I’ve had the worst year

After a very hard year in 2018 for lots of reasons, I’m pleased it’s nearly over.

I feel worn down and I’m not sure I can pick myself up again. Many of the things that happened were out of my control and were pretty horrible. My friends agree I’m having a terrible time and really bad luck. I feel a victim to my circumstances. I don’t know why it’s happening to me but not to any of them.

Name and address withheld

Iknow it’s hard but seeing yourself as a victim will achieve just that! Our thoughts and feelings have a huge impact on how we are and what we feel. If you see yourself as a success, you’re likely to succeed at whatever you try. If you see yourself as a failure, sadly that’s what will happen. We’re the controller of our brains and we can choose to have positive or negative thoughts in there.

So try to change the inner chatter and focus on your successes? Allow yourself to dream about the future and create a lovely space. It’s also important not to compare yourself to others and become envious that their lives are better. Try to be pleased for them and delighted that things are going well at the moment. Positive thoughts about others are a generous way of giving; they’ll pick them up without realising it. Be kind to yourself. Sometimes, life goes like this and we have a period of hard times and then it changes. Nothing is forever. Reminding yourself of this can stem the feeling of imminent disaster. Remind yourself of all the good things in your life and relive them.

This really will feed your ‘soul’ and make you feel better. I hope you find next year is a lot easier and brings you joy.

✿ Keren welcomes your letters, emails and texts, but she cannot reply to individual cases and will select correspondence at random for publication.