How to stay sane when everything goes wrong? When everything seems to go against you and you can’t help but just let it happen in front of you?
Sounds similar? We all hit this kind of rock-bottom once or twice in our life when we feel that nothing is working in our lives and we are being bombarded with problems and a hell of a lot of issues from the top, bottom, left-right, and center. Phewww.
But you know what, everything is figuroutable. Every damn problem has got at least 2 possible solutions, every worst situation has something to offer, learning, experience, lesson, or an achievement. We can come out wiser with every testing situation.
In this blog, I will share a few workable approaches I have adopted in my daily life to anti-combat tough situations, we clearly cannot escape from them but yes we can be ready to face them. Bring it on!!
How to stay sane when everything goes wrong?
I lost my good old life, now what? I lost my relationship, now? I am staying with my parents, so? To make it worse, I am judged because I am staying with my parents, hell what now?
All these things can make me go crazy if I surrender to it, although I cannot escape from the judgments, taunting, assumptions, and problems these series of the situation has got for me, it costs me a lot of mental peace but I consciously make a choice DAILY: To NOT to listen to what others say, to do what makes me happy and preserve my sanity.
It is a conscious reminder I have to give daily to myself, a change in how I talk to my inner-self, being more aware of my inner-dialog and surroundings has helped me a lot.
9 Ways I keep my sanity intact amid chaos
There are days when I feel dejected and lack the energy to face the outside world and on those days I even cancel plans, I postpone work and go easy on myself, do you know why? Because I know my exact capacity, I know how much I can stretch, and knowing this helps me to put a barricade at the right spot.
Different things work for different people, and to make things work we have to continuously search for means that can help us to escape the stress caused by the problematic areas or the pain areas in our lives.
How to stay sane when everything goes wrong? Here are 9 tried and tested ways:
1.) Acknowledgement
Don’t deny your ability to have a down day. It makes things worse. I accept that there is a problem and I have to face it, sometimes it could take time for me to overcome them and I might even drown deeper before I could swim across through it, but I acknowledge my problems first.
Once I acknowledge that there is a problem and it can/cannot be solve it becomes easy for me to focus on the road ahead. I start working on it from my end, things I can fix, ways I can adapt to overcome it because in any given situation it is only our part we can control and work on, I try to do that.
2.) Embracing the impermanence
I know you had heard it like thousand times due to the whole COVID-19 mess, nothing is permanent! Our good days, our bad days, and our problems.
I sink into the feeling of being in the moment and having full control over my present. Permanence is nowhere. I take day one day at a time.
3.) Cuddling & playing with children
It is said that spending time with elderly people and kids is good for our mental health. Kids are actually really good at finding joy wherever they go and as we grow into adults instead of finding joy, we try to find a profit, loss, and meaning from things we do.
I love spending time with my daughter and I have my niece in my neighbour who is as good as my daughter, we go for walks, we play, we cuddle and when I am with these two little women I forget everything.
4.) Dissociation
Dissociation is one particular thing I am addicted to ever since I learned this practice in my NLP training. Whenever I feel stuck in a situation that is too overwhelming, I try to observe it in a third person.
This practice is also called Shakshi Bhaav, when you experience your real-experiences as an audience and see things from a distance, it gives you a unique view of your own problems.
5.) Setting healthy boundaries
Setting boundaries help in almost every situation. It helps me to focus on what I can control and what I cannot. I can control my thoughts, my creations, my actions, I cannot control others’ actions.
If something/someone is costing me my sanity then I back off. How to stay sane when everything goes wrong? By setting boundaries, with people, with tasks, and with the ability to risk-taking as well.
6.) Spending time with nature
Nature is the best therapy! We are made up of elements, air, water, fire, earth, and space. And when we personally form a connection with nature we feel grounded.
All our anxiousness and intrusive-thoughts take a back seat and we surrender to the beauty of nature. I love going for long walks, I gaze sky, mountains, and birds and try to observe the details, it helps me to reclaim my faith.
7.) Spiritual realm
Besides being a voracious reader, and an ardent writer, I am also fascinated by the mysteries of mantras, yoga, types of meditation, chakra meditation, sound meditation, pranic healing and how it affects our inner-world.
I follow Nicherin Buddhism and I chant. I even include my daughter in chanting and meditation. I believe that there exists a supreme power in form of energy. I try to be in harmony with my inner and outer world by praying to that energy.
8.) Having a creative outlet
How to stay sane when everything goes wrong? Will you start painting or dancing? The answer is YES for many. Many among us have unknowingly developed a stress-buster tool for ourselves in an art form.
Some people dance a lot when they are stressed or hurt, some paint , some sing, some write and some even play guitar. I feel art is medium to express pain, emotions, feelings and joy. Having a creative outlet helps you to channelise your energy in the less destructive direction.
9.) Structuring the day
When days are hard, things are not favorable and everything is going haywire, there is only this one thing that is in our control, our TIME. We must value our time and allocate it wisely.
We all have a lot to do but in those 24 hours, we have to take out some time for ourselves, to sit with our thoughts and reflect upon them. We need not go to a meditative state but a time-to-time self-introspection helps to keep a check on our feelings and level of stress.
To conclude, I would say that problems, challenges, and struggles are part of our life but what we do with them makes all the difference in our life. It is not at all easy but any small step for our betterment could build a base for bigger differences in our life. Rise Up!
This blog post is part of the blog challenge ‘Blogaberry Dazzle’ hosted by Cindy D’Silva and Noor Anand Chawla, and happily SPONSORED BY RRE Studios and SHOWCASE Events.
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Priyanka Nair is the author of 26 Days 26 Ways for a Happier you and Ardhaviram. An NLP practitioner and Founder of Sanity Daily, helping you prioritize your mental health. Let’s build a happy community.