How To Deal With Disappointment – 5 Ways

Can you recall a time where you have just been so so disappointed, and you’re trying to find a way to move forward?

Well on this video, I look at 5 ways to help you take those steps and to do just that. I was inspired by an interesting article by a psychologist looking at how we can learn to manage periods of disappointment, so I thought I’d share my top takeaways. Let’s dive straight in.

1.Take Care of You – Mind and Body

Often when you’re feeling disappointed, all the basics go out the window, so you want to think about asking yourself questions like ‘are you eating well?’, ‘are you sleeping well?’, ‘are you (if physically able) exercising well and getting some movement into your body?’. All really important foundations that you should make sure you are deliberately doing for yourself, to get you through this period of disappointment. If you are the type of person who likes to talk then maybe there is someone you trust who you could speak to and talk through how you are feeling, if the situation suits and if this will benefit you. But we’re not all like that heehee!

2.Carefully Selecting the Good People Around You

When you’re going through a period of disappointment, you want to be around people who are positive, who are going to support you and affirm your efforts, who have a positive mindset and recognise all the hard work that you’re doing and who can cheer you on. That way you can focus on building yourself up again. Equally, you might want to spend less time with those people who get under your skin, just because you’re feeling a bit vulnerable and may be less tolerant than usual.

3.Deliberate Activities to Raise Your Vibrations To Feel Good

Now this is your job, to generate energy within yourself, preferably through movement……. so you might want to whack on your favourite upbeat song (one of my tried and tested tools in the Fyffe household) at a high volume and just MOVE your body, in whatever way you are able. Or you just want to select those activities that generally make you feel GOOD, that can generate that ‘feelgoodness’ within you. This will help to release those happy endorphins, like dopamine, and you get this big shot into your brain to make you feel happier and better about yourself.

So what are those things, this is over to you now……what are those things that are going to make you feel better? Is it putting on your favourite music and having a dance around? Is it watching your favourite funny movie or boxset or something that is just going to make your heart blossom and open up? Is it doing an activity that’s fun?

4.You Are Learning!

This is a life-long learning experience…..your life! The psychologist in the article talked about how babies learn to walk. They get up and waddle a little bit, they fall down and fail, and maybe have a bit of a cry, and they get back up again, and start walking again. So this disappointment that you’re going through or that you’ve just gone through……..try to see this as a learning opportunity…..so you can review, reflect on what’s happened, what you can change, how you can improve…….especially if it’s a disappointment in relation to your physical ability, perhaps something you thought you could do but you weren’t able to. It may not mean that you can never do that, it might just mean that you have to tweak it and get a bit more savvy about what you can do next time to smooth things over…..are you with me?

5.You Gotta Get Back Up Baby!

This isn’t over. Life isn’t over. You have to get back up. Sure, it might feel like life as you know it is over, but your life is a marathon…..and your job now is to get back up. Ask yourself ‘what’s next?’ ‘what am I going to do next?’, ‘what is my next step?’, ‘how do I start the next step?’…….’how am I going to intentionally feel now that I am moving through it?’

I look forward to hearing how you get on.