Decrease Depression Through Self-Awareness. Tools To Feel Better Now.

Painful as it may be, a significant emotional event can be the catalyst for choosing a direction that serves us—and those around us—more effectively.
-Louisa May Alcott

So you want to Feel Better Fast?

After years of searching Google for terms “Feel Better Now” or “I feel like crap,” I’m happy to be a part of a resource that actually responds to what I was searching. When I was searching for answers online, I simply came up with whining blogs and prescription medicine plugs. No one told me the secret. So, here I am to tell it to you. The best way to Feel Better Now is to put 100% of your energy into feeling.

feel (feel)
v.

1. To undergo the experience of: I feel my interest rising. I feel great joy.
2. To be aware of; sense: I feel the anger of the crowd.
3. To be emotionally affected by: She still feels the loss of her dog.
4. To be persuaded of (something) on the basis of intuition, emotion, or other             indefinite grounds: I feel that what the informant says may well be          true.
5. To believe; think: She feels that his answer is evasive.

Emotional wellness and balance doesn’t necessarily mean feeling happy all the time. People who are emotionally healthy are in touch with all of their emotions, and are able to differentiate sad, happy, angry and anxious feelings. Emotional wellness involves learning to express emotions appropriately while being sensitive and responsive to the emotions of others.

Try this if you dare: Walk away from your computer for 7 minutes. 7 minutes in heaven. This means no thought tirades. No analyzing who did what wrong or what you could have done better. Just feel your body. Sit down in a comfortable and quiet place and breathe. Breathe deep enough that you can follow it through your body. See if you can feel your breath fill up your lungs.

Take 7 minutes and see if you can feel the sensations in your skin, the pain in your heart-space, the nervous energy asking you to get up and check the internet for a better resource on how to feel better now.  Just observe and feel how your body deals with feeling.

After the 7 minutes is up, analyze. Did you experience any additional feelings you didn’t expect? Hunger or fatigue, for example. Our happiness is heavily influenced by all the Aspects of Wellness, so taking time to understand what our body needs can help. Recognition of need is the first step towards a balanced and happy life.

If you were brave enough to try the 7 Minutes in Heaven exercise, awesome. We’ve got more ways to Jumpstart Your Emotional Wellness.  The following are some good ways to monitor our feelings, get to know ourselves better and find the support we need when we’re experiencing a problem.

-Write it down. Journaling regularly is one of the best ways to keep track of how we’re feeling. We don’t have to log our entire life story; sometimes simply writing down a few words about how we’re feeling at the moment can help put things in perspective. Keeping a journal helps us sit still and assess exactly what we’re dealing with emotionally, and this can help keep us in touch with ourselves, and with reality. A journal helps us measure what we’re feeling and keep track of the positive progress we’ve made. When we can focus on loving ourselves right where we are, striving to get the most out of every experience (no matter how challenging or negative it may seem), we’ll feel the meaning and purpose in our lives.

-Practice acceptance. We often find ourselves getting upset over situations that are beyond our control. Practicing acceptance involves a realistic understanding of ourselves and our abilities, and doing our very best with what we have. It also means accepting others for who and where they are, so that we can better navigate healthy relationships.

This is important! Accept others for who and where they are. How many of our problems seem to us to come from other people? I’d argue that 90% of problems come from wanting to control others or wanting to feel in control of ourselves. If you are tired of feeling this way, try accepting the situation. Acceptance isn’t draining. We only end up exhausted when we try to suppress our feelings or force circumstances to meet our expectations. Acceptance is invigorating. It allows us to act productively. Once we’ve accepted a situation and all its implications, we can then move forward, taking steps to rectify the problem and cultivate a more positive attitude. Essentially, acceptance is an honest appraisal of what is really going on around us so that we can make reasoned decisions about healthy ways to engage with life.

-Change your attitude. Sounds simple, but this is the one that meets the most resistant. Having a positive outlook can be as simple as deciding to change an attitude. It’s easy to see all the things that we don’t have. If we focus instead on all of the great things we have, it’s difficult to stay mired in a negative feeling. Sometimes we’re resistant, or we may be unsure of how to change our attitudes when everything seems wrong. In these situations it often helps immensely to make a gratitude list. Simply write down everything you’re grateful to have in our lives—parents, friends, camembert, a job we love, health and a home in which to live. Seeing our gifts written down in black and white will usually redirect our emotional energy in a grateful, useful direction.

-Make time for a good time. When our lives get really busy, it’s easy to forget about having any fun. There are a lot of things we feel we need to accomplish on any given day, and often we think we can’t let loose and have a good time when we’ve got so much to do. But having fun is important, especially for our emotional health. We all need to set aside a time specifically for frivolous activity. The only requirement is that we do something that brings us joy. If our schedules are already packed, we may only be able to set aside time once a week. That’s fine. No matter how busy we are, it’s vital to Emotional Wellness to take some regular time away from all the pressures of work, school, family and household maintenance to enjoy life. Why do all those other things if there’s never any time to stop and smell the roses?

This doesn’t mean set aside one day a week where you get hammered to the point where the rest of the week is spent regretting your actions. Try some substance free fun! When is the last time you squirted someone with a water gun? Took a walk in the local park? Played bingo? The more ridiculous, the better. Let loose.

-Relax. Letting stress build over time without release can eventually lead to serious emotional breakdown. To stay healthy emotionally, find ways to de-stress and relax on a regular basis. Different techniques work for different people, so finding a way to de-stress may take a little personal exploration. Some different stress-fighting techniques include physical activities such as yoga and exercise, and more sedentary activities such as hot baths or deep massages. Just lying on the floor and observing the breath can help immensely.  Find one small way to relax today, noticing how good it makes us feel.

-Practice patience. Things don’t always run according to our schedules or expectations. Often, we want what we want when we want it, and being patient and waiting our turn isn’t what we’re used to doing. If we practice patience and understand that, as long as we’re taking care of our own business, things will happen in their own time, we will feel much less stressed and have less to worry about. There are so many variables in any given situation that we cannot control, and letting go of trying to control external variables and outcomes will help us to feel more emotionally centered and stable. When we focus only on our own responses to circumstances, we can find peace.

Possible Roadblocks while you are striving to Feel Better:

Getting emotionally healthy can bring up conflicting and frightening feelings:

“I’m afraid of what I’ll find if I look deep inside of myself.”

“I’ve felt this way for so long. I don’t think I have the ability to change.”

“I would love to feel differently about my life, but other people and situations keep bringing me down. How can I change the way I feel if I can’t change them?”

“I don’t think any of this will work.”

If you have thought any of these things, then you win! You are so close to collecting your prize. Right now, you are staring straight at the biggest roadblock to feeling better – you. Let me tell you right now: Just because you’re afraid you’ll never get better doesn’t mean you can’t. Feelings aren’t facts.

If you felt doubt about trying some of our Feel Better options, just pick one. Try it. If it doesn’t work, feel free to comment below that this is a “whole lotta hooey” and we’ll try to work up something better. Truth is, the system works, as long as you are willing to let it.

Often, negative emotions are simply patterns caused by distorted thinking habits. When you take the time to search yourself and change your thinking, it will be uncomfortable at first. But with a little practice, you’ll better understand how to get on the right track and stay there. The deep-seated feelings that cause you pain can be turned around with just a little willingness and effort on your part, and once they’ve been reversed, they can’t come out to cause problems anymore.

With that in mind, it’s easier to see that a little commitment to Emotional Wellness might just completely change your life. Isn’t that worth a closer look? You can change your emotional state.

You are not at the mercy of your feelings. You may have been grappling with the same feelings for your whole life, but there are others out there who have fought those battles and won. And if others have done it, so can you.

Author’s Bio:

Jessica Rhodes is a certified wellness advisor for the 123 Feel Better Company. The 123 Feel Better® Life Change System™ is a wellness program designed to help individuals reach their wellness goals and live fuller, more complete lives. 123 Feel Better is based on the 7 Aspects of Wellness™ model. Learn how to make real changes in the areas of Emotional, Physical, Spiritual, Environmental, Occupational, Social, and Intellectual Wellness to create a balanced life with 123 Feel Better and our free wellness resources at 123 Feel Better.