With so many pressures in life, you may find it gets you down at times. There may be demands and deadlines at work, or you feel at times bored in your job. Perhaps there are hiccups socially, fallouts with friends or not enough time to do the things you’d like to do.
So, what can you do to attend to your self-care and lift your spirits? Here are my tips to beat the blues and build and maintain a smooth level of self-esteem.
Seven tips to beat the blues
1. Start each day well, such as with a shower, tasty breakfast, time to read or to watch the TV or listen to the radio or music. Dress in something you feel good in, taking good care of your appearance, to enhance your sense of well-being. Decide what morning routine suits you and keep to it.
2. Realistic time management: if your tasks and appointments for the day look overwhelming, review and decide what you can reschedule. You may want to keep your commitments with others, but you may be able to re-order your tasks. How long will your work tasks take you? If it’s ten hours, you won’t fit that into your working day. Transfer them into tomorrow’s list, so that today feels more manageable. Decide separately how many personal tasks you want to cross off your list today.
3. Express your feelings: if you’re feeling low or affected adversely by a circumstance in your life, phone or see someone you respect and trust. Make sure you talk to a person who is a good listener, whether a friend or professional, a person who is supportive and constructive, and doesn’t tell you what you should do. A good listener may make suggestions but encourage you to make decisions for yourself.
4. Ask for help when you need it: some clients tell me it’s hard to ask for help as they feel not good enough, that it reflects badly upon them. However, the ability to ask for help assertively is a strength, important in learning and in growing confidence. It’s a way to increase knowledge and to learn or enhance a skill. It’s vital too in being able to delegate tasks.
5. Do regular exercise: it’s a great energiser. Do exercise you enjoy rather than what you think you should do. Whether you enjoy jogging several miles, a gentle walk in a beautiful park, rigorous activity at the gym, whatever it may be – factor in regular times in the week that work well with your day. If it fits with your day and location, you are more likely to keep to a routine.
Exercise is a great way to de-stress, to take you away from life’s demands, and is also great ‘food’ or adrenalin for the mind.
6. Slot something enjoyable into each day. It’s invaluable to have a spot in the day to do something you enjoy, so make an appointment with yourself at a selected time that fits with your day. You may like to have lunch with a friend, or a chat on the phone or over Zoom, or take the evening off to go to a restaurant, see a film or a show. If money is an issue, a takeaway to take time off from shopping, cooking and clearing is an option or finding a good movie on Netflix or BBC iPlayer. You may simply want some time to yourself to relax and read.
7. Plan ahead – things to look forward to. How important it is to make plans for the future and put them in your calendar or diary. It makes a great difference to see them written down rather than mull them over in your mind. A day trip, a weekend break, a holiday, exhibition or sports event, a reunion with friends or family who live a distance away, are some of the options. What appeals to you?
What else would you suggest for yourself?
To add to my tips on developing positivity, I found this article on ‘Ways to Stay Positive’ interesting. ( The College of Health Care Professionals, U.S.A.)
If you feel it would be helpful to have coaching support to create a positive programme for yourself, and to sustain it, do get in touch via my email or website. If you are new to coaching, you are welcome to book a 20-minute call (£15, phone or Zoom) to find out how coaching can help you.
Lucy Seifert, Life Coach London.
