Volunteering is a wonderful way to make you feel good about yourself while also providing invaluable support to your community. Learn a skill, like drawing, playing an instrument, or playing a sport. Tired of being that loner guy who no one talks to? Be that guy who plays killer bass. Travel and see things that you want to see. Traveling will make you more confident and give you wonderful memories and stories to tell for the rest of your life. Put effort into the things you do. If you try hard at school, work, sports, housework, etc, it’s easy to not care what others think of your performance. When you know that you did your best, don’t care about anything negative anyone says.
Pursuing things that make you happy is also a great way to meet people who think like you do and like the same things. These new people will celebrate, rather than judge, the things that you love!
There is especially little point in fighting their judgement because it will be almost impossible to make them stop. The people that most harshly judge you are usually those that most harshly judge themselves, and they will continue to judge you because it makes them feel better. They have issues, but don’t let their issues drag you down.
As an exercise, write down all your worries and concerns on a piece of paper. From that list, ask yourself what you can control and what you don’t have control over. [4] X Expert Source Donna Novak, Psy. DLicensed Clinical Psychologist Expert Interview. 8 December 2020.
If you tend to complain a lot, come up with some alternate, more positive things to say. [5] X Expert Source Donna Novak, Psy. DLicensed Clinical Psychologist Expert Interview. 8 December 2020.
If it feels like you don’t have things in your life to appreciate or being happy about, then you need to go out and get some things to be happy about. Start volunteering, make a new friend, or do something you’ve always wanted to do. Our lives are short and we shouldn’t spend them being bored and unhappy.
These can be friends that need your emotional support through hard times or family members who need your love to keep their lives bright. It might be a shelter where you volunteer or it might be your children who need you to survive.
Maybe they hurt you because they are hurt, or lonely, or afraid. Maybe they hurt you because they worry that you’ll hurt them first. Maybe they don’t have a good example from their own lives of how to love others or treat people well. There are a number of reasons why people hurt other people, intentionally or unintentionally. [9] X Research source
A simple “How’s your day going?” is a great way to start a conversation with a new person. [10] X Expert Source Donna Novak, Psy. DLicensed Clinical Psychologist Expert Interview. 8 December 2020.
