Read this if you want to grow consciously
Every person has their own journey and every journey has obstacles. It is a guarantee that once you are born in this life no matter what species you are you will be facing challenges. As humans, we are more prone to stress than any other species due to our more developed brains that can process a variety of emotions.
What to do to deal with these emotions and stress in our life due to everyday struggles? For every person trouble exists, now it may be of lesser magnitude for someone living a different life but for them, it is the reason for their pain, thus sorrows are incomparable. What can be changed is the way we view them, our perspective defines the result of 99% of things in our life.
Here are a few things I started doing to have a better life with regulated stress:
Take a cold shower. Whenever you feel low, stressed, depressed, or anxious, do something that gives a shock to your body. For example, yesterday I felt really sad and then I went to take a bath at 3 am. It worked. Doing something unexpected to snap out of your mood helps in extreme scenarios.
Make a year in pixels sheet, now you make 365 columns that represent days in the year. Assign a colour to how your day went and fill one column every day with the colour that describes your day best. This is an exercise that makes you keep a track of your day and reflecting back on how your day went gives you a sense of consolation if it was a bad day. It’s a step you can take to show yourself that you recognise your feelings.
A jar of affirmations. Writing 3–5 affirmations of what you want to achieve for the day each morning and putting it in a jar is a positive start to your day. It takes no effort but starts your day with good vibrations and faith in the universe.
Sometimes due to our busy schedule we feel like we don’t have time for such things- making a gratitude journal or writing affirmations, it sounds good but I have more important things in life. However, taking out time for yourself and for your mental health in the long run isn’t something you shouldn’t prioritise.
The best feeling on the earth is of completing something or not breaking a streak of something. Try starting a good habit like drinking a glass of warm water every morning and challenge yourself to do it for a month. After a month you will be feeling proud of yourself for not giving up. Think of 3 new habits to form every month and by the end of the year, you will be able to see yourself transform into a new person. Also, every day choose a task and complete it, for me, I get the most satisfaction when I can finish writing a blog. I started painting and would feel satisfaction after completing my painting
Write a 5–5–5 reflect journal. What you were 5 years ago, what you are today and you what you want to be 5 years from now. We all evolve, even if we are not conscious about it we still do. Noticing the positive changes that have come in us can give us an upsurge of confidence and establish a belief in ourselves. We can also see if there are any negative changes or any old habits and personality traits that we need to bring back. Talk about everything- how your diet changed, your physical, mental and emotional health, your coping ways and the way you treat other people.
Many of us may feel we are bad at writing and can’t process our thoughts to put on paper. Use one words to describe yourself instead of a whole sentence. Remember the goal is to connect with yourself and be self aware not to be a writer. Write using words and language that make sense only to you. It doesn’t have to be perfect or reading worthy.
Let go of things. Lose your control. A lot of times we find ourselves obsessing over the results of our work. When I gave my first interview for a job I was checking my mailbox day and night, desperately waiting for the response. After I would publish a blog I’d keep opening Medium to see the responses and followers I will get after publishing my story. You don’t have to lose yourself in the wait for success. What is yours will come to you no matter what. So focus on other things that deserve your energy and are in your control.
Thoughts define our reality so try to have thoughts that shape the reality you want to create and give space to yourself to feel every emotion. Your emotions value more than your materialistic success.