Different Ways to Overcome Difficult Times

Posted on September 05, 2023 by Rakesh Misra, One of Thousands of Life Coaches on Noomii.

Last few years I personally have dealt with a lot of changes happening in my personal life. At first, I realised that describing them to my friends which in today’s world are very difficult to find, I called a couple of them and lately I began to feel as if it was a process of not ending the ordeal. They tend to make me believe that they are also in the same boat as I am though I knew they were not. Anyways, there is a saying that goes ‘if the old doesn’t go, the new cannot come’. Keeping that in mind, I started believing it firmly that I must shed away the difficult events of my life to grow forward, and so now I started to call them ‘changes’ instead of ‘endings’.
Difficult as it may, I know a friend who is also going through some tough phase of life which has extended for over a decade now. This article is specifically meant for him because I want to share with him some tools, I have found to be useful for me in managing my emotional state to navigate through the difficult times. Though the other circumstances may be different but situation will be same. I am prone to worries, stress, tension, long hours of thinking or may be sometimes depression too myself, so had to learn how to pull myself through from these situations, the beliefs and techniques learnt while becoming a Certified Professional Life coach had helped tremendously.
1. Happiness can bring joy in your life.
I strongly believe that if you want more happiness, surround yourself with people who make you happy. Even better, spread happiness to those around you.
When someone is happy, it improves their health and well-being, enhances the quality of their relationships, makes them generally confident and brings abundance into their lives. Be someone that can lighten someone’s mood, make them smile and bring them joy.
Imagine a world where everyone is dedicated to spreading joy and cultivating happiness for others.
2. It is not necessary to understand the cause of the problem to solve it.
Most people believe that it’s essential to know the roots of the problem before they can change. ‘If only I knew why I’m so…I’d be able to change myself’. Unfortunately, this isn’t true. Understanding does not always create change. Solutions are often new elements injected into the existing situation. A belief like this often fosters the ‘paralysis of analysis’, encouraging too much navel-gazing that makes people do the exact opposite of the following belief you need to overcome difficult times…
3. Spend only 20% of your time on what’s wrong, and 80% of what’s right.
If you spend 80% of your time focusing on the problem and only 20% of the solution, what do you think is going to happen? It’s easy to be stressed, depressed or complain that things are not working out. It is also easy to be become a pessimist. You need to come out of it soon, so it becomes easier to answer all the questions including ‘So what are you doing about it?’
4. Problems are not always there!
As a famous saying that it can never be a day or night 24 hours. You may think you are always stressed, depressed, sad, or down. This is because you never noticed when you were not even in the best of the times in your life. You know when you are…how about when you are not? For example, it’s physically impossible to be depressed all the time…notice that next time you really need to do your daily things like- going to the toilet, brushing your teeth, eat 3 times a day, sleep or may be even pray to God.
If it is not physically possible to be depressed all the time, then it’s also not physically possible not to be happy all the time.
5. Today is the best and new day.
As a famous saying- The past is gone and cannot be equal to the present or the future. The future can be even better than the past unless you make it worse. You can focus on what is over and cannot be changed. You may also miss making it better here and now, or you can do better. Leave what the past was and where it belonged, create hope for the future. Do that by starting from today as today is the best day.
6. You are more than just your problems.
You are not a depressive human being. You are not either bankrupt or you are not eve a retrenched worker. You are also not a rejected salesman. You are not the last piece in the world and any place either. Let’s not lie, you are responsible for the results you have created in your life. But you are not your problems. You are a living breathing human being who is infinitely more complex than even all your problems, worries, tensions, stress, etc. added up together.
7. If what you are doing isn’t working, do something, anything, different from what you’ve been doing before!
If you find yourself stuck in a trench, you are stuck because you’re doing the same things over and over again at the same time in that same patch. If you really need a change, just challenge yourself to do one thing or may be more differently from before. A little shift always creates a different result, and little shifts always build on to create bigger shifts over a period.
8. Seeing what you want in the future.
Since the future is a blank canvas and you don’t know what will happen even after a moment, you are free every day to paint it as you wish. You can choose to paint a bleak picture but be sure that it is a quality choice. If you can see, hear or feel it, you can do it too. Do this as often and as much as you can in your daily life.
9. What are you grateful for in your life right now?
And finally, the most spiritual and uplifting quality I know of is living the way of thinking of gratefulness. No matter what, who, where and when you are, the fact that you are still here, means that you have at least one thing you can be thankful about in your life right now. Today, it is not talking about thinking or settling for what you already have, but acknowledging it, appreciating its presence and knowing that there are good things in your life which will help you attract and achieve even more.
Thoughts attracts results and like attracts like. It can happen out there within. it can also start immediately inwards out. Your mind makes a difference, and if millionaires can be depressed, and prisoners or hostages be cheerful, you have enough power within to direct your inner state, irrespective of what you think must make you feel any way.

10. Do you think happiness can bring joy in your life?
If you want more happiness, surround yourself with people who make you happy. Even better, spread happiness to those around you.
When someone is happy, it improves their health and well-being, enhances the quality of their relationships and brings abundance into their lives. Be someone that can lighten someone’s mood, make them smile and bring them joy.
Imagine a world where everyone is dedicated to spreading joy and cultivating happiness for others.