What to Do on Days When Things Look Bleak and Hopeless

One sunny morning this week I awoke from a nightmare. And as I got up and made breakfast I could feel how my mood was unusually negative. Things looked kind of bleak. A bit hopeless. I mostly just wanted to go back to bed. Or lie on the couch and watch movies all day long. So I decided to turn that around. Now, these things that I am about to share have not only helped me to turn bad days into good ones but to keep an optimistic attitude and to keep going through much longer tough times too. Here's what I did. 1. I took a trip through positive memories. For a few minutes I closed my eyes and awashed myself in positive memories of the times in the past when I succeeded. Of the times when things went well or even better than that despite worries and negative expectations. This small inner vacation brightened my mood and opened up my clouded mind. 2. I asked myself two optimistic questions. First: what is one thing I can be grateful for today even if things look bleak? My answer was that it was indeed very good to have a roof over my head as the cold rain was pouring outside. My mind then opened up a bit more and helped me to see a few more simple things to be grateful for. Then I asked myself: what is one small step I can take right now to move forward? 3. I took a small step forward. With the answer to the second question in mind I sat down at my computer and I took a small step forward and just worked for 5 minutes on an important task. After I had started moving forward my motivation was up and things felt pretty good so I decided to continue the work on that task for half an hour. And at the end of the day, it turned out to be a pretty good Tuesday. Hope that helps and have a great Friday and weekend! P.S: If you want more practical help - but not a magic pill - to build inner strength for life's ups and downs and to build the deeply motivating feeling that you truly deserve more good and great things in life then keep coming back to this blog. Joseph for Henrik