Resetting From a Negative Spiral

It’s an unfortunate but undeniable fact of life that no one is “on top of the world” at all times, and everyone is susceptible to falling into a negative spiral at least at certain points throughout their lives.

In many cases, a number of factors ranging from things like poor sleep, increased work or interpersonal stress, and health issues, can combine to throw off whatever equilibrium might have been in place before.

The ability to regain equilibrium and get back on a positive trajectory as quickly and effectively as possible is essential not only for averting a further slide, but also for maintaining a sense of hope and optimism in general.

Here are just a few tips for resetting from a negative spiral.

Proactively take some steps to address some issue that you’ve been ignoring or putting off dealing with

For whatever reason, it’s a common human tendency to put off or ignore issues that we know we should be dealing with, but that we find stressful and overwhelming.

All too often, failing to address these issues quickly and directly can lead to them growing over time and becoming more and more difficult to contend with.

One of the best things that you can do in order to pull yourself out of a negative spiral and to set yourself on an upwards-trajectory again, is to proactively take steps to address some — any — issue that you’ve been putting off dealing with, whether that means investigating the benefits of hearing aids, or looking into creating a budget to begin paying off debt more consistently.

Find some time to rest, and to reset your daily routine

When you are caught in a negative spiral, one of the unpleasant things that is likely to happen is that you find yourself feeling overwhelmed and going through the same cycles again and again, due to momentum and fatigue.

One relatively minor but clear example to this that most people can relate to is getting a bad night’s sleep, drinking a lot of coffee the next day to cope, then getting another bad night’s sleep due to the caffeine and disrupted sleep schedule, then drinking a lot of coffee to cope, and so on.

Sooner or later, it becomes necessary to find some time to rest, and to reset your daily routine, if you don’t want to stay in this loop indefinitely.

Implement powerful keystone habits in your daily routine

Keystone habits are habits that have the power to influence a range of different habits, and aspects of your everyday routine, almost automatically.

For many people, an example of a keystone habit could be something like going to sleep earlier — which would then lead to waking up earlier, to having more energy during the day and therefore being more likely to exercise consistently, and so on.

Implementing powerful keystone habits in your daily routine can often work wonders when it comes to helping you to get out of a negative spiral.