It will soon be a year since life changed for us dramatically as covid arrived. For many of us, the last year has been spent mostly at home. Some of us have financial worries as we wonder if our jobs will survive, stress and anxiety as we ensure our families are kept safe. Trying to stay on top mentally with all the negative press and so on can be hard.

When we feel down or depressed, our health suffers and it may reduce the effect of your immune system. But then, feelings like joy and happiness look a long way in the future and hard to reach. In fact, it would be pretty impossible to go from a feeling of hopelessness to happiness in a few seconds – you could pretend to be happy, but that doesn’t really help, since the hopelessness is still underlying it.

You don’t have to go from anxiety to happiness in one step. It’s better to work up what’s known as the emotional scale. This is shown below and was developed by Esther Hicks (from the Abraham teachings on the Law of Attraction).

It shows you the steps you can take to go up to more positive feelings. If you’re worrying about things, then feeling disappointed at the state of affairs is more beneficial. Hoping that things will improve soon is even better.

Try to take small steps up that emotional scale and each time, your body will appreciate it because every feeling and thought affects us on a physical level. Even feeling optimistic will improve your health.

A wonderful way to become positive is the “Attitude of Gratitude”. Think of at least 3 things every day for which you are grateful and let the feeling of gratitude flow through you. You can be grateful for your health, you family, your house, nature, in fact anything and everything. Again, this helps your mental and physical health.

Listen to my guided meditation on Gratitude and see how it makes you feel:

You don’t have to be happy or joyful all day long. Over time, the more you can stay at the positive end of the scale, the more your overall wellbeing will improve. Being in a state of gratitude or hopefulness for a minute or two every day is a step along the way.

Use the Emotional Scale (by Esther Hicks) below to try and feel better about things. Focus on the states above where you feel you are now. Doing this for a minute or two will help your mind and thoughts re-tune themselves. Be easy on yourself and go at your own pace. Any advance will be beneficial.

Passion
Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness
Positive Expectation/Belief
Optimism
Hopefulness
Contentment
Boredom
Pessimism
Frustration/Impatience/Irritation
Overwhelmed
Disappointment
Doubt
Worry
Blame
Revenge
Hatred/Rage
Jealousy
Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness
Fear/Grief/Depression/Despair/Powerlessness