Improve your problem solving skills and make better choices with these seven tips for beating stress, calming anxiety, and improving emotional well-being.
Monday: A 5 Minute Walk Can Improve Your Problem Solving Attitude
Scientific American reports research in the Journal of Environmental Health & Technology that says that a five minute walk in a scenic setting can improve your physical well-being and mental health. People with mental disorders significantly benefited the most.
Happiness Tip: Take a short walk when you feel overloaded. Walking relaxes muscles, increases oxygen, and promotes relaxation.
@laurahclugston
Tuesday: Try Problem Solving From A Higher Perspective
When feeling overwhelmed and anxious about a problem, try relaxing your mind using hypnosis as a way to connect with your subconscious mind to explore different paths.
The Center for Management & Organization Effectiveness also recommends making mind maps for problem solving to explore different possible solutions to a troubling work conflict or issue.
Happiness Tip: If you’re feeling stuck, imagine rising above the problem in a hot air balloon & seeing it from a different point of view.
Wednesday: Disconnecting Emotionally Can Make You A Better Problem Solver
Creating psychological distance from yourself and your problem can actually remove the feeling as if your stresses were happening to you in real time. By removing the distance, you’ll feel as if you’re handling some hypothetical rather than a “real” and painful emotional conflict. Creating psychological distance improves creativity and problem solving skills.
Happiness Tip: Imagine your current stresses disappeared. How differently would you feel? Choose to stay in that feeling now.
Thursday: Your Physical Pain Holds The Key To Problem Solving
The mind and body have an amazing connection to our emotional well-being. Louise Hay wrote in her book You Can Heal Your Life that the body maintains different emotional points that manifest illness. We can hold problems in our bodies and they manifest as physical pain.
Happiness Tip: Scan your body for pain. Imagine melting it away and finding the loving intention within it. What does it say?
Source CForceStudio
Friday: Your Role Models Shape The Way You Solve Problems
research on behavior modeling, who you model yourself after deeply impacts your problem solving abilities and strategies.
According to RootsofAction.com,
A growth mindset can be contrasted to a prevention mindset. When youth approach life with a desire to prevent or avoid disasters and negative outcomes, they are more likely to gravitate toward role models who will help them learn avoidance strategies. These strategies might include cheating on tests or using drugs and alcohol to escape life challenges.
Who were your role models growing up? Did they run away from problems and burn bridges? Who are your role models today and how do they solve problems? Are they solution oriented problem solvers? Do your role models focus on building relationships while breaking down problems? If you find yourself solving problems in unhealthy ways, then it may be time to find yourself a new role model.
Happiness Tip: Take 1 minute to think of 1 person in your life who is consistently positive. What would they do during a difficult situation?
Saturday: Focusing On The Positives Can Help Shed Light On How To Fix What’s Wrong
Ground breaking research has demonstrated that positive thinking helps to build consequential resources. Because negative emotions have stronger visceral experiences, positive emotions often go unnoticed and under appreciated. Through meditation practices, training the brain to focus on the negative can improve overall emotional well-being and allow the mind to receive inspiration to solve problems in a positive way.
When individuals who experience chronic pain, anxiety, and depression training their brain through meditation to find positivity in their mental visualizations, they are more resistant to emotional relapse.
Happiness Tip: What isn’t working in your life? Take 1 minute to think about all the things that are working. What are they?
Sunday: How You Tell Your Story Determines The Choices When Solving Problems
Research at Stanford University sheds light on how we prompt ourselves towards success and failure. We tell ourselves stories every day and the quality of our story can greatly affect our willingness to find solutions to life’s greatest problems. Think about your life story until this point? Are you the victim of hateful, angry people? Were you left traumatized and helpless? Or, are you a clever problem solver and survivor?
Happiness Tip: Think of this period in your life as a short story. What is the moral and what do you, the hero, learn?