Emotional stability through self awareness and other positive strategies – My experience - Good mental health

Why was this week better for me emotionally, than the last couple of weeks were?  What was it that I did different that made me behave and feel differently? These are the questions I asked myself a few moments ago that made me want to share with you the things I am doing that I believe are causing a change of behavior in a positive direction for me this week.  

Let’s start with last Friday evening; I specifically made a concrete decision that during the weekend I would not to talk or focus about the topics that bothered me during the week. I needed a well deserved break from trying to resolve things that clearly were not going to get resolved overnight; I needed a reprieve from the obsessive thinking. It was not going to make it any better; it was just going to exhaust me even more which would just make things worse. That is just what I did over that particular weekend; I stuck to my guns and took a well deserved mental break.

When Monday morning arrived, I made an affirmation that went like this “today is going to be a good day“and it was. As the morning progressed I kept that attitude, but still did not feel quite confident participating in conflict resolutions regarding the current issues that I have going on in my life.  So I simply engaged in some internet research regarding my circumstances and left it at that.

Tuesday morning I began to feel an anxiety attack coming on, right there and then I began to practice and use my self awareness; I became aware that I was beginning to project unrealistic outcomes of the conflicts in my life. I became aware that this is what Madison does sometimes; she hangs around waiting for the shoe to drop even if there are no shoes in sight, expecting the worst of the worst. And I became aware that a lot of my thinking is not the reality of my circumstances. So I stopped myself on my tracks and decided to do what has worked for me in the past, change my upside down thinking and get physically active, I did some prayer and meditation and went for a long walk, picked up some odds and ends at the market, came home and listened to my favorite music. I also did a lot of writing and some blogging on past experiences that I thought would be helpful to readers while at the same time therapeutic to me. Through my awareness picked up on feeling sluggish and overly tired, I discovered that a lack of sleep may very well be contributing to some of my moods, so I decided to turn the computer off and go to bed an hour ahead of my usual time for now on. Throughout the day I raised my mental red stop sign whenever I had a negative thought, followed by another type of physical activity such as cleaning my counters, sweeping, or sorting out my draws.

Wednesday, kept the focus off me and instead was supportive to a friend in need. Put my thoughts and worries on hold so that my friend could share hers with me. “Out of self into others” is basically what I did. I became aware that although I am very important and so are my needs, there are others who too are suffering and can use some comfort. Through listening to me give advice, I regained some wisdom that was obviously misplaced, through assuring her that everything was going to be okay I realized that it also was for me too. We laughed and I remembered how laughter is a good medicine.

Thursday is here, I still do not feel ready to confront some of the issues I have going on, but that’s okay. I’ve realized during the week that I actually have the upper hand in my current circumstances, but I couldn’t see that while I was panicking and obsessively worrying. Today, besides reading mental health related articles as I usually do, I have also done a lot of reading on conflict resolution and self sabotaging, those were eye openers.

Let’s do a quick recap on the things I did differently this week that helped me remain emotionally stable.

My Strategies for Emotional Stability


      -   Positive affirmations for change of mind set.


       -   Practicing self awareness. Recognizing and identifying aspects of my personality, behavior, emotions and thought process. 


        -  Identifying self sabotaging thoughts and redirecting them.


         - Utilizing positive techniques for positive outcome.


          - Exercise and physical activity.


          - Reaching out to others in need.


       -  Mental activity. Reading, writing, meditating and talking.


        -  Sleep, rest and relaxation.

As they develop, I will be sharing more of the strategies I use that are helpful for me in maintaining emotional stability.  In the mean time please feel free to leave me comments or links on what has worked for you in the comment form of this blog.  

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