Monthly Archives: April 2010

Overcoming Depression Through Self Help Motivation

Brought to you by the team at SelfHelp-Motivation.net

Using self help motivation to overcome depression.

For someone suffering from depression, just facing the day can be an uphill struggle and their are different forms of medication and therapies that can have beneficial effects for those who suffer from it. However, this article puts forward methods that the sufferer can implement themselves and should in no way be seen as medical advice. If you believe you are suffering from depression, please consult your doctor if you haven’t already done so.

Having given the above advice, there are specific measures that sufferers can take to enable themselves to feel better.

Here are six measures that may help.

  • 1# Avoid taking illegal substance’s. Apart from possibly leading to drug addiction, in most cases they will not help to solve the symptom’s of depression and will more than likely make matters worse.
  • 2# Do the things that you enjoy. It is extremely important to continue doing those activities that help you to feel more in control such as meeting with friends, taking in a movie, walking or shopping.
  • 3# Stay as healthy as you can. Enable your self help motivation to lead you towards getting out and keeping fit. Exercising will help you keep a positive outlook on life. These exercises can be whatever you enjoy doing. You might enjoy exercises such as working out at the gym, walking or cycling.
  • 4# If your setting goals, and it’s a good idea that you do, try to ensure that they are realistic and not difficult to achieve. You don’t want to set yourself up for disappointment. Remember your goals should be realistic, you should know when you have reached each milestone and know when you have achieved them what you will be aiming at next. Achieving each goal will certainly improve your outlook on life.
  • 5# It’s difficult to think clearly when you are feeling depressed that why it’s a good idea to keep a diary. Jot down your thought process’s on a day to day basis, the good and the bad. Any time you’re feeling good, look back at your diary and see if there are any patterns that emerge. Could you alter patterns that lead to depression.? Could you bolster patterns that help you avoid depression?
  • 6# Become more self-aware. The sooner you start to recognize the early signs of depression the sooner you can intervene. Starting to work on your problems while they’re still small will enable you to start treatment before your symptom’s worsen. Recognizing the onset of depression will also help you to avoid relapses in the future.

No one is immune to depression, so do your best to avoid the causes of it. Use self help motivation to help you recognize those situations that you need to avoid.

Wishing you Health, Wealth and Happiness from the team at SelfHelp-Motivation.net

Using Self Help Motivation To Overcome Anxiety Attacks

Using Self Help Motivation To Overcome Anxiety Attacks

Brought to you by the team at Self Help Motivation.net

How to overcome anxiety attacks by using self help motivation.

Do you have mornings when it’s difficult to get out of bed, feeling you just cant face the day ahead? Are there days when you just don’t feel like going to work? And do you toss and turn at night, unable to sleep from worries going around and around in your head? If you do you may find that this constant worry and stress becomes a cycle that is hard to break. You might be wondering what can be done to get off this worry merry-go-round and that’s where this valuable self help motivation tip comes into it’s own.

  • Getting Motivated

Before you can break the cycle you will need to become motivated to do so. Without motivation there is no drive, no reason for you to move forward but first it’s essential to understand that there are two types of motivation.

The first kind is known as extrinsic motivation, which is garnered from the outside. We look outside of ourselves for our reasons to move forward or achieve results. Money is one of the most obvious examples, but fear and risk of punishment are also very common extrinsic motivators. If you stop and think about it for a moment you may realize that if you’re being motivated by fear, you will probably be experiencing a certain amount of anxiety.

For example, in sports, the crowd can cheer on the team, which can motivate them to do well and awards may be given that are also extrinsic motivators. In general any form of competition is an external motivator because it encourages the individual or team to win, not necessarily to take pleasure in the internal rewards of the activity itself. Not all forms of competition are necessarily bad but nearly all forms of external motivators leave room for fear and anxiety.

Intrinsic motivation on the other hand can be found by identifying the rewards inherent in the job or activity itself. The joy of the game or the experience of something you value. To believe that the only way to be motivated long term, and from a peaceful place within you, is to find your intrinsic motivators.

  • So Where Are They?

Start by paying attention to your level of anxiety. The next time stress and anxiety begin to weigh you down and you begin to lose motivation, STOP and identify at least one thing that’s missing for you in the situation. This will be something you deeply value. Something that, if identified will motivate you into finding ways to have this experience in your life.

For instance, imagine that you’re at work and your boss is explaining to you all the ways they are unhappy with your job performance. You’ve heard this kind of dissatisfaction before and you begin to feel anxious and start worrying that you may even lose your job. After your boss leaves, you notice that you’re feeling tired and have no motivation to continue working, but you can STOP and ask yourself, “what’s missing for me in this situation?” You may discover that caring and appreciation are missing for you, or you might notice that a sense of meaning and purpose is lacking. Great! Now that you’ve discovered what’s missing the next step is to find ways to experience it.

Now can you imagine how motivating it would be to identify ways to experience meaning and purpose in your life. How, by taking action to experience a sense of being appreciated would have you moving more towards what you do want in life.

The strength of any successful anxiety reducing self help motivation technique is its power to guide you inwards before you take action outwards, towards your goal. Whether it’s enriching your relationships, improving your work situation, or just discovering how to successfully manage your every day stress and anxiety, putting in place an intrinsic, self help motivation plan, is certain to be of benefit.

Wishing you Health, Wealth and Happiness from the team at Self Help Motivation.net

Helping Others Through Self Help Motivation

Helping Others Through Self Help Motivation

Brought to you by the team at Self Help Motivation .net

Using self help motivation to help those around you is not the same as giving advice. Many people indulge in self advice and then ignore themselves! In this case why should others listen to us? Of course, we are often offered unsolicited advice by people who don’t even know the true facts of our situation.

There has to be a better way.

  • The Road To Hell Is Paved With Good Intentions

Most of the advice we give and receive is given with good intention. It’s natural to want to shield those we love and care for from hurt and pain. The problem is, no matter what trials and tribulations we have overcome in our own lives, they won’t be identical to what others are going through. We may think we know all the answers but we rarely do and more often than not, we end up advising what we would do in their situation. The problem is they are not us.

  • Oh. Poor You

We are raised in the belief that we should be sympathetic to the concerns of others. It usually goes something like this: “Oh poor you. We know how you feel but blah blah blah”. We don’t know how they feel. We are not mind readers. The only way we could know how they feel would to be them and right at the time when they want to unburden themselves we start to tell them about our own troubles! Our intentions are good. Our method isn’t.

  • Walk A Mile In Their Shoes

Empathy, on the other hand is an entirely different approach. What does it mean to empathize with someone? Mostly, it means that we listen, with both ears. It doesn’t mean we spend the time while they are talking thinking of the next thing we are going to say. Try to put yourself in their situation. Try to see the problem as they see it. Explain back to them what they have told you to see if you really understand what they are saying.

  • See It Their Way

Advice is often of no help because it is our own story and we all experience the same situation differently. We may have worked our way through the same problems but the processes we will have gone through will vary. By listening and making sure that we understand the problem from their point of view, we can help them by allowing them to solve the problem.

For example. Lets suppose that they have a problem with their boss. By understanding how they feel we can help them to use their own self help motivation and visualize the outcome that they desire. After talking it through and giving some thought to it, they may decide that they hate their job and would prefer to find another and this they subsequently do and find that they are much happier. On the other hand we may have given advice that didn’t suit them which they may have followed simply because they believe that we are wiser than they are.

  • Carousel

In the majority of cases people already subconsciously know the answers to their problems. It’s just a case of getting them of the merry-go-round long enough for them to realize it. Often they cant see the woods for the trees. They go round and round in the same thought patterns never seeming to get anywhere. By listening and by making sure that we understand the problem from their point of view is usually all that is needed. Their thought pattern is interrupted and they realize the solution.

People don’t want our advice. They just want us to listen. We can use our own self help motivation to enable them to use theirs.

Wishing you Health, Wealth and Happiness from the team at Self Help Motivation .net

Ten Top Books On Self Help Motivation