Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Aug/Sept 2016 Aspire Mag Full Issue | Page 39

WISDOM & SELF-GROWTH project, but I really feel more discouraged that I have more work to do when I thought I was done.” (I moved from anger to discouragement.) yoga, watching a funny YouTube video, writing in your journal (challenge yourself to list 5 things you appreciate), connecting with a friend, etc. Once you’ve found a better-feeling thought – and you’ll know you’ve found it because you’ll feel some relief – take some action that will move you even further “up” the scale along to feeling good. Having a list handy will give you quick goto options the next time you feel stuck in a negative emotion and get you feeling better super fast. Here’s what I did: I went back to my to-do list and I knocked out the item at the top of my list right then and there. I practiced 3 minutes of meditation. I carved out time in my calendar to finish the project that I had hoped to finish that day. After taking those actions I felt so much better. Hey! How about right now you create a list of actions that you can usually count on to provide you with some relief, like going outside, taking a walk, meditating, doing It’s important to understand that it’s not realistic to go quickly from feeling bad to feeling good, but at any moment you have the ability to feel some measure of relief and feel better, which will lead you to doing better. Maybe you can’t move from 21 (feeling unworthy) to 7 (contentment) in one go, but chances are good that you can move from 21 to 16 (discouragement), especially if you can quickly identify activities that will help you feel better. One more caveat: The most common misunderstanding that prevents people from getting control of a situation and 39