5 Ways Online Therapy Can Help You Become Happier

May 22, 2019

Everyone has times in their life when it’s difficult to stay happy. For example, many people struggle with anxiety or depression, which get in the way of happiness. As well, most people live through difficult or intense life situations that leave emotional barriers or scars. These may make it harder to stay in a positive and happy frame of mind.

If you find yourself suffering mentally, there are things you can do to help you find contentment. For example, one of the most popular methods to discover and learn how to be happy is to participate in online therapy.

Online therapy has become an incredibly useful form of alternative therapy that’s easily available to everyone – including youth, disabled and disadvantaged people, and the elderly. Below are some of the ways that this type of therapy can help you find happiness.

1. Helps You Identify Your Triggers

One of the key aspects of any form of therapy is the therapist’s ability to help you identify the triggers that create your suffering.

Many people have a distorted view of therapy, believing that therapists are some “magical beings” who help to “cure your problems.” They are not. Instead, their role is to help you to recognize behaviors and characteristics of your life or yourself that lead to suffering (i.e. not being happy).

Perhaps you are subconsciously upset by the way that a friend speaks to you. Or, you feel that you should be doing something different or better, but haven’t yet realized what that is. Online therapy can help you recognize what triggers unhappiness in you. Once you realize how certain aspects of life influence your mood, they are less likely to get in the way of your happiness.

2. Provides Tools and Tactics

One of the best things about online therapy is plethora of tools and tactics which you can access. These are often long-term strategies that you can use on your own or implement with other people in your life. Importantly, these tactics are designed to help prevent you from falling back into old patterns.

For example, a good therapist may help you identify that being in a certain environment causes you to react in an aggressive or unhappy manner. Instead of avoiding this environment, which isn’t always practical, you learn various methods of dealing with the situation and your reaction to it.

3. Helps You Identify Unhealthy Relationships

Most people have a variety of relationships in their lives – friends, family, lovers, and so on. Unfortunately, not all relationships are healthy. Yet, you may not always realize that a relationship is impacting you negatively while you’re in it.

Living a life filled with unhealthy relationships can take a toll on your physical and mental health. Thus, it may be much harder for you to be happy and fulfilled, even if your life is generally positive.

This may be fairly common knowledge. Unfortunately, it’s far less common to actually realize which relationships are healthy and which are not. How often have you seen someone stay romantically involved with a partner who is verbally or physically abusive? It does may one wonder, why would someone do that? Well, it happens because it can be very hard to recognize when a relationship is toxic, especially when you think you love the other person.

Fortunately, online therapists can coach you through the process that helps you realize, on your own terms, which relationships are not serving you. By helping you identify (and end!) the ones that are preventing you from being happy, online therapy can help you find peace of mind.

4. Teaches New Ways to Approach Life’s Challenges

Everyone experiences problems. Everyone has negative thoughts. Everyone gets into a bad mood once in a while. These are just parts of being human, and hence, nothing to be ashamed or afraid of.

However, many people believe that these aspects of life should be avoided at all costs. Although such avoidance isn’t necessary, many people approach negative facets of life in an unhealthy manner. The approach and the eventual reaction is most often the real problem.

With online therapy, you can discover how to approach negative and challenging aspects of life in a productive way. Instead of condemning yourself for having or acting on a negative thought, you can learn to recognize the thought patterns that lead to suffering. Hence, these thoughts start to have less power over you.

Furthermore, you can learn how you can approach a bad mood as a transition between different states of mind. Finally, with online therapy, you have access to a therapist who can help you recognize problems as learning opportunities. Instead of being a hindrance, such problems become chances to make positive changes in your life.

5. Offers Accessible Support

One of the best attributes of online therapy is that it is so accessible.

To get an appointment with a traditional therapist, you typically have to wait several days after you schedule an appointment. Such a wait can be difficult for patients who want or need to speak with someone immediately. Furthermore, rescheduling can be a hassle. Traditional therapists are often booked for days, thus you may have to wait even longer to see them.

Online therapy gets rid of these issues by allowing you to schedule appointments quickly and easily. Many online therapy groups allow you to talk to a therapist within hours, if not minutes of signing up on the therapy website. This can reduce some of the stress associated with scheduling a therapy appointment, which also can become a barrier to you working on your happiness.

Additionally, online therapy is accessible to people who may not be able to reach a therapist in the first place. This includes people with physical disabilities or those who aren’t able to leave their home and would typically require a great deal of support to meet face-to-face with a therapist. Another example are people who live in small towns or rural areas, where getting transportation to a therapist’s office may be difficult.

Online therapy eliminates these problems, allowing anyone with internet access to get help in improving their life any time of the day.

Conclusion

It’s incredibly important to maintain a positive, happy perspective about life. It impacts your well-being, both physical and mental, but isn’t always easy in our fast-paced world. Online therapy can help you with your journey to happiness by providing tools, knowledge, and new perspectives to help you transform your life.