There are many times in our lives in which we will go through seasons, storms and unwanted circumstances that are totally out of our control. There is no greater frustration than going through something that you have no control over. These types of seasons in our lives have a tendency to bring much discouragement our way. The more you focus on the things that you can’t control, the more discouraged you will become.

In those moments you must always remember that God is still with you no matter what. You have to learn to trust Him more and let Him work things out for you. It may be out of your control, but it’s not out of God’s control.

Give it to Him and learn to keep your mind at rest and yourself encouraged. It’s nice to have others reach out and encourage you when you’re going through a tough season. It’s nice to have family, friends, and co-workers send that encouraging text or email, or even make the phone call to check in on you. However, if that isn’t happening then you must begin to take some practical action steps that will bring joy and encouragement to your mind and soul as you keep walking through a tough season.

Here are ways to stay encouraged during a difficult season.

Do less of what produces negative emotions in you.

You must learn to recognize and eliminate the things and activities that you are doing that foster negative feelings and emotions in you. These could be a plethora of different things, but they are not hard to recognize. When you recognize them, the next step is to eliminate them during this season.

You must stop listening to, or watching anything that has the potential to send you into a negative mindset and cause discouragement. You may even consider taking a social media break for a while, especially if you find yourself getting caught up in all the negative talk that goes back and forth on various social media platforms. This can be a dark tunnel for your mind if you spend time scrolling through your social media feeds reading all the opinions, arguments and insults that others are posting.

Take a social media break. If you’ve never taken a social media break, then this might be a good time to try it. Set a time frame that you want to take the break and stick to it. At the end of your social media break, evaluate how feel. You just might find the results very refreshing.

Now, just keep it mind, it doesn’t mean you have to eliminate these things for the rest of your life, but it does mean you should eliminate them until you can get through a discouraging time.

Do more of what makes you laugh.

When you’ve hit a discouraging time, then it’s up to you to start getting your joy level back up. Don’t over complicate this step. There are some very practical things that you can do to start you on the journey of getting some joy and laughter back into your life even in the middle of a difficult season.

Watch some reruns of one of your favorite comedy shows or comedian stand-up performances. This can produce much laughter in your life. Laughter is good like a medicine and does so much for your spirit. This can be equivalent to taking a dose of daily medication for your mind.

Take a stroll down memory lane. This means reflecting back on some of the great memories in your life that brought much laughter and joy to you. These memories can regenerate the same emotions of joy and laughter now as they did back then.

Do whatever you have to do in order to start laughing again. Laughter is good for you, and in a season of discouragement you will need lots of it.

Give the gift of encouragement.

Many times when you hit a discouraging time in your life, it becomes the natural default to focus on your problems and situation that has caused you to become discouraged. You can be overwhelmed with all the thoughts running wildly through your mind.

• Why did I lose my job?
• How could that person do that to me?
• Will this ever turn around for me?
• Will I ever get out of debt?
• Will I ever get married?
• Will my life ever be better?
• I’m a failure.
• It’s too late for me.
• Maybe I should just give up and quit.

I think you get the point here. During times of discouragement your mind can quickly be flooded with thoughts and questions that do not have the potential to bring you out of discouragement.

One of the best and effective ways to bring encouragement to you is by taking the time to intentionally encourage someone else. This endeavor will take the focus off of you and your situation, and will actually cause you to focus on positive words that you will give to someone else.

Every day you should plan on giving some encouragement to someone you know. You can choose a different person each day. Trust me, everyone needs encouragement.

• Send them a text message.
• Send them an email.
• Call them on the phone and actually talk to them.

It doesn’t have to be long and lengthy, but simply a gesture that will convey the message that you were thinking about them. If you know they have been going through a tough time, then your words will be more targeted towards the situation they have been going through

Who doesn’t like to be encouraged?

Once they receive your encouragement, I’m sure it will do wonders for them. Now, here is the interesting part; not only will they be encouraged, but you will too. You will have an overwhelming sense of fulfillment and joy because you have just encouraged someone else.

“It feels good to make other people feel good.”

If you’re in a discouraging season right now then take these intentional steps to get yourself out of that discouragement and back on with your life. Whatever you do, don’t just sit there and expect your discouragement to go away on its own, or over a certain amount of time.

Your discouragement will go away you make plans to make it go away.

It’s your time to rise and shine and get your joy back.