Positive when you know your life sucks

Examine your situation. What’s causing the pain you are feeling? This is going to be key to working your way back to positive territory.If it’s situational—for example, you got fired, it’s pouring down rain, and on the way home with all your office belongings in the car, that little spare tire that you’ve been running […]

Examine your situation. What’s causing the pain you are feeling? This is going to be key to working your way back to positive territory.
If it’s situational—for example, you got fired, it’s pouring down rain, and on the way home with all your office belongings in the car, that little spare tire that you’ve been running on gives up the ghost, leaving you stranded on the other side of town—you’re going to need a different set of “positive” tools than if you have been diagnosed with a melanoma.
External factors can be dealt with by taking positive steps to repair or at least address the root problem as best as you can. Whatever the primary cause of the suckage, that cause must be addressed first. You may or may not be able to solve the problem, per se, but at least knowing you’re taking positive steps forward is one less weight to have to carry, and it will help you improve your outlook. It will not be easy, of course, or we wouldn’t be calling this “sucking.”
If it’s physical or mental—maybe you’re bipolar, or suffer chronic depression—you must balance any attempt at “being positive” with an understanding that the reality is, it’s going to be an ongoing battle for your own survival. Because depression will undermine even the strongest of wills, you will need help to maintain—or at least be reminded of—a positive outlook. Counseling, psychotherapy, and the right combination of medication will play a crucial role in helping to keep you from sinking into that very dark place that is the essence of depression. Be patient, but don’t look for miracles. It may be that you will need the help of professionals throughout your life to maintain a generally even keel.
Don’t give in. When you’re in the middle of a suck vortex, those words will have little meaning, because everything you know in your bones to be true is telling you that giving in would be so easy to do.
People will tell you “just get over it,” or “get a grip.” They know—and you know—that if you were to look objectively at the sum of your life, that it’s not as bad as it feels; there are many people whose lives are measurably worse than yours. So what! Their lives, no matter how terrible, are not your life, and your situation is unique to you.
Don’t try to “get over it.” If one could “will away” depression, there would be no need of doctors or drugs. What you can do is understand why you feel like you do, and explain to your would-be counselors that you wish it were that easy, and that you appreciate their concern. Don’t push them away—at the very least, you can be positive that they are there for you, however clumsy and unaware their platitudes may be. Who knows, their bumbling efforts may even provide some amusement or distraction!
Take care of your body and soul. Given that you are probably an emotional wreck in a world of sewage, swimming in the debris of whatever damage the suckage has wrought, this is not the time to become a world champion hotdog eater, consumer of tubs of ice cream, or finding the bottom of the bottle of Jack. Treat yourself well, even though you feel like hell. How, you ask? Here are some ideas:
Give your pet some love. They know you’re not their normal human, but the beauty of pets is unconditional, unquestioning love. Be playful with them, find a simple game that amuses both of you (the fake ball-throw is always a canine favorite), and let yourself forget your troubles for 5 or 10 minutes. It won’t solve your problem, but it will lighten the load.
Eat as well as you possibly can. Even if you have very little money, make it a point to eat a more balanced, more healthy diet than you do when all is well. Lots of greens and colored vegetables, and a variety of fruit and nuts, are all super healthy for you, and they’re much less expensive than meats, cheeses, and processed foods! Their nutritional value will elevate your body, and knowing you are treating yourself will elevate your mind.
Also, look for foods rich in vitamin B12 and Omega-3. These include dark green vegetables, nuts, soybeans, and fatty fish such as salmon, tuna, and mackerel.
Cut back on the caffeine drinks. You don’t need to quit, but cutting back will help reduce chemically induced anxiety and stress, and smooth any recovery time.
Exercise your body. It may be a sport you enjoy, yoga, cross training, or even a simple walk in the park. But keeping your body active will help your outlook.
Throw yourself into a hobby you enjoy. Whether it’s art, photography, music appreciation, or building a ship in a bottle, focusing on something other than the suck factor will give your mind some time off for good behavior.
Join a community that you’re not already part of. It could be a support group for whatever you’re going through, or a group of people that share your love of Lord of the Rings, or a charity such as Habitat for Humanity. You may find solace and purpose in ways you never imagined.
Do not crawl into a hole and disappear. Your friends and loved ones probably know your life sucks. They may or may not be able to help you directly, but they can give you emotional and moral support.
Sleep. You don’t need to be told this. Your body is probably begging you for it when you are in the middle of hard times. You may actually be drawn to sleep all day. While that might feel good at the moment, it only puts off the inevitable, so try to maintain good sleeping habits. Maintain a consistent sleep schedule, but allow yourself some leeway. If you sleep fitfully for half the night, then finally fall asleep at 4am, don’t get up at 6:30 unless you absolutely must. Let your body get about 8 hours for the best results.
Seek help immediately. Yes, life sucks. Sometimes, it can become overwhelming to the point where you figure that swallowing a bottle of pills, or a 9 mm, will be preferable to another day of pain. If those thoughts start to invade your senses, deal with them as if your life depended on it—because it does.
If you’re just starting to have those thoughts, speak to your physician or your therapist. They may prescribe something to help steer you back to the center, emotionally. It may be the act of talking about it is therapeutic enough, but don’t assume that. Leave that call to the professionals.
Note that if you are in the end stage of a terminal illness, the above suggestion may be not be the best course. Some countries, and one State in the United States, permit physician-assisted suicide—its purpose to provide for a quiet, controlled departure from this world.
Tips:
Remember to laugh. Laughing is a natural way to release tension.
Thinking positively means hanging on to hope and looking for new possibilities at the time when life’s gotten too hard. It means striving against its challenges, however extreme. It means hanging on to what is good in yourself if everything else gets swept away and valuing your compassion, your warmth, your capacity to find beauty. There is always the sky, there is always a dewdrop on a weed. Speaking broadly, there is always tomorrow.
When you think positive, positive things do happen, in times of crisis it’s hard but remember as hard as it seems the world does not owe us anything. Things happen for a reason. Stay strong, this is just a chapter in your life.
    Be positive and active.
Find a friend and talk it out. Ask them just to listen. Sometimes telling the situation outloud you hear it from outside your own head and see the situation more clearly. Talk therapy is great.
  If the above fails for you, take the Buddhist view: Life is difficult. The fallacious thought is that we can change that. In accepting that life indeed is difficult, we begin to make it less painful…not less difficult.
When you think positively, you begin to view the world around a little more gently; you tend to look on the better, clearer side. Being resentful will render positive thinking useless.
    To “go for it,” simply get up and do it. If there’s even the smalles voice inside saying, “Get up!”, to do what it says; just dive in! Turn off the computer, turn off the TV, and get going!
Culled from www.wikihow.com