Did you know that frustration can lead to depression? Do you know that depression, anger and frustration are linked to anxiety? My therapist explained that to me many years ago. And he was so right.

Today, I can resolve issues that more readily, knowing how each emotion affects the others. Now I can see where my depression and anxiety come from. Frustration.

 If you can get a handle on your frustrations, you can reduce your occurrence of anxiety and ease your depression.

Here’s how you can turn your frustrations around in your favor.

1. Forget them.

Too often, when we become angry and frustrated, we tend to harbor those thoughts and feelings. We run them over in our minds, magnifying their impact on us. If something frustrates you, put it behind you and move on. Of course, you’ll need to fix whatever is causing your frustration in the first place, or it will just return. This is where problem solving comes in.

Identify your problems/frustrations. Look for solutions, or seek help if necessary. Don’t let that tape keep running in your head.

2. Don’t irritate them.

Frustrations will worsen if you constantly “pick” at them, like you would an ugly scab. Worrying and pondering over your frustrations will only give them more power. Don’t let your attitude feed your frustrations. In other words, don’t allow yourself bite back.

3. Don’t run from them.

People divorce because they cannot deal with the frustrations they face with their partners. This resolves nothing and can lead to regret when you calm down and regain control. It’s a fact of life that problems will persist and recur. Learning to deal with them at the start will do far more good than letting them simmer. The longer they last, the more frustrated, angry and anxious you will get.

4. Don’t ignore them.

Frustrations aren’t like gems that you can hide away for safekeeping. Frustrations need to be examined, evaluated and addressed so they can be resolved quickly. If you don’t, the negative feelings and emotions will affect your life. The pent-up frustration and anger will blow at an inopportune time and at the wrong people.

5. Make your frustrations work for you.

Frustrations make us strong. They give us resilience and energy to do amazing things. The energy that is born of frustration makes us creative in finding solutions. In the end, they make us better people. If you work with your frustrations rather than against them, you will have better results. You will find the answers. Those answers will help you to deal with problems that arise in the future, as they are sure to do.

Identify your triggers, face your frustrations, and you will reduce your anxiety attacks and relieve your depression.

It’s hard to believe that everyone, at some point in their lives, haven’t experienced mild anxiety attacks when facing their problems. Severe situations that do not seem to have a solution are the worst.

For some, the anxiety is short lived. They find solutions quickly, regardless of how impossible they seem.

They are able to do this because they approach their problems in a certain way. You have four options when you approach your problems.

1. Consent to it and accept defeat and quit right from the start.
2. Resent it. This approach can make you tough, hard, cold and bitter.
3. Find solutions. This is a much more productive approach.
4. Prevent the problems. This isn’t always possible or easy, but it is the obvious best approach.

Let’s look at each one a little closer.

Consent to it

This is the absolute worst approach because it can lead in only one direction – to a life of negativity and depression. In essence, you give up all hope of happiness. Rather than fighting, you give up, but the problems don’t go away. And neither does the anxiety.

Resent it

At the very least, this approach triggers some sort of response, albeit negative. Resentment leads to you becoming tough, hard, cold and bitter. Anger is a common outlet for your frustration. Your self pity drives your friends and family away, leaving you to a life of loneliness and isolation.

Find solutions

This is positive thinking, because you are looking for a way out of the predicament. You become creative and energized which brings positive forces back to you, along with solutions.

You might have heard about positive thinking before, but it’s not what many people think it is. It’s not about telling yourself every day that things will work out, or thinking positive thoughts. It’s about working positively towards your goal, whether it’s to resolve problems or find success in your life.

In the majority of cases, you’ll find that your problems stem from your own actions in the past.

Perhaps you didn’t work hard enough and lost your job. Maybe your attitude caused people to turn against you. You might have made bad investment decisions or didn’t take time to really investigate your options.

If you’re the type to live day by day, never thinking of tomorrow, you will not be ready when emergencies arise. Or perhaps you didn’t take the initiative to improve your education to get a better job.

4. Prevent them

In most cases, you can prevent problems from occurring. Or at the very least, preventing it from occurring again. If you lost your income and teetered on the economic edge, make sure it doesn’t happen again by taking precautions. Make very penny work for you.

Some people think that saving means putting a large sum of money away every month, but that’s not necessary. If you save all your pocket change at the end of the day, you’ll be surprised how quickly it adds up.

If you’re working in a career that fluctuates, make plans to prepare yourself for a better, more stable career. This can mean going back to school, taking night, weekend or correspondence courses. Do it while you have an income to pay for it.

Focus on these last two choices and you will soon live a more positive, peaceful and secure life. Your anxiety attacks will be minimized if not removed altogether.
 

Lack of self confidence can severely hamper your life in so many ways. It prevents you from going after your dreams. It hinders your ability to become successful in friendships, business and life in general. Lack of confidence doesn’t have to be a life sentence. You can turn it around.

How do you boost your self confidence?

First off, understand that it will take work. After all, it’s probably been awhile since you first lost your confidence, if you ever had any? It will be deeply embedded in your personality by now. It has become part of you, the way you think, what you tell yourself and what you believe.

Boosting your self confidence will take time. The good thing is that if you start to do a few simple exercises every day, you’ll be surprised how much better you feel almost immediately.

Continue the exercises over several months if necessary, and before long you will be a confident person, able to tackle anything that comes your way. Nothing will prevent you from achieving what you want.

Let’s get started.

Create your dream list. List things you’d love to have, whether it’s new furniture, a new career, business success or something smaller, like enough money to replace your entire wardrobe every year. Get really creative and even excessive in your desires.

Don’t think about whether you actually believe they are achievable. Just think about what would make your life fabulous.

In your mind, you probably think there’s no way you can have those things. That’s your lack of confidence talking. Now let’s look at some other the things that destroy confidence and interfere with your achieving those desires.

Get rid of guilt. Guilt plays a major role in how confident you feel.

1. Write down anything you feel guilty about.
2. Go through the list and imagine what it would be like not to have those guilt feelings.
3. For each item on your list, write down 3 reasons why you do not have to feel guilty about them.
4. Set your mind to refuse to feel guilty about those things again. Keep your list handy if you need it refer back to it later.

Get rid of fear. Fear destroys confidence and will control you and prevent you from going after your dreams.

1. Write down the things that you fear.
2. Go through each item and force yourself to do them. Believe that you can do them. Accept that you don’t have to be perfect. It’s okay to make mistakes and still like yourself.
3. Repeat until your fears no longer prevent you from going after your dreams.

Give yourself a pat on the back. Do it every day and whenever you achieve the smallest step in going after your goals. Do it every morning when you get up and every time you do something you fear. In other words, acknowledge your achievements every day and as they happen.

Make these exercises a regular part of your day, and before long, you will boost your self confidence. Nothing will stand in your way.

If you suffer from anxiety attacks, know that lack of self confidence is behind a lot of it. Boosting your self confidence will have a significant effect on your anxiety.

Depression plays havoc with your body. It changes your body chemicals and affects your health in a number of ways. Weight gain is just one of them.

If you’re a person who heads to the fridge when you are under stress, are anxious or are just feeling rejected, ignored, or sad then dieting to combat your excess weight is only part of the answer.

It’s time to deal with the depression so that you can get back to a better quality of life.

There are a few things to consider about depression.

It runs in some families, so you are more likely to get it than someone who does not have a family history of depression.

Depression can be biological, which requires medication to put your body back to normal.

Depression can result from a long-standing sadness, ongoing stress, or multiple life crises.

First, look within yourself to see if you tend to eat more lately and under what circumstances. Are you upset about something? Do you feel down in the dumps? Keep in mind that there are other reasons for you to begin eating more than normal, conditions that might require medical attention. But let’s just go through the regular things first.

If you were under stress prior to becoming overweight, chances are you are depressed. This is good, because you can easily overcome this form of depression. It starts with getting past the stress. Find ways to relax that make you feel good both physically and mentally. This will help you to deal with the depression.

Next, check your family history to see if depression is a recurring illness. It might not be a genetic thing. You might have ‘learned’ to become depressed when things go wrong. Just because your descendants had depression, it still doesn’t necessarily mean it runs in the family. It can be passed down through learning from parent to child.

Visit your doctor to have him evaluate whether your condition is biological or genetic. If it is, you will most likely require medication and possibly a combination of drug and talk therapy to recover.

Once you find a cure for depression, you can begin to work on losing weight. Here’s an article that gives you more information on how to really lose weight.

Do you know the difference between confidence & arrogance? It’s a fine line sometimes.