Getting discouraged is a universal experience. It’s what makes us appreciate better days more. Discouragement is your mind’s way of processing what you’re going through. You get discouraged when you don’t meet your expectations. You can get disheartened when you can’t get something you want — no matter how much you’ve worked for it. You are getting discouraged shows that you are passionate about some things. It shows that you have goals and aspirations. That’s part of life. Sometimes, all the things we go through make us lose faith and hope. That’s why we must equip ourselves with empowering mindsets to use when we’re feeling discouraged.
1. It’s a Perfectly Normal Emotion
The first step in dealing with discouragement is acknowledging that it is a normal emotion. You might need to cry about it, talk with someone, write about it, or even draw about it. Please take comfort in that it’s not only you who gets discouraged. It happens to all of us — even the best of us. Sometimes the world puts you in situations where you feel like the sky is closing in on you while the ground tries to bury you alive.
2. Accept Your Current Situation
One way to deal with discouragement is to let yourself be in the moment. Make peace with the fact that some things are beyond your control, even your emotions. You might have to take some time to be sad and then get back up again. After you’ve taken your time, begin again. You are equipped with more learning experience, an empowered mind, and a more resilient heart this time.
3. Shift From Harshness to Compassion
When you get discouraged, you may start to blame yourself. You feel like you deserve all the wrong things. Then you start telling yourself a bunch of negative affirmations. This is not how you should deal with yourself when you are discouraged. Instead of being harsh, try to have more compassion for yourself.
Don’t be too hard on yourself. Learn to have faith in yourself, just like how you have confidence in orders. Remember your previous success and that your current situation isn’t your whole life story. Finally, remember to be kind to yourself. Think about what you would say to a discouraged friend and tell yourself instead.
4. Practice Gratitude
It’s easy to want to stay there when you’re further down the road of discouragement and dwell on your negative emotions. One way to deal with this is to try practicing gratitude. Instead of thinking so much about what didn’t work, try reminding yourself of your previous wins. List down the things you have right now that you used to look forward to having before. Being grateful for the things you already have will make you less discouraged.
Gratitude reciprocates. When you’re grateful, you experience a certain level of happiness that pushes the painful feelings away. It helps you appreciate the not-so-good parts of your life. It helps you enjoy the process of getting what you want or where you want to be to be happy.
5. Incorporate the Bigger Picture
With all the things that can and have gone wrong in the more minor details of your life, you’ll wonder if it’s possible to feel encouraged instead of discouraged. Sometimes the misfortunes, heartaches, grief, fear, failure, and sadness will be all you see. Still, if you keep focusing on those little things, it’s easy to be at a loss on how not to be discouraged. You will only see the things that put you down and keep you from feeling better.
Well, what if you zoom out and look at things in the bigger picture? This can give you a better perspective. You will see more opportunities you can take to uplift yourself, and you will be able to see more things you should be grateful for. The bigger picture lets you see life as it is beyond discouragements. It helps you realize that while there are details of your life that can put you down, they’re just a tiny part of the bigger picture and not the entire picture.
6. Believe In Yourself
When encountering setbacks and failures, you might quickly lose faith in yourself. Most successful people in life are the way they are because they believe in themselves. That doesn’t mean they have never been discouraged; it only means that they learned how to deal with discouragements and used them to their advantage. For instance, they keep going even when the only thing they can believe in is themselves. If you want to succeed or simply want to overcome discouragements, start putting more faith in yourself. You are more significant than your setbacks, failures, disappointments, fears, and heartbreaks. You shall overcome.
7. Know When To Look For Help
Some feelings of discouragement will linger when you deal with it all by yourself. Learn to let others help you, too. Remember that for them to help you, you might need to reach out to them first. If you are blessed, you might already have a support system ready to support you, but for most of us, we have to learn to reach out for help when we need it. If you don’t have any close friends or family that can help you in these situations, others can. There will always be mentors, counselors, therapists, and psychiatrists out there.
A big part of your life can be filled with discouragement. Everybody feels this way in certain parts of their lives. Sometimes, you can get to the point where you lose all faith. When all you know is that heavy crippling feeling that tends to want to drown you, take a moment to remember that it’s alright to be discouraged. It’s a normal feeling that tells you something is off, but it also means you have a goal and a purpose.
There are many ways with which you can deal with it. Most importantly, never lose faith in yourself. Having an empowered mindset can help you overcome the feeling of losing faith. Once you overcome discouragements, you become a better version of yourself — more robust and resilient.