Bring Your Life Into Balance

HELPGUIDE’S FREE STRESS-BUSTING, MOOD-BOOSTING MINDFULNESS TOOLKIT

Stress or mood swings rock everyone's balance from time to time. However, too much stress, anxiety, depression, or worry can make you feel overwhelmed and act inappropriately. When moods and emotions get the better of you—when they begin to interfere with your career or personal relationships—it’s time to make a change. No matter how stressful your job, close relationships, or current life situation; you can learn to harness your emotions and bring your life into balance.

Off the emotional rollercoaster: Becoming a new you

Do you ever feel like you’re at the mercy of your emotions? Do you wish you had more control over your mental and emotional state? We all know what it’s like to feel emotionally off-balance—to be buffeted by stress and anxiety and knocked down by depression.
It may seem like a never-ending ride, but you can get off the emotional rollercoaster. You can bring your life into balance by learning more about your emotions: why they matter, how to recognize them, and what you can do to manage them and harness their power.
The key word here is “learn.” Like anything worthwhile, achieving emotional balance will take some practice and patience, but you’ll also start feeling the benefits very quickly. Our brains have the ability to change and evolve, even as we age. So no matter how long you’ve felt out of control of your emotions—no matter how long you’ve felt overwhelmed or out-of-sync in your life—today you can take the first step to getting off the emotional rollercoaster and becoming a new you.

Could you benefit from this toolkit?

Some of us instantly know when we have an emotional problem, while others only suspect that something in our lives isn’t quite working as it should.

• Do you feel overwhelmed by responsibilities and stressed out much of the time?
• Do you feel misunderstood in your relationships? Do you have a hard time connecting with others?
• Do you struggle with chronic depression, anxiety, worry, or negativity?
• Are you having trouble getting ahead in your career, despite your job talents? Have you received complaints about the way you interact with customers or co-workers?
• Do your loved ones complain about your mood swings, temper, irrational fears, or your emotional distance?
• Do you find yourself getting annoyed or upset at little things that don’t seem to bother other people? Do you have a hard time rolling with the punches?
• Do you often say or do things you know you shouldn’t, only to regret it later? Do you feel trapped in a negative cycle, repeating the same mistakes over and over again?

If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, this toolkit may help you break free and bring your life back into balance.

Beyond coping and traditional self-help

While traditional self-help may provide good advice and give you a better understanding of yourself, it typically doesn’t lead to long-term change. That’s because changing mental and emotional habits takes more than just intellectual understanding and the will to change—it takes a process that engages you physically and emotionally as well as intellectually.
This toolkit goes beyond coping and traditional self-help to repair your nervous system's ability to remain in balance so you can experience being both calm and focused throughout the day. It's designed to teach you skills that, when practiced regularly, can actually change your brain in ways that will make you feel more confident, resilient, and in control.

The key to lasting change is practice that leads to brain change

The toolkit includes articles, videos, worksheets, and the “Ride the Wild Horse” mindfulness meditation. The different tools are designed to complement and reinforce each other. The combination of reading, watching, listening, and doing is much more powerful than simply reading alone. As you work through the toolkit, you will begin to replace your old emotional habits with healthier ways of thinking, feeling, behaving, and relating to others. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at managing your emotions and facing life’s challenges, but any amount of time you put in will make a positive difference.

How to use the toolkit

This toolkit is a program to help you gain the abilities needed to overcome challenges, experience greater emotional health, build emotional intelligence, and bring your life into balance. The toolkit comes with a step-by-step guide for progressively acquiring the skills you need—quick stress relief and emotional awareness—to be emotionally healthy and socially competent.
Don’t think that you have to tackle everything all at once. The toolkit is designed to be used over a period of time and is broken up into short, simple steps to help you explore your moods and gradually take control of your emotional health.

• The goal. As you work through the toolkit, you’ll first learn how to regulate stress. Then you’ll learn how to recognize, monitor, and deal with your emotions. It’s important to know how to quickly relieve stress before you begin to explore your most challenging emotions.
• The strategy. The toolkit is designed to engage your senses in a variety of ways that support learning and lasting change. As you watch, read, and listen, different parts of your brain will be stimulated. And hopefully you’ll also have some fun along the way.