How to Feel Better When You're Stressed

Here are some tips on how to make yourself feel better when you’re depressed:

1. Calm down

Before anything else, calm yourself down. Don’t panic. Close your eyes and take a deep breath.

2. Feed your mind with positive thoughts

When you’re depressed, it’s easy to fall into a vicious cycle of negative thoughts. It’s important that you break this cycle. To do that, feed your mind with positive thoughts. You may read spiritual texts, motivational books, or inspiring quotes. You may also listen to positive tapes.

3. Remember good things

Direct your mind to the positive. Remember the good things in your life. Remember the good people around you.

4. Look at the big picture

An event that seems bad might not seem that bad if you look at the big picture. Put the event in context.

5. Believe that everything will be all right

What you believe has a big effect on you. If you believe that things will go wrong, that would usually be the case. On the other hand, if you believe that everything will be all right, you will have a winning attitude.

6. Exercise

When you’re depressed, take time to exercise. Exercise relieves the symptoms of depression and anxiety.

7. Forgive

Sometimes one reason you feel bad is because you don’t forgive. Perhaps you had made mistakes in the past and you blamed yourself for it. You need to forgive yourself. Or perhaps someone mistreated you. You need to forgive them.

8. Take action

Things won’t get better if you just sit and do nothing. Instead of thinking about how bad things are, think of what you can do to solve the problem and take action.

9. Say something positive

Negative words have devastating effect on your confidence and motivation. So whenever you’re about to say something negative, stop yourself and take a deep breath. Reframe what you’re going to say and make it positive.

10. Think about other people

One of the best ways to make yourself feel better is simply by taking the focus away from yourself. Start thinking about other people and how you can help them. When you do that, your problems will no longer seem so hard.

Sources:
http://blogs.mercola.com/sites/vitalvotes/archive/2010/01/19/How-to-Feel-Better-When-Youre-Stressed.aspx

Life Optimizer December 16, 2009

Important Notice: Information provided is for general background purposes and is not intended as a substitute for medical diagnosis or treatment by a trained professional. You should always consult your community pharmacist or physician about any health care questions you may have, especially before trying a new medication, diet, fitness program, or approach to health care issues.