What did you do in the first month of the year? I would really like to know. I had my first trip to South America, visiting Colombia for a destination wedding and also vacation. Did you read my blog titled Counting down to Christmas? In that blog I shared some strategies to overcome the sadness that some of us feel leading up to Christmas. One of these strategies is planning a trip in the coming year. The trip I had planned was my trip to Colombia.
For most people who suffer with some form of mental health illness, the end of the year especially December and beginning of the year January can be very difficult. It can be very difficult to shake off these feelings of low mood if you don’t make conscious effort to shake it off. For others who had experienced tragedy around the Christmas period or the beginning of the year it can be very difficult to focus on positive things.
It is three years since my son committed suicide and it is still difficult but every day I look for the positive things in life to help me with my own mental health.
Let me share three things with you to help you if you are trying to shake off low mood as we leave January behind and start a new month.
Simple Things
You are reading this post, breathe in and breathe out. Stop for a minute, you know what that means? You Are Alive. You are not dead. Focus on the simple things. Breathing and breathing out, when you open your eyes in the morning is something to be grateful and thankful about. Not everyone who closed their eyes the night before made it. Being able to get up from your bed, walk and use your limbs are other positive things to help you shake off that low mood because there is someone who could not do the things that you have been able to do. If you wake up to sunshine, with birds singing or tweeting, appreciate it focus on how God takes cares of the birds, provide food for them, and know that He will take care of you too. If you wake up and the sun is shining, be happy and if you on the other hand wake up to rain and cloudy weather, again be happy as there are some places wishing for some rain and cloudy weather.
This too will pass
If you are going through a difficult time right now, I want to tell you that it will pass. I have a strong faith in God as you can tell from my books if you have read my books. If not you have an opportunity to get them on Amazon. I know from what I went through in December 2020 and the months and years later that it may feel as if you will never get out of that difficult time but I want to encourage you that the feeling you may have now, as if your heart is being wrenched from your chest, will pass, it will get better. It is not the end of the world even though things as you know it will be different you can do it.
What can you do to change your situation?
The last of my three things is a biggie. What can you do to change your situation? In every bad situation there are stuff within our control and stuff we cannot control. Try to identify the stuff you can control. Are you thinking that there is nothing you can control? Well, for starters you can control what you spend your time o. If at this point in time you are spending a lot of time on negative thoughts, you can change that. Stop watching stuff that are negative or feeds you negatively. If what you watch on You Tube or social media brings you down then stop doing it. You can start by limiting the time you spend on it reducing it by an hour one day at a time until you wean yourself off it. Turning off your notifications helps you to be discipline. When I am feeling low I need stuff that lifts me up so start by turning off notifications for stuff that bring your mood down and focus on stuff that helps you. When you stop the things that bring you down fill that space with positive things don’t just leave the space empty or else you will go back to your old ways.
I really hope that this helps you.
As usual I like to hear from you. Share your tips with me of how you are getting through low mood.
