Take a Break From Your Emotions
Emotions tend to take over our actions and reactions, despite the fact we prefer to claim otherwise. Society frequently sees emotions as a sign of mental weakness, so we got used to setting them aside and try to concentrate on the logical aspects more and more. But no matter how strict and rational you would like to be, you will always be a human being, instead of a robot, and so you will always have feelings.
Positive emotions are a consistant goal for several of us. What is more crucial, in the long term: how much money you produced during your life or how many times you enjoyed yourself? Still, people tend to put their positive emotions underneath the dark shadow of their negative feelings. This is one of the largest problems we come across during our lives. There is no visible gameplan to ignore a negative experience and try to replace it with positive ones. It just doesn’t work that way.
As a child, if your goldfish dies, you would be very sad. Your parents will likely buy you another goldfish, but the sorrow still takes what seems like years to go away. Things get even more serious with adults. A fight with your spouse the night before will destroy your entire day. You will go to work angry, tired, with your mind wandering. Then you will go home with an even worse mood. On the way from work towards home you won’t be able to see the sun shining and you won’t be tempted to stop at the grocery store and get your favorite ice cream. All these because that one negative thought is contaminating the way you perceive the reality around you.
When this happens you will feel that discovering a safe place to relax your mind would do wonders. And that place is actually easy to get to. It might be an actual location or an imaginary place. The best idea is to totally submerge yourself in it. Let’s say you have a problem on your mind and it just won’t go away. Go bowling! You don’t know how to bowl, you say? No problem, go out and try it! Get caught up in the game, think about those funny shoes, select a favorite ball, cook up new ways to throw and so on. Your mind will suddenly change gears from the negative thoughts that owned your last hours or days and start processing a totally new kind of information.
A safe place can grow many forms. It can be a song, a movie, even a person. The most important thing is to let yourself to become completely involved with this new activity. You will still get flashes of the problem every now and then – ignore them and get even more involved in what you are doing.
When the bowling game, the song, the movie or the conversation ends you will have a rather abrupt return to your problems. You will probably feel depressed and want to go back to the safe place. Don’t do that. The safe place exists only as a helping hand, not as a solution to all of your problems. It is there to help you relax your mind, for a few minutes or hours.
This is a crucial stage in your solution to what is bothering you. You will come back from your safe place with an increased energy level. You will feel better about yourself and create more confidence that any issue can be settled. This is how a small escape from a harsh reality can increase your fighting energy and allow you to solve even the most difficult problems.

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