9 ms·
Okay, there's a lot of things going on here, but most of them are (gradually) improvable. But it would be difficult to improve until you own responsibility for
by lionhearted 15y ago
Okay, there's a lot of things going on here, but most of them are (gradually) improvable. But it would be difficult to improve until you own responsibility for all of it.
Your post has a lot of "XYZ bad thing is happening because of ZYX external thing." Well, you don't have much control over ZYX external thing.
So, the first recommendation I have for you is to stop making that link. Instead of "XYZ bad thing is happening because of..." stop yourself there and instead say, "XYZ bad thing is happening. What would I like to have happen instead? What actions can I take to get there?"
This won't happen instantly, but try to get thinking like that. It'll be a constant battle of sorts to shift your thinking there. Stop pegging your problems to the environment and start thinking about what you'd actually like instead and what action you can take. This goes from disempowering to empowering.
Second recommendation - work on improving fundamental areas in your life. Pick one or two little things in a week, and try to make them a bit better. Spend a little more time in nature, a little more time exercising, a little more time working on a creative project, a little less time aimlessly surfing the net or watching TV, a little more time sending emails and trying to correspond with people you respect (btw, I'm in fucking Outer Mongolia, you want somewhere with no "scene"? Try here. But it's okay because I correspond with a couple dozen interesting people. How'd I get to doing that? Slowly, by dropping a line to interesting people I respect, and encouraging others to drop me a line.)
Anyways, there's lots of things going on in your life. I've been in a similar place at one time. In total, it can be overwhelming. But if you trend upwards in a fundamental area each week, pretty quickly your life starts looking a lot better.
Again -
1. Stop attributing problems to external things. Just say, "XYZ isn't what I want. What do I want? What action can I take that might get me closer to it?"
2. Improve fundamental stuff a little bit each week. Don't beat yourself up if you don't make massive progress, because massive progress is rare. It's also unnecessary. Just trend upwards - eat a little better, a little more time in nature, a little more time corresponding with people you like, a little more time creating things, a little less time on distraction whatever. If you make these regular incremental improvements, your life improves dramatically within not too long.
You're not alone here, many people have been where you're at and have gotten out of it. Lots of people are rooting for you. Good luck and godspeed. Take responsibility for everything and trend upwards gradually and you'll have a pretty good life pretty fast.
- jayliew 15y agoAlong the same lines, mental health professionals usually draw a hard line between thoughts & feelings. Specifically, thought X cause feeling Y. Part of solving feeling Y is to correct thought X (which could be a "twisted thought" [1], I've been guilty of all of them), and it's amazing how you can change your feeling if you change your thought. I've been a solo entrepreneur and it's been very difficult to handle my own emotions, and these are hacks I've found to work. I would also highly recommend seeing a counselor/therapist (there are sliding-scale prices), they are of tremendous value, but if you're broke like I am, I highly recommend The Feeling Good Handbook by David D. Burns [2]. I can't say enough good things about it; it has helped me tremendously when I've felt stuck and helpless. If you're very hard on yourself, very goal-oriented and driven, and you're beating yourself up - well, I'm like that too and I've learned from reading that book that it is a vicious cycle that you need to break. There's a whole chapter to procrastination (I know you didn't say procrastination), but it applies to the general feeling of being "stuck" and therefore being really stuck, and it talks about the root causes that you can change. When I read the book, it was a dead on diagnosis for me and I thought the author wrote the book for me! I sincerely wish you all the best. [1] http://www.ptsd.org.uk/twisted_thinking.htm http://www.ptsd.org.uk/twisted_thinking.htm [2] http://t.co/2FvSKFr http://t.co/2FvSKFr