When things aren’t going your way and haven’t been for quite some time it’s easy to fall into a bitterness spiral. There’s nothing wrong with feeling down when life is giving you a hard time but it’s important to remember that bad times won’t last forever.
If you can manage to overcome your bitterness, in fact, the bad times will be over that much sooner. Being bitter makes everything in your life a little darker. Making sure you avoid falling into the bitterness trap isn’t always easy but it’s can be easier with these 8 tips.
Revaluate your life
Are there reasons that you feel this bitterness or has it just taken over your entire existence and you can’t snap yourself out of it? Figuring out what is causing your bitterness is the first step on the road to recovery.
Whether you’re going through a break up and have the bitterness bug from seeing other happy couples or you’re just not happy with the way you’re life happened to turn out, figure out what’s causing it.
That’s where you’ll really benefit.
Make small changes
It’s easy to make changes to your life but it’s best if you do it one small step at a time. When a change seems too big to accomplish on your own, chances are you’re taking on too much at once.
There’s a lot of truth to taking it one step at a time when it comes to overcoming bitterness or a negative mind set in general. And there’s no way any one person can take it any faster than that. You only have the day ahead of you and that’s okay.
Take each day and make small changes, either in your routine or how you see the world, and you’ll be that much closer to overcoming the bitterness that has seem to occupy your mind. Which brings me to my next point.
Get out of your head
An easy way to get trapped in a sea of bitterness is by over thinking every little thing that happens to you. It could be anything from being late to work and feeling like an utter failure to going through a tough break up and feeling like you’ll be alone forever.
Your mind can be your best friend but it can also be your worst enemy. It’s important to remember that you have control over your mind even when you feel like you don’t. When you’re bitter you fall in the latter category and it’s harder to control the negative thoughts that seem to swirl constantly.
But it’s not healthy to over think and it will only make your bitterness worse. To stop yourself from over thinking there are plenty of things you can do. Get out of the house and go out with friends, for example, will help you keep your mind off of all the things that are bringing you down.
Alternatively, you could pick up a new hobby, establish a new gym routine or even throw yourself into a Netflix binge. As long as you don’t give yourself the time to think about the bad things that are going on in your life, you won’t be over thinking about them.
Practice gratitude
If you’re bitter, there’s a good chance you haven’t been feeling very grateful for the good things you do have in your life. It’s human nature to always want more than you have, so there’s no point in punishing yourself in that regard but it’s always good to take a step back to appreciate all the things you have already accomplished.
Things like good health, good friends and family or even a job you don’t hate are all things to be grateful for. Even going back to the simplest of things such as having a roof over your head and food in your stomach are things to be grateful for.
There are people all over the world that dream of having all the things you have and although it doesn’t make you feel any better hearing that, it should. Just because you’re accustomed to a certain life style and way of happiness doesn’t mean you can’t strip down to the bear necessities sometimes.
Being able to be happy about the little things that you take for granted is a great step in overcoming bitterness.
Take care of yourself
Being the type of person that can overcome bitterness isn’t something that you’re born with. It’s something that you must work towards and a lot of that has to do with whether or not you’re taking care of yourself.
Eating right, getting exercise and doing things you enjoy with your free time are all ways to feel as though you’re treating yourself the best you possibly can. There’s nothing wrong with putting your needs first, especially when you’re bitter because you can’t make anyone’s day if you can’t first make your own.
Overcoming bitterness by taking care of yourself is a constant process but each day it gets easier and easier and one day you’ll wake up and realize that you’re happy. You won’t know when you started feeling it but it will be registered and you’ll wonder why you were ever bitter to begin with.
Deal with your problems head on
People don’t wake up bitter, they gradually become bitter by holding onto anger and negative experiences. If you don’t deal with what’s hurting you, eventually you’ll be in that bitter boat without a paddle.
When it comes to things that hurt you, to overcome bitterness and even stop it before it happens, you’re going to want to deal with all of it as it happens. If you’re upset with someone for hurting you, tell them they hurt you. If you don’t like your job, find a new one.
It doesn’t matter what problems you had leading up to your bitterness spell, it’s a matter of how you dealt with all that hurt and pain. It can be easier to not deal with it and shove it down in the assumption that if you don’t think about it, it will just go away but that’s just not true.
Instead of disappearing it eats at you from the inside and eventually graduates to the bitterness you now feel. Being able to identify how bitterness happens is one of the keys in overcoming it.
Go easy on yourself
There’s no point in treating yourself like crap because you can’t seem to get a handle on your bad feelings. You have to be able to forgive yourself for your part in the pain your feeling or you’ll never be able to overcome the bitterness you feel.
Getting past and truly repenting for all the things that contributed to the way you feel is one of the best ways to get past all of the negative energy. You’ll have to learn to practice positive self-talk and let go of any negative feelings you have for yourself before it becomes an even bigger issue.
If you can forgive others for contributing to your bitterness, than you should be able to forgive yourself, too.
Treat yourself
When it comes to feeling bitter, there’s one last thing that you can do to make sure that you feel a little happier every day and that’s treating yourself. Whether you love brownies or shoe shopping, it doesn’t matter.
Whatever it is that you love, just go out and do it. Buy those expensive shoes you’ve been eyeing or eat that delicious chocolate because at the end of the day, you need to be kind to yourself, too.
This may not be the greatest way to overcome your bitterness right off the bat because it does fall into the category of instant gratification, but once you’ve taken care of every other step on this list it becomes the cherry on top of your happiness cake.
There’s nothing worse than being stuck in a period of negative thinking because even small things can seem like huge tasks. That’s why, if you can manage to utilize these 8 steps to overcoming bitterness, it may just be the best thing you ever did.
What kind of things do you do for yourself to overcome bitterness?
The post Life Tips: Overcoming Bitterness In 8 Simple Steps appeared first on YouQueen.
