It’s time to care less. Yep, that’s right. Sometimes we take
the world on our shoulders, and instead of making the world a better place, all
we end up doing is creating more stress for ourselves. Here are simple tips to
ease that heavy mental load and feel more carefree.
1. What others think
Dance to your own beat. Act dumb. Do whatever you have to
but don’t take on board what others think. It’s your life, your decisions and
choices. Others love to judge, and why should you care if they do? Only you
define yourself, so let them be amused if it makes them happy. When you care
too much about that others will say, you live your life for them and not
yourself.
2. Past
mistakes
We all make mistakes and mess up in life. That’s just how
life goes. Don’t be hard on yourself, though. Accept that everyone gets it
wrong sometimes; it’s part of the human condition. You really are allowed to
cut yourself some slack. Learn to forgive yourself more often.
3.
Failure
The big “F” word that everyone fears. It doesn’t have to be
a scary concept, though. Ultimately, it depends on your attitude to failure. If
you see failure as not being perfect, you’re going to be permanently miserable.
A more realistic idea of failure is giving up. If you haven’t given up, you
haven’t failed. See failure as a learning curve, a trial and error process. See
failure as your friend – it’s no big deal unless you allow it to be.
4. What
you don’t have
The human default position tends to err on the side of lack
rather than abundance, which is not conducive to feeling carefree. We focus on
what we don’t have and end up feeling thoroughly deprived. What’s the point of
that? I often tell my clients to focus on the positives of what they have and
the negatives of what they don’t have.
Why would you want to torture yourself
with all the things you don’t have? That type of thinking will not serve you in
any productive way at all. Make a list of all the things in your life that you
appreciate. There will always be others with more and others with less. What
you have is enough.
5.
“What Ifs”
We can drive ourselves crazy worrying about what might
happen in the future. No one can predict the future (psychics might dispute
this), and there is no point in torturing yourself unnecessarily about things
that may never come to pass. Remind yourself that this type of worry is wasted
energy and distract yourself. Face worry head on – if you can do something in
the present moment, go for it. If not, distract yourself and ‘shelve’ the
worries.
6.
“I’ll be happy when…” thoughts
When we believe that we will be happy once something has
happened, we effectively put our life on hold until the event happens. Wishing
your current life is away is a precious waste of happy moments in life. Be in
the moment more and care less about being happy in the future. Decide to be
happy now. Happiness is not a destination, it is a manner of traveling.
7.
Regrets
Regret is a part of life. The past cannot be undone, so it
pays to look at what you have done in life philosophically. Did you learn
something from it? If you learned never to do it again or to try a different
approach, then you’ve ended up with a positive result. Accept what has gone
before, make allowances for human error and move on.
8.
Rejection
Many of us are so afraid of rejection that we stay in our
comfort zones and never risk true intimacy. Wear your heart on your sleeve and
risk being vulnerable. The more you hide out of fear, the greater the fear will
grow. Show yourself that you can express your feelings and live with the
consequences.
You will conquer fear of rejection in this way and feel more
carefree. Even if the outcome is not as expected, you will soon realize that it
wasn’t as bad as you anticipated and that you can deal with it. Be a little
more thick skinned, be brave and see life as an adventure.
9.
Society’s expectations
Be thin, be beautiful. Show off your wealth and status and
then you’ll be adored. What nonsense. When you like and accept yourself as you
are, you don’t need to prove yourself to anyone. Don’t buy into the constant
media images of perfection. Most of the images are airbrushed and lead us to
believe that we should all look as perfect. Try not to take it to heart. We all
like to see perfect images, but don’t lose sight of the fact that most of it is
digitally enhanced and not natural. Love yourself, imperfections and all. Self
acceptance is true freedom.
10.
Being good enough
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