Swinging between a good life and bad life is itself a tough journey. People who have been storing negative thoughts in their heads fight daily with their inner self. This even results in mental conflicts. Moreover, a person starts criticizing himself in every aspect of life. Losing self-worth is pretty common in such a difficult phase. If you are the victim of such a scenario, stop being so hard on yourself and be kinder to your soul.
Do you wonder how to stop being so hard on yourself? To make it happen, you must understand what exactly is troubling you. Be it career or family issues, you need to dig deeper and find out the main cause.
The next step is to realize how often you find yourself in a situation where you feel stressed, depressed, or demotivated. Once you make these notes, it becomes easy for you to deal with your current life issues.
Identify If You’re Being Too Hard on Yourself
When you’re being too hard on yourself, carrying negative energy is the first state you find yourself in. Your perspective towards people, life, love, and work become negative. You feel demoralized. In fact, you start losing trust in yourself and speak negatively about yourself.
However, many people do not realize if they have already become a victim of this problem; they just start blaming themselves for having a bad life.
Therefore, it is very important to understand the signs. Have a look at the following signs if you are being too hard on yourself at work or other places:
- You feel guilty for the things that happened in the past.
- Mistakes and negative thoughts don’t leave your side.
- You stop looking after yourself and your loved ones.
- Feeling exhausted is one of the common signs you’re being too hard on yourself.
- You compare yourself with others and feel incompetent.
- Avoiding appreciation from people is also a sign.
- It becomes difficult for you to let go of failures of the past.
- You feel anxious and worried all the time.
These signs will help you to know the bad changes that occurred in your personality over time. Knowing the accurate sign will also reveal how these changes affect your personal and professional relations.
Best Practices on How to Stop Being So Hard on Yourself
You need to work on your inner self so you can eventually stop being too hard on yourself. For instance, you can let go of the past and focus on the present. Keep in mind that you can’t solve every problem of your life. Sometimes, you need to leave problems to the divine. Everything will work out in your favor only when you want.
If you are wondering how to stop being so hard on yourself, go through the following suggestions to make the healing process easier:
1. Forgive Yourself
When something bad happens to you in the past, you keep holding that grief in the future. This does nothing but makes your heart heavy and depressed. Hence, moving on is the best choice you can make.
If you have been struggling with past mistakes or feel disgraceful about something specific, don’t feel guilty at all. Rather forgive yourself. Everyone makes mistakes and learns something from them. Therefore, it is better to let it go and start a new day with positivity.
2. Prepare a Journal
Writing helps to release your emotions. Whether it is a happy or sad story, the moment you write it down, you start feeling light as if you have shared your grief with a close friend. Thus, making a journal can be helpful in certain ways.
Additionally, you can pen down your happy moments or anything that made you joyful today. By doing so, you will keep remembering the good parts of your life. This also helps in feeling grateful for what you are having so you don’t complain about your life anymore.
3. Give Attention to Future Goals
Not focusing on your goals due to anxiousness can have a bad impact on your future life. Most people tend to give up on their dreams just because something is bothering them. You are NOT supposed to do that. Consequently, it affects your ambitions and the plans that you have set before.
Instead of whining, focus on your goals, your ambitions, and make a life you always wanted to live. Remember, you are the only creator of your life.
To make it simple, get yourself to the state when you are planning your goals. Bring that shine out of you! Work on your dreams step by step and you will get there. Once you are determined, nobody can stop you to accomplish your goals. Years later, you will even forget that you were ever anxious.
4. Allow People to Compliment You
Everybody wants to be appreciated. At least most people. However, when you remain a part of depression, no single appreciation can shoot an arrow. You might even refuse to take compliments. This happens when you are surrounded by negativity.
Stop being so hard on yourself and allow appreciation, admiration, and compliments that people shower you with. When you do so, it makes you feel happy with the fact that people value you. It is just in your head that things are messing up. However, in reality, you are just avoiding your greatness.
So next time when someone says something nice to you, smile and thanks to them for thinking good for you.
5. Know the Real Critic Inside You
In times of negativity, a human can become the biggest enemy of himself. As specified before, you can create your own life; make it or ruin it, this is totally in your hand. Hence, it is necessary to identify the inner critic inside your mind and handle it wisely.
To be precise, hear the voice inside your head. If it says something that you will hardly say to dear ones, it is the inner critic. To deal with this, you should perform deep inhalation and let that bad thought pass.
6. Use Affirmations and See Magics
Self-talk or saying positive affirmations every day changes your life for the better. No matter what people think about you, try to make yourself feel better every day. Whenever you feel low, stop being so hard on yourself and say affirmative statements. Following are the examples you can get the idea from:
- I am confident and happy.
- I feel positive every day.
- No one’s criticism can harm me.
- I am a balanced person (and so on).
Such affirmations are basically the positive statements you say to yourself with confidence. This will surely make you feel positive about your life and surroundings.
7. Meditation Can Do Wonder
You must have heard a lot of people suggesting meditation and you try to avoid it. Not because it takes a few minutes from your day but because you are unaware of its magical benefits.
Meditation is a powerful way to manage stress and balance your life. It also helps you to reduce negative emotions, increase self-awareness, improve your creative skills, and more.
Make sure you choose a perfect time for this. All you have to do is to grab 10 minutes daily, sit in a peaceful place, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and see where your mind wanders. Then, bring that wandering mind back to the breath.
Light melody can also be played during mediation. Additionally, you can lie down on the surface to feel more comfortable. Practice beginner’s guide to meditate every day and see yourself improving.
8. Talk to the Close Ones
Sharing your laughter is not the only thing you share with your dear ones but your problems too. It could be somebody in your family or your friends, make a call for them and tell them what you are dealing with.
There can be instances when your people can’t make big differences to your problems but somehow your heart will feel light. In some cases, you might get some solutions to the problem you are sharing with them. Remember, talking always helps.
Conclusive Words
Although it is not as easy as it sounds in theory, taking the first step towards self-love won’t put you in danger. Rather, it will help you to heal, feel light, and live joyfully. So stop being so hard on yourself and add more positivity to your life.
