Things to Avoid When You’re Feeling Lost & What to Do Instead

Feeling lost at some point in your life is a feeling that anyone can relate to. Feeling lost is one of the worst feelings that anyone can feel. Unfortunately, feeling lost is something that someone will likely feel at a period in their life.

What are things to avoid when you’re feeling lost and what to do instead? Well, feeling lost can be caused by having no purpose in life, feelings of unfulfillment, or direction in life. People may feel that life has no meaning and just goes through the motions aimlessly. 

When people are lost, they are not sure where they are headed as some people may feel defeated as they experience life’s disappointments and failures. When this happens, all is not lost, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 

When you feel lost, remember to be kind to yourself and to go easy on your feelings. Do not blame yourself, as nothing good will come from blaming and pitying yourself and always thinking about “how do I find my way in life?” If you have experienced feeling lost recently, here are some techniques and information on what to do when you feel lost. 

What causes a person to feel lost?

1. Fear

When people live in fear, the fear manifests in how they live their life and hinders them from truly enjoying living a normal and happy life. The fear makes their hearts close and also spreads to their minds, hearts and even in the work and school that they have.

The fear also influences them on how they make their decisions. Since they live in constant fear, it is harder for them to feel love and emotions such as happiness and contentment are harder to come by. They feel lost, discontent and removed from the rest of the world. If you find that you are ruled by constant fear, it is not too late to ask for help, there is relief and help available for you at cognitive therapy psychology NYC.

2. Over-thinking
   When a person has too much to think about, it affects how they manage life everyday. It is easy to feel overloaded with the many demands of life and responsibilities that they have. The human brain is not suitable for an overload of information and emotions.
   
   If the mind can’t cope up with the overloading, it affects the person mentally and so influences how a person lives her life as they go about their various responsibilities and duties.
3. Presence of toxic people

One reason to feel lost is when a person is surrounded by toxic people. When you spend too much time with negative people, it also has a negative effect on your mental health. If you are with people who constantly blame, whine, criticize, and gossip about just about everything. 

The constant negativity slowly seeps through your mind and poisons your way of thinking and even how you view life and yourself. It will cause you to doubt your self- worth and evoke the feeling of being lost. 

4. Social Media

Social media is very good at presenting what is perfect and what is not. During this technological age where social media rules are always present in our lives, one might feel discouraged or disheartened when they compare their own lives to the seemingly perfect lives that social media endorses.

When people find that they do not live up to the high expectations that social media present, they feel that they fail to measure up to what is ideal and what seems to be what everyone is doing. When they feel that they don’t meet those expectations, they feel disappointed and at times depressed that they don’t have that perfect fantasy life that everyone seems to be having. 

What to do when you’ve lost yourself?

1. Seek help

When you feel lost, don’t be ashamed to seek help as this might be the best thing that you can do. Seek help professionally as there are many experts such as psychologists and therapists who are more than trained to help you out.

2. Develop healthy habits 

Develop healthy habits to bring you out of your negativity spiral. Instead of lounging at home all day, why don’t you go out for walks and visit friends and family. Have new hobbies that will distract you and you never know as it can help bring back meaning to your life. 

3. Acceptance is key

One thing that you can do is to accept that you are feeling lost and to know that anyone can experience feeling lost. Accept that you have feelings of being lost and try to understand why you are feeling that way, you may be able to find the answer so that you can get out from those feelings.