Too often, fear of failure and criticism from others stops us from achieving our goals or living our dreams. And sometimes loss, depression and grief take us to a quiet place of personal confusion and loneliness.
Occasionally, all it takes to recover is time, with calls and ongoing visits from friends and family to boost our spirits. But, more often than not, support and guidance from a trained professional are needed.
As many of you know, motivating and helping someone to learn to take pleasure in baby steps and small accomplishments takes expertise and patience. While you are celebrating a patient’s progress and are ready to see their tomorrows as full of opportunities, they might still feel as if they are deep in the trenches.
Let us face it: There are tough lessons along the way and, sometimes, things just do not unfold in the way we had hoped or expected. Things may, in fact, seem to go in the opposite direction, with one unfortunate thing happening after another.
What advice, then, can professionals share to help clients change the current, move forward and swim back upstream? Here are some things you might suggest.
- Think about what sends you backwards—and what is causing the most unhappiness. Make a list of things or people that make you feel drained or depressed. Then, decide if you want to put them on the back burner for a while or totally eliminate them from your life.
- Find the silver lining. If your thoughts seem predominantly negative, try to transform them into positives. Do not dwell on things.
- Try small things each day to cultivate happiness. Find something that makes you feel unbelievably good and try to start your day with it.
- Share the weight. Reach out to supportive friends and family. If they can see you are trying, then they will usually lend a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on when you need it.
- Eliminate stressors one by one. What gets your heart racing and your blood boiling? To create a more stress-free life, you have to first look at the unfavourable people, habits, and situations you have picked up over the years. Try to either get rid of or modify these things in order to have a more peaceful existence.
- Opt for confident and fearless. If you let things get the better of you, they will. Also, dreams do not work unless you do. So, instead of dropping onto the settee and watching television after a day at work, plan to take a small step toward your goals each day.
- Create a sense of peace. By aligning your actions with what you want to see more of in your life you will get into a state of “flow,” where your mind will not have the chance to ruminate on your misfortunes. Keep busy.
The goal—to redirect negative thoughts so that a person’s energy is freed up and has someplace else to go.
We can all achieve a great many things in life. We only need the right ideas, the best guidance, and the right support!
