Feeling Down? Four Steps to Cheery
Cheer Up and Move from the Blues to Cheerful
A four-step process to help you move from feeling down and cheerless to cheery and cheerful.
You're feeling down. Thankfully, not due to a terrible tragedy, illness, or accident. You just find yourself feeling low, mildly depressed, a bit blue, and cheerless. Maybe you had a spiff with your spouse, unkind words from a co-worker, or your favorite team lost. Nothing earth shattering, but still enough to leave you feeling the blues.
Step up to Cheery
To kick the blues and move from feeling down to being cheery, try this four-step cheering up process.
1. Reflect on Your Intent
Strange as it may seem, sometimes we prefer to feel down. If something in life has brought you a sad feeling, sometimes it's best to remain in that state for a time. It's better, though, to consciously limit your time feeling blue, being careful to match the severity of the situation to the time you allow yourself to wallow a bit.
When you can honestly say that you're ready to move on to a more cheery feeling, go on to step 2.
2. Consciously Shift Your Thoughts
Think a different thought. Our lives unfold along the path of our thoughts. If our thoughts dwell on events, circumstances, or fears that are depressing, we'll feel depressed. It's not necessary to ignore unfortunate events, nor to pretend they didn't occur. But it is important to consciously shift our thoughts to something more cheerful when we're ready to cheer up.
3. Find a Better Feeling
Cheer up gradually by reaching for a better feeling. Our emotions are key indicators of the type of life we're presently creating. Feeling down, cheerless, or depressed is a sure signal that the life events unfolding in the near term will be very similar. If you want something different than you're now experiencing, you must change your current feelings.
A good way to reach a better feeling is to reflect on the positives of your life. Focusing your thoughts on even the most fundamental of positives, such as being alive, having enough to eat, and shelter from the elements is a good start. Most of us will be able to go well beyond those basics of life. Do you have someone to love? Has someone smiled at you today? Do you have enjoyable activities? You get the picture.
Recalling just three good things in your life is often enough to move your emotions up a notch or two. It's not necessary, nor even practical to expect to go from being blue to feeling joyous in one step. Just focus on moving up one notch as a good start.
4. Acknowledge Cheerful Feelings and Repeat Step 3
Notice if you're now feeling better, perhaps not as cheery as you'd like, but better. Stay there a bit and enjoy the change. Then decide to move up another notch. Repeat the process by recalling three more good things in your life. Think in terms of gratitude. What are you grateful for having in your life?
Stay with the feelings of gratitude. Savor the good fortune inherent in your gratitude. Notice that you are feeling even better than before. Keep repeating this process until it no longer seems necessary.
Four Steps to Feeling Cheery
Use this four step cheering up process whenever you're feeling down and want to feel more cheerful.
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