How to Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself

We have probably all held a pity party or two in our lifetimes but that doesn't mean that it's a healthy thing to do. Feeling sorry for yourself is a bad habit and habits can be broken.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• desire to give up self-pity

1. storm clouds The definition of self-pity (or feeling sorry for yourself as in the title of this article), is a feeling of sorrow over your own sufferings and misfortunes.
   
   That doesn't sound so bad does it? According to experts though, self-pity is one of the worst habits we have. Self-pity tends to lead to inaction and that can just make things worse.
   
   One of the very best things you can do when you feel an attack of the "poor me" coming on is to go outside, get some fresh air and some exercise if you can. Go to the beach or anywhere near running water as being near large bodies of moving water makes you feel better. If you can't do that sit down beside a large tree, and lean against the trunk of the tree for awhile. Close your eyes and try not to think about anything for awhile. (Make sure you are in a place where it is safe to do that of course). Or you could try working in your garden, bicycling, or playing tennis. What you do isn't as important as being outside, and exercising if possible.
2. winter sunrise Studies have shown that helping someone else who is having problems will shift your own mood and make you feel better. In addition, just seeing how much better off you are than the homeless or other unfortunate people you help, will also tend to lift your mood and stop you from feeling sorry for yourself.
   
   Some ideas for helping others are easy to do and some are more challenging, but just find someone that needs your help, in whatever way, and help them if you can.
3. nature's beauty Another action you can take when you need to let go of self-pity is to clear out some clutter in your life. This clutter can take the form of too much "stuff", too many time-wasting activities, too many negative people around you that are draining your energy, or too much thinking about your problems. Whatever is cluttering your life right now, see if you can clear out some of it. It will help raise your mood.
4. rainbow Make a "self-pity" box, or a "poor me" box. Everytime you find yourself thinking a self-pitying kind of thought, you write down whatever it is on a slip of paper and put it in the box. Then you let the thought go and forget about it. After a few weeks have gone by, you can open the box and toss out all the self-pity thoughts or worries you no longer have.
5. sunrise Go on a "fast" from thinking about yourself and your troubles. Feeling sorry for yourself is just a bad habit and habits can be changed. Use the "poor me" box for those times you catch yourself thinking a self-pity thought and then let it go.
   
   Putting these few simple ideas into practise can significantly decrease your self-pity thinking and you'll be feeling a lot more joy and happiness.

Tips & Warnings

• Treat this like a game, and make it fun to see how much you can let go of self-pity and replace it with good feelings.
• Everyone has bad things happen to them, so know the difference between true sorrow and self-pity.