How Do You Distract Yourself During A Difficult Time?
It can be so bad that you can’t hold your hands anymore. Fear, hatred, and despair come wave after wave, or the stress lasts and lasts; it seems there will be no end to it. You feel that a little more – and go crazy. How to pull yourself together, calm down, to find the strength to go on living? Here are some tips to help you through these difficult times.Those who are safe can experience dread, anxiety, and panic attacks. We’ve gathered advice from psychologists to help each person deal with this issue. Do not rush to play the best Indian casino online, as you may be accustomed to. There are much more working techniques for relaxation.
Teach yourself to be happy
The ability to rejoice is nothing less than a habit. “If you do not know how to extract the positive from what happens and remember only the bad, the brain does not activate the neural pathways that are responsible for good news,” says psychotherapist Philippa Perry, author of “How To Stay Sane” (“How To Stay Sane”). – “If the brain is not used to getting good news, it has no neural pathways to produce it.
It turns out we program our well-being. Optimism is a matter of practice. It is necessary to consciously look for, notice, and remember what makes you happy, and then a good mood will be with you more often than a bad one. One way is to ask positive questions that open rather than close the door of opportunity. In almost any situation, you can ask yourself: what’s good about this experience? It is a quick way to change your mood and thoughts with a sense of gratitude.
Accomplish the experience
Psychologists advise you to keep the optimal level of psychological load for you and watch out for information flows that can “overload” you. Psychologists recommend reducing the amount of incoming data, pausing to gather your thoughts, avoiding intensive communication on the Internet, and reading the news in doses.
Keep your distance
We all have to engage in unpleasant conversations, which can be especially difficult now. In such cases, Sand advises maintaining distance: “If the conversation is beginning to depress you, try to increase the distance between you, or take another, more private position that allows you to focus on how you feel. Sitting very close to the other person, you can hurt yourself. Instead, sit half-turned to each other – it helps you not to get overwhelmed with your feelings. In addition, you will be able to look away. By looking away or putting our eyes down, we make it clear that we’re switching our attention from the speaker to ourselves.
If it takes you a couple of minutes to digest what you’ve said, politely ask the other person to pause and be quiet for a few minutes: “A lot has been said just now, and it’s all happening too fast. Let’s slow down the pace a bit so I can better get the point across.”
Analyze the emotions
You can’t control feelings directly but can influence them with your thoughts. If you feel anger or fear gripping you, analyze the surface. When absorbed by emotion, it can be challenging to incorporate rationality. More often than not, we have no desire to detach ourselves from our thoughts. And, of course, giving in to feelings and ideas is more accessible. To distance yourself from them, you must pull yourself together, take three steps back, and look at yourself from the outside.
Some people find it helpful to record their emotions. For example, try taking a piece of paper and writing down the reason for anger or fear in detail: “Right now I’m furious; it scares me.” By the time you finish the paragraph of the text, you’ll quite likely have calmed down a bit. And then you can crumple it up and toss it in the trash.
We all have to engage in unpleasant conversations, and it can be challenging right now.
Get to know your fear
Everyone experiences fear, but no one has ever died of it (true, you can die of fright if you have a weak heart, but that’s not the point). The advice is to get to know the feeling, to explore it in safe circumstances so you can get used to the physiological sensations. Knowing how your body reacts to fear will make it easier for you to experience it.
You may notice that you are short of breath and dizzy before talking to a relative or just going outdoors. “Often, the fear of fear is worse than the fear itself. Experts say that knowing what to expect from your fear will greatly reduce your problem,” Experts Say. Try rating your level of fear on a ten-point scale: one to ten. The next time you catch your breath before an unpleasant conversation, you’ll say to yourself, “Yep, I’m afraid by seven, I see,” and it will be easier to overcome the fear. If the fear is too intense to analyze, try to concentrate on your own body. Psychologists advise patients to breathe on their toes or walk a little and focus on the sensations in their feet.
Think the fear through to the end and develop a plan B
Another way is to visualize in color what you are afraid of and think the situation through to the end to experience relief. There is a list of questions that you should try to answer, no matter how scary you are:
- How horrible will things go in the worst possible outcome?
- How long will it last?
- How will you do?
- Will you survive?
- Will you be able to make the best of even the worst situation?
It’s wise to think of a backup plan, just in case. That’s what you’ll turn to if the threat is too significant. “Developing a plan B, and maybe also plan C and D, is like familiarizing yourself with the evacuation plan and emergency exits in advance in case of a disaster. It’s a smart thing to do and will give you confidence,” experts say.
Try to estimate the level of fear on a ten-point scale: from one to ten.
Take your time going to bed
After overstimulation, you are likely to feel a decrease in strength. Naturally, your first inclination will be to fall into bed and sleep for as long as possible. But in a state of hyperstimulation, it will not be easy to fall asleep, and sleep will not bring relief.
It is worth setting aside a couple of hours before bed for “vegetative time” when you are not doing anything complicated but calming your psyche. It will help to distract yourself with a manageable activity, like a walk or cleaning. If you’re journaling or doing creative work, take the time to do that, and sleep will do much better. It’s also better to set aside “vegetative time” before exercise.