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6 Tips for What to Do When You Feel Exhausted by Life

Article from: http://www.psychologytoday.com/

by Alice Boyes, Ph.D. in Practice

Six tips to help you feel better when you feel exhausted by life.

Here are six tips to help you feel better when you feel overwhelmed by stress and exhausted by life.

1. Avoid the “Belief in a Just World” Trap.

“Belief in a just world” is a type of cognitive bias that has been studied by social psychologists. For example, people often hold an attitude that if others are poor, they must deserve to be poor.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking “If I’m struggling, I must deserve to be struggling. I must be struggling because I’m useless.”

The playing field of life isn’t level. A lot of smart, talented people are dealing with very tough situations. For example, large medication bills and no insurance. All of us have made some poor decisions in life. Sometimes there are few consequence, and other times people spend their whole lives recovering from the consequences of earlier decisions.

2. Remind Yourself You’re Doing the Best You Can.

Dr Fran Vertue offers the fantastic advice – “Remind yourself that you’re doing what you can right now given the circumstances and your resources. Practice flexibility so that you can take advantage of opportunities for change.” (quote is from this article about stress relief).

3. Avoid the “I Just Need To Work Harder” Trap.

If you tend to react to stress, struggling, or exhaustion by attempting to just work harder, try slowing down instead.

As above, you’re likely already trying your best. Telling yourself that the answer to solving your problems is just working harder isn’t likely to be an accurate thought.

The trap here is that by telling yourself the problem is not working hard enough, you’re likely to close yourself off to trying new ways of coping. An example I see in my practice all the time is people who respond to overeating by telling themselves they just need to try harder to stick to their diet next time. By attributing the problem to not trying hard enough, they try to solve it through willpower rather than seeking other strategies.

Read more here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/in-practice/201302/6-tips-what-do-when-you-feel-exhausted-life

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