10 things to do when you’re going through tough times

Sometimes everything goes like a fairy tale, and sometimes life sucks. In the latter case, you want to climb the walls and think that the whole world is up in arms against you. You feel unhappy, unmotivated, and unsatisfied.

Moreover, this condition can pursue a couple of days and several years. Alas, there is no universal advice that would help to cope with any difficulties. But we can give at least a direction towards a brighter future to understand how to proceed and stop drowning in negativity.

Look into the past

Many people, when pressed, continue to suffer without analyzing what led to these negative consequences. The first thing to do is turn around and see why it happened and what makes it so hard for you.

If you do not do this, you will remain in a state of uncertainty, not understanding what caused it and where to move further to correct your life. Of course, at the same time, it is worth pausing in other matters to understand the problems you are facing fully.

Turn off thoughts

Remember that you need rest before you start working on correcting the situation. The best option is to turn off logic and self-reflection, get distracted from the essentials, and immerse yourself in the world around you to get rid of unnecessary thoughts.

This will help you filter out background noise and, after rest, focus more effectively on the problem and how to solve it. You can, for example, take a vacation or take a weekend. The main thing is to allow the mind to rest and then focus on pressing problems.

Accept the situation and deal with it

When unpleasant things happen to people, they are often hampered by their egos and bias. “How could this happen to me” or “No, it certainly cannot be so, because I’m not that stupid” are frequent thoughts in the minds of the majority. As long as you are struggling with the fact, you will not start rectifying the situation.

Therefore, you first need to accept this situation and come to terms with the fact that it happened to you. Yes, it is not easy, and you have to step over your ego and prejudices, but in another way, you will create an artificial reality in which you will lock yourself in and not act. Until you admit that you are in an unpleasant situation, you can neither look into the past nor see ways to solve the problem.

Understand if these times are so hard

To put it simply, life can seem complicated for two reasons: it sucks, or it is perfectly normal, but you think it sucks. Believe me, most of the situations that drive us into depression belong to the second category. Just analyze the problem and, with a high probability, you will see that it is not as bad as it seemed at first glance, and with due diligence, you will quickly get out of an unpleasant situation for yourself.

The problem is that many people subconsciously, and sometimes even consciously, try on the role of a victim and drive themselves into the framework of an allegedly difficult life. But, looking at the situation soberly, one can understand that most of the supposedly serious problems are, in fact, only temporary difficulties.

Appreciate all the good that you have

Since the brain is predisposed to focus on the negative, we often do not notice the merits of our life. This is where the victim mentality develops when it seems that everything in this world is against us. But once you look at it soberly, it turns out that a lot around will help maintain a positive attitude.

Yes, you could have been fired, and you were left without permanent means of subsistence. But your strong family has not gone anywhere, which will help you cope with this temporary difficulty. Perhaps the girl left you, but your friends remained in place, and maybe among them, one is prepared for you by fate.

In any situation, no matter how difficult it may be, try to focus on the things that make you happy. And do it not in the form of auto-training, but appreciate all the good in your life.

Assess your progress

Yes, now the situation seems to you completely negative, but, as we said above, the brain is set up to catch such events. Just think and remember what you were able to achieve on the way to this failure.

When we find ourselves in a difficult situation, we consider ourselves failures, but this is not so. In fact, you have achieved more than you imagined, and you just forgot how much you worked to become who you are. Realizing this, you understand that your work was not in vain because at least they brought you knowledge and experience that you can focus on in the future, and someday your efforts will pay off.

Learn from your mistakes

A normal phrase, as if from personal growth training, but believe me, it works. Think of your failure as an experience, albeit a negative one. Analyze why you ended up at this point, and understand what led to negative consequences, where you made a mistake.

Remember that we are all wrong; that’s okay. Moreover, it is good to be wrong because it is at such moments that we learn the best experience.

Stop the fall

Once at the bottom, remember that it has no end, and therefore it can be worse. Therefore, your primary task is to stop the fall, to fix yourself, albeit at such a negative point. At least, you are no longer flying into the abyss, although you are still somewhere where few would like to be. The good news is that once you are at the bottom, you will be more motivated to start moving up, as evolution ordered.

Moreover, reaching the bottom is generally the only way for many people to reconsider their view of things and draw conclusions to help them survive and succeed.

Make an action plan

When you can free your mind from unnecessary things, when you look into the past and see the mistakes that led you to difficult times, you can make a plan to get out of the hole and see the sunlight again.

Yes, you can get out of a bad situation without a plan spontaneously, but it’s better not to do this, as you can make even more mistakes. Even with a specific goal, for example, getting rid of debt, this is entirely insufficient to get what you want. The main thing is to see the steps on the way to the goal, even if it will be difficult to achieve. So, you can move forward according to the algorithm.

Move on to a new chapter in your life

Now that the plan for rescue from a difficult situation has been drawn up, it is time to turn the page and start from scratch. After drawing conclusions and realizing your mistakes, leave the negative in the past. Otherwise, self-flagellation will not just put a sticker on the wheels of your progress but can also drive you into depression again.

Starting a new chapter is scary, and only a foolish person will argue with it. But on the other hand, when you do this, you will feel liberation from the thoughts pulling down. Leave negative thoughts in the past and return to an unpleasant situation only to conclude and choose the most acceptable option for working on mistakes.