Getting Through The Tough Times of Fatherhood | Dad University

0:00 as men we are expected to be strong to be able to control our emotions and to be able to handle anything that comes our way the part that society didn't seem to consider is that we're actually human humans get sad angry frustrated and yes depressed so while life overall can be wonderful we all experience ups and downs in this video I'm going to share with you some of the tips and techniques that I've used in order to get through

0:30 those tough times [Music] hey guys I'm Jason Kreitman and welcome to another episode of dad University we cover a different dad advice topic every Thursday so be sure to subscribe to the channel and click on that notification bell so you don't miss any of our videos this video is in

1:01 partnership with father Lee we'll put a link to father Lee in the description so be sure to check them out every person experiences tough times so know that you're not alone you might be having financial hardship or difficulties in your career relationship troubles health issues or something else that's affecting you in a big way just know that there are things that you can do to change your situation now change requires action let me repeat that

1:32 change requires action so if you are not taking action you aren't even giving yourself the opportunity for change here we go number one acknowledge it you can't bury your head in the sand and expect that something bad is just gonna go away acknowledging that there is an issue is really important feel the anger the sadness the loss whatever it is that's inside and let it out cry yell or just

2:03 even talk about it but what you're gonna want to do is make sure that you don't judge your own feelings give yourself permission to feel and acknowledge the issue that you're facing number two seek support so we men sometimes have difficulty often have difficulty okay always have difficulty admitting that we need help and while we can solve a lot of problems on our own there are situations in which

2:36 it's just too much we get concerned that we're gonna be judged or that asking for help is some kind of weakness or negative thing but if you've tried to solve a problem and you can't it is totally okay to ask for help lean on your friends and your family for support if you like you can't lean on your family and friends or you don't want to then try a support group and that might be a support group in person locally or you

3:06 can try finding a support group online there's often resources with groups of people who are experiencing the same issues that you are if you don't feel like any of those solutions will help you then we have number three get professional help there are experts out there in nearly every topic and every issue you can imagine when my mother passed away years ago it was so painful I had not experienced such a loss like that it really it hurt my heart and I

3:39 didn't know how to handle it so my father recommended that I go to grief counseling I didn't even know there was such a thing but I figured I had nothing to lose so I might as well try it I learned so much by talking about my feelings to a professional you may not think that they can help you but they can I really feel like that helped me get through the hardest time in my life number four be good to your body even if

4:07 you're experiencing things up here taking care of your body is going to help you you're gonna want to make sure that you get plenty of sleep that you're exercising and that you're eating healthy taking care of your body we often neglect these things when we're going through something difficult on the other hand you want to make sure that you're not doing those to the extreme either as people will have a tendency to sleep quite a bit or over exercise as a

4:33 way to battle those difficult times I can also say that for me reducing my alcohol consumption really made a big impact in addition to just feeling better physically overall I noticed less mood swings and when I did feel down the duration of how long it lasted was much less and finally number five practice gratitude so I know when you are down it's pretty difficult to think of something positive but remember change

5:04 requires action so it can be as simple as you have air to breathe you have clean water you have a roof over your head you're able to walk I bet if you sat down you could probably come up with a lot of things that you are grateful for I'm going to suggest you create a gratitude journal so when you first wake up in the morning write down three things that you're grateful for and why and right before

5:31 you go to sleep write down three things that you're grateful for and why and what happens is that you begin to focus on the positive things in your day rather than a negative things here's the deal I'm gonna summarize this for you we all experience tough times so I'm suggesting that you acknowledge it you feel it you get the support around you but most importantly you have to take action and when you do those things you are going to get through the tough

6:03 times much quicker keep in mind - if it's something that you can change and you got to change it but if it's something that you can't change then all you can do is change your attitude about it I'd love to hear from you when you experience difficult times what is something that you do to get through it leave your feedback in the comment section below be sure to give this episode a thumbs up subscribe to the channel click on that

6:29 notification bell and share this video on social media also be sure to check out fatherly our partner in this video we thank you for watching and we'll see you next week [Music]