Nine points to stay motivated and positive

 Have you experienced days where you wake up groggy and grumpy and feel generally lost? Yes I have seen such days and mind you, many such days. Nothing feels right, everything seems out of control and generally everything is overwhelming. The worst is I feel sapped of positivity, creative energy and inspiration etc.

The momentum needs to come from within. Yes motivation isn’t out there. No person or place can motivate you. You need to do it for yourself.

So I thought of writing few points to stay up and about and put together at most times. Here’s what can be done:

1] Acknowledge and accept: Yes the first step is to acknowledge and accept your feelings. The moment we acknowledge this state we are ready to take the next step to bettering this feeling. While fighting and denying these feeling results in more confusion and frustration.

2] Organising and decluttering: To me the mess and declutter just adds to this sinking feeling. The moment I put away clutter and put things in their place I start thinking clearly. Clearing up even just one room in the house helps a lot.

3] Quieten the noise of the mind: Human being can think between, 35 to 48 thoughts a minute. Now imagine if this number goes up, well confusion and inertia is bound to set in. So try and use tools that can streamline your thoughts.

·      Breathing exercise and meditation: simple pranayama and meditation helps a lot in staying calm and dealing with a hyperactive mind. Try it. Just breathing right can do wonders for your mind and body.

·      Music: Music is the soul’s medicine. Listen to any favourite music and just feel your tension ease off

4] Declutter your thoughts: Just like the physical space in our homes, our minds, too get cluttered. This clutter could be ‘to do’ things, managing time and day specific tasks etc. This can be tackled by maintaining a journal. The journal can have records of all your daily, weekly tasks, goals etc.. Record birthday, appointments, daily tasks etc.. on a physical journal and use it every single day. [Do let me know in the comments section below if you would like to read a post on journaling]

5] Exercise: This is a given everyone starting from our mom, doctors to associates etc we meet advice on exercise. But we do not really do much about it. There are many forms of exercises namely: walking, jogging, gym, yoga, playing any sport. Try out various things and see which makes your happy and joyous. Exercise also secrets happy hormones which elevates our mood.

6] Rise early: Each of us need that quiet time where we can think clearly and plan our day. It’s like the little ‘me time’ every single day. The still of the dawn is a good time to take this ‘me time’. It’s a great time to do some positive self-talk, affirmations, breathing exercises and chalk out the day.

7] Read: Reading books on motivation, positive life etc. helps understand ones feelings and gives us a guideline to try out next steps. It is a great self help tool

8] Develop a hobby: I think hobbies are extremely important. It can be anything ranging from taking care of your potted plants on the window sill, or caring for a gold fish, painting, sketching etc.. Any one activity that help us rejuvenate and allow for a free flow of creative energy.

9] Time off to relax: The human race has forgotten to relax and do – just nothing. Even on a vacation we fret and are running around. Get in touch with the art of just being and not doing. Appreciate yourself, the things around us and just relax. It could be meeting friends, lying on a beach, sipping coffee, taking mini vacations etc. I am the kind of person who needs a break to get over a vacation. I need time to come back into the grove. Simply because I love vacations, the thrill of planning, packing, taking off on the journey everything excites me. I love to live from vacation to vacation. The in-betweens are, well just few things one needs to do J

If you’ve reached this far means that you are looking for motivation to get things done. Do let me know which of the above points you used, and how it helped you.

If you have any other ideas to stay motivated and positive, do write in the comments section below. I would love to hear from you.

Till then bye…..