We at Unified Caring Association (UCA) are no strangers to the chaos of life. Sometimes the chaos is overwhelming and we get lost in a sea of “things-to-do” while the world seems to be against us. Fear not, because there are ways to simplify your life through organization, mindfulness and self-care routines. 

A Caring Journey

While reading an article on https://simonsinek.com/, we were moved by the author’s (Kristen Hadeed) journey from realization to caring acts that helped them out of their slump. It all started when Kristen was at work, feeling frustrated and discouraged before a big, long team meeting. The first thing she did was to be honest about how she was feeling when asked. “I told everyone how I truly felt without sugarcoating any part of it.”

What Kristen experienced was an incredible blossoming of support via the team listening. We often forget that our peers, family and friends are here to support us with caring thoughts and acts. Kristen painted the image perfectly when she recounted that “[her] team listened. They hugged me. They helped me make sense of my feelings. They validated them.” Kristen has a super team because they took the caring two steps further. “They owned their part in what led to me feeling the way I did. They came together and created a plan to move us forward.”

Dealing With Discouraging Moments… 

Discouragement is something we all can encounter in our lives. What we do in those moments makes all the difference. Below are some suggestions that Kristen Hadeed used to achieve success in dealing with her discouragement.

Journaling

Taking the time to reflect on your day and feelings brings clarity. This clairity helps us become more in tune with our emotions (i.e. helps build emotional intelligence). “I was able to pinpoint how I was feeling last week and what was causing it.” (Kristen Hadeed)

Honesty

Being honest with others and yourself is crucial. If something is causing you to feel negative and down, one of the worst things you can do is minimize it. Stuffing feelings inside like a turkey on Thanksgiving is one of the most tragic things you can do when feeling discouraged. We can all related to Kristen when she writes, “If you pretend your feelings don’t exist and sweep them under the rug, they’ll continue to build and build and build. Eventually you’ll explode, and when you do, it won’t be pretty.” If you are honest with yourself and those around you, you are able to let go of the negative emotions, build a plan, and begin self-care efforts. Remember, no one can help you if they are not getting any communication from you. People are not mind readers.  As Kristen expressed above, her team created a caring support net for her and helped her develop a plan to dispel the discouragement.

Answers Can Come From All Around

To tie into honesty and communication, solutions can come from more than one place. We can find some within ourselves, from the people we know, or even researching online. “When we’re emotional, we’re usually not logical. When we’re too close to the problem, we’re usually not able to see a clear path forward…You invite people in, you give them a chance to make a difference, and you build trust by showing that you’re human. Asking for help is courageous.” (Kristen Hadeed) 

Reprioritize and Organize

Taking caring action is the next step. One reason we can feel discouraged is because we are over-extended. Setting up your to-do lists in sections with labels for the level of importance and how time sensitive they are. If the task is not crucial, it can wait until later. There is nothing wrong with hitting that pause button and picking that task up later. Better yet, maybe there is a way to share or delegate the task out to get it off your plate completely!

Practice Gratitude

Reflecting on how many good things happen each day is a quick and easy way to alleviate stress and get rid of discouragement. Kristen lists around ten things she is thankful for before starting the day. We can also can do this at night in the form of a gratitude journal. If ten seems to be a bit much, start with three and build from there. The consistent flood of gratitude will help reset your brain, wiring it to be more open and positive.

Refuel To Reset

Think about what energizes you. What things do you love to do that bring out your best attitude? These are different for each person. For some it is dancing, or painting, and for some others it could be meditating in a quiet forest. What ever  refuels you will help reset your emotions and energize you to maintain the caring actions that prevent discouragement.

We all get discouraged at times, but what we do in those moments is key to our success. Taking time admit and express our feelings honestly give us space to take time to build a self-care plan, act on it, and reset our minds (and lives). I  addition to our blogs, we at UCA have many tools for our UCA members to help assess their personal well-being, and build a self-care routine that will help maintain positivity and success in their lives.

We love sharing UCA caring news and resources, research, and caring acts in our community through our website and blogs. Or would like to receive more Unified Caring Association caring notes throughout the week? Follow us on: Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Twitter! We are looking forward to sharing more with you, our caring community!