Short messages on Mental health, stress and anxiety issues from Respect Yourself, the guidance site for young people to help make good decisions in life.
Mindfulness is a form of meditation, a tool you can use in daily life to lower stress, improve focus, or treat anxiety or depression. You can use it when you are stressed about an exam, anxious in social situations, and many other difficult times.
“Mindfulness” is a mental state achieved by focusing your awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
You always have a choice: do you drown in regret over what never came to be, or use your energy to create what can be?
We often think we know what other people are thinking, and assume they are focused on our faults and weaknesses. But this is often wrong. Ask yourself, “How do I know what other people are thinking? Just because I assume something, does that mean I’m right?”
You don’t need to play the self-blame game: personalising everything and blaming yourself for anything that goes wrong, even when it’s not your fault or responsibility. Instead, find all the causes. What else could explain it? Is it really all about you?
You may find that you hone in on the negative aspects of a situation as the first thing you do, ignoring or dismissing all the positive aspects. Instead, consider the whole picture. Find a more balanced way to look at this situation.
Making unfair comparisons between certain individuals and yourself is a common thinking error, and can leave you feeling inadequate. When you do this, you compare yourself with people who you know have a specific advantage over you in some area.
Problems are a normal part of life, and we usually feel better when we do something to resolve them rather than just dwell on them. If you can’t solve the problem, change the way you think about it. You can practice acceptance and move on with life in a positive way.
One way to deal with situations you can’t change is to practice acceptance. This means accepting the way things are without insisting that they should be different, and deciding to get on with life in spite of the situation.
If you find yourself thinking in black-and-white, instead look for the shades of grey in between. Is it really so bad? Are you taking an extreme view? Just because something isn’t completely perfect doesn’t mean that it’s a total disaster.