5 Things To Do When You Feel Like Life Sucks

It doesn’t matter who you are — sometimes, life sucks. While we all dream of the day when we'll wake up to a marvelous musical number featuring our glorious life in the spotlight, the reality we live day-to-day is far from exciting.

Instead, life is often filled with piles of bills, lackluster jobs, and copious amounts of coffee.

But whether you’re going through a tough time or just enduring a typical Wednesday, you may need some helpful suggestions to get you through the fog.

Things to know

  • If life is feeling pretty sucky, you might be feeling kinda angry right now. Let those feelings out through some energetic exercise.
  • You've got to reach out to your friends and family if you're feeling down. They'll be able to rationalize your existential thoughts and give some perspective.
  • When life sucks, you need to get outside of your own head. This means a walk in nature, at the very least.

Well, if you need a bit of pep today, here are 5 things you can do anytime you feel like life sucks and will never get any better:

  1. Ground Yourself
  2. Find A Way To Let It Out
  3. Keep A Gratitude Log
  4. Lean On Your Support System
  5. Get Outside

Ground Yourself

Life has a tendency to kick us when we’re already down. When this happens, our typical reaction is to let our negative thoughts spiral and carry us away into some of life’s thorniest questions. However, all this does is make you feel worse, not improve your life.

When you get stuck in a negative thought spiral, the first thing you need to do is pause those racing thoughts so you can figure out what to do next. But how?

Well, grounding techniques are specific strategies we can use to calm our minds, lower our emotional intensity, and reorient ourselves with the present moment. These exercises distract our brains just enough to help us disengage from the “fight or flight” response our bodies often enter into in moments of stress so we can take the appropriate steps needed to care for ourselves and see our reality clearly.

While many people think of grounding techniques as a way to combat a panic attack, they’re also great for dealing with any sort of unpleasant emotion — even sadness or depression. Many people falsely assume you have to do these exercises for a long time, but that’s not the case; you can do them for a couple of minutes to feel some relief.

Some basic grounding techniques include square breathing (sometimes called box breathing), yoga, and the 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique.


Find A Way To Let It Out

Most of us try to bottle up our feelings when we’re going through a tough time. However, bottling up our negative emotions causes unnecessary physical stress for our bodies. Of course, this only causes us to feel even worse when we’ve convinced ourselves that life sucks.

This makes our mood tank even more, sending us into an even bigger emotional spiral. Therefore, it’s important to find a way to let out your feelings when you feel angry or upset.

Of course, there are lots of ways to let out your emotions, so chances are you can find a way that feels most therapeutic for you. Some people enjoy journaling or creating art, while others like something more physical like batting cages or rage rooms. It really just depends on your personality and the exact emotions you are feeling at the moment.

Whatever you choose, just remember this is supposed to feel cathartic and help you work through your emotions, not leave you feeling like life sucks even more.


Keep A Gratitude Log

When we’re going through a particularly tough time, it is often hard to find even the smallest silver linings. However, counting your blessings and finding joy in even the tiniest details can really boost your mood and help you feel far less hopeless.

This is why many people write down what they are grateful for when life sucks — it gives them hope.

While you can do this in several ways, many people like keeping a gratitude log, which is essentially an ongoing list of things they are grateful for. To do this, you simply take a notebook or piece of paper and write down two or three things you’re grateful for each day.

These items can be as big or as small as you like; they can include everything from getting a raise at work to eating nachos for dinner. It all just depends on what you feel most appreciative of on a given day.

If you get really into this, you can even take it a step further and turn it into a work of art or let your gratitude inspire some daily social media posts (if you’re into that sort of thing). It’s really up to you!


Lean On Your Support System

When many of us feel like our life isn’t going well, we tend to close ourselves off from others and become a bit of a recluse. After all, nobody wants to be Debbie Downer and drag their dark clouds into someone else’s life.

Unfortunately, closing ourselves off to our loved ones makes us feel even worse, and that’s not going to help us get back to living the life we want.

Instead of closing ourselves off, we actually need to get out and socialize with someone. Sometimes a hug from a family member or a quick lunch date with a group of old friends can really improve our mood and make life feel a little less dark and twisty.

Connecting with others helps us feel less alone, and it can even help us realize we aren’t the only ones who go through tough times. This can make a big difference in how we work our way out of a funk, even if it feels like a rock bottom moment.


Get Outside

Regardless of how you feel about the great outdoors, catching some rays and spending time outside can greatly benefit both your physical and mental health. In fact, just 30 minutes of time outdoors each day can do wonders for our overall mood, ability to focus, and our general views on life.

You don’t have to even break a sweat outside to gain the benefits of being out there, you just have to soak up the sun and breathe in the fresh air. This means you can hike or bike if that makes you happy, or you can just haul a hammock out to your backyard and bring along a good book.

Whatever you do, just try to make it as relaxing as possible and make it a part of your day-to-day schedule if you want to gain the most benefits from it.


Remember, This Too Shall Pass

We all go through tough times where we feel like our life sucks and it will never improve. At the risk of sounding like a self-help book or cliché, I want to leave you with this final reminder: this too shall pass.‌‌

Whether you are experiencing a situation at work, dealing with the loss of a family member, or just feeling a bit stuck in your current phase in life while you work through some of life’s thorniest questions, you will eventually find brighter days.

It may take time, and you may have to dig deep or even seek some professional help to get you back on track, but life gets better. You just have to be willing to stick around through the tough times so you can experience the bright, sunshiny days that lie ahead.

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