging situations yourself.
How to prepare your Mental Toolbox
A lot of the time things that actually make you feel better or more calm are simple techniques. Here’s a few ideas of things you could have ready in your mental toolbox for whenever you need them.
- For times that you feel nervous or anxious, possibly before an event, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing, taking slow and deep breaths. On the other hand, if you are feeling somewhat lethargic and need to get energized you could take more vigorous exhales to get ‘fired-up.’
- Mantra’s, motivational quotes or affirmations. Short, positive sentences that you can say to yourself in a difficult time. For example, ‘I can do this,’ ‘I am stronger than I think,’ ‘I deserve greatness.’ If you can say these sort of things to yourself on a daily basis then great, you’re training your subconscious to think how you want it to on it’s own. However, you can also have these ‘saying’s’ in your ‘mental toolbox’ for when you find yourself in certain situations and need to hear them.
- Writing or ‘journalling’. Sometimes it’s difficult to articulate how you’re feeling, writing down exactly what you’re thinking and feeling can be a huge help; especially when you’re the only one who’s going to see it. You can be completely honest, sometimes we think things that we might not dare to say out loud, when you take a pen and paper to write to yourself just to get it out you can write what you want and not have to worry about what anyone thinks. You can always put it through the shredder or rip it into a million pieces after.
- A ‘reset’ activity. I had a friend who would often try and live a little healthier, which basically meant she was on a ‘diet’. However, every time she had too many chocolates or ‘broke’ her new diet she’d go and brush her teeth and start again. It wouldn’t matter what time of day it was, to stop herself from letting it negatively impact her day and feel annoyed at herself or guilty, she’d brush her teeth and the fresh start would begin. Or, you could have something that you know helps you go to a good place mentally, for example reading a certain poem, listening to a certain song, meditation, jumping around or like my friend…brushing your teeth. It doesn’t matter what it is or how ‘silly’ it might seem; you’ve got to find what works for you.
- Visualization. When you’re struggling, maybe because you’re not where you thought you’d be in life sometimes and certain days you feel low and less motivated try visualization. To begin with you can simply close your eyes, take slow breaths and start imagining where you want to be, your ideal life. Where are you? What do you look like? What can you see? What do you smell? The idea is to engage all your senses to create a really full, all encompassing ‘reality’. Every time you do it, you’ll get a little more detailed and the image cements slowly into your subconscious.
Don’t allow yourself to remain feeling down, you deserve better and can get yourself out of this.
Try some of the techniques above and start building your own mental toolbox that you can pull out whenever you need. Still give your ‘friend’ or family member a call, it’s important to have a close unit to confide in. It’s also important to be able to rely on yourself to pull you out of any ‘holes’ you might feel stuck down every once in a while.
You could also consider making some changes or implementing some daily habits to help keep you motivated and feeling good in general. With the help of Project Publishing we’ve put together a great Ebook ‘The 2-Week Reset’ that will be free for the month of April to all email subscribers. Promise you won’t receive any spam or junk mail from us! Subscribe below or go to the homepage, thanks!
By Leander Rose 
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