oh, NASA. Best warning ever.

Some days more than others it feels like the world is one straw away from breaking your back and conspiring against you. The sad trombone is playing solely for you. You want to stay in bed, eat or do even more destructive things because you just can’t see any reason or way to pull yourself up.

There are always ways to pull yourself up. They aren’t always quick and easy, and they aren’t always painless, but in the end, you will always look back and be pleased with your progress. Doing things we don’t have to do shows passion.

1. What About Bob Wisdom: Baby steps – it’s easy to cook up grand ideas in twenty different areas (“Read a book a week! Write essays for fun practice! Write stuff on my blog everyday! Lose 20 pounds!”) but it only puts unnecessary pressure on yourself to succeed all at once or fail at everything. If your idea is so big that you can’t even get started then you need to drastically rethink your short-term goals. The smaller the better – even if it seems ridiculous. My big goal for the day? I kept my house tidy. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but if anyone who knows my hurricane/magazine/piles of stuff, they know it was a bigger goal than it sounds.
2. Work up – build on those baby steps at your own pace. If it takes you a week to do an hour of exercise or to write a blog post, then it takes you a week. That’s a lot faster than if you stayed in bed for a month without even trying. Step it up in small increments and reward yourself when you improve.
3. Ebb and flow – so you were doing great and then it all disappeared? Hell, that’s normal. Ask anyone if they could be creative on demand day in and day out and they’ll likely say no. So why should you? If it’s gone, it’s gone. Just keep thinking about it, trying to get back there in small steps, keep your mind open and know that it will return eventually.
4. Negative thoughts – it’s all in your head. Seriously. It is always a mind of matter when it comes to internal struggles. “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter.” Push all the negative, defeating and guilt-ridden thoughts out of your head and give yourself a break. The more you do it the more effective it is.
5. A little TLC. Look after yourself. No one else will! Besides giving yourself a break mentally, make sure you’re staying healthy. Nothing drastic, just common sense. Go for a walk, drink herbal teas, eat a tasty, kingly breakfast, treat yourself to a massage. You don’t need to be marathon runner on a no-fat-no-salt-no-sugar-vegan diet to be your best. Find what works for you.
6. Find people who help motivate you. I love reading Zenhabits and Rowdy Kittens, among with many others, when I feel that it all becomes too much. They help bring my stress level down, get me excited about one thing in particular, and keep me focused on staying minimal in a time of over-stimulation.

If that has inspired you, I suggest you read this fantastic little nugget I received in my inbox. (for anyone who wants to sign up for these emails as well, go here.)

Focus on the Good
Raise Your Vibration

Everything in the universe is made of energy. What differentiates one form of energy from another is the speed at which it vibrates. For example, light vibrates at a very high frequency, and something like a rock vibrates at a lower frequency but a frequency nonetheless. Human beings also vibrate at different frequencies. Our thoughts and feelings can determine the frequency at which we vibrate, and our vibration goes out into the world and attracts to us energy moving at a similar frequency. This is one of the ways that we create our own reality, which is why we can cause a positive shift in our lives by raising our vibration.

We all know someone we think of as vibrant. Vibrant literally means “vibrating very rapidly.” The people who strike us as vibrant are vibrating at a high frequency, and they can inspire us as we work to raise our vibration. On the other hand, we all know people that are very negative or cynical. These people are vibrating at a lower frequency. They can also be an inspiration because they can show us where we don’t want to be vibrating and why. To discover where you are in terms of vibrancy, consider where you fall on a scale between the most pessimistic person you know and the most vibrant. This is not in order to pass judgment, but rather it is important to know where you are as you begin working to raise your frequency so that you can notice and appreciate your progress.

There are many ways to raise your vibration, from working with affirmations to visualizing forms of happiness during meditation. One of the most practical ways to raise your vibration is to consciously choose where you focus your attention. To understand how powerful this is, take five minutes to describe something you love unreservedly—a person, a movie, an experience. When your five minutes are up, you will noticeably feel more positive and even lighter. If you want to keep raising your vibration, you might want to commit to spending five minutes every day focusing on the good in your life (Editor’s Note: this is where I got my idea for Take Five Fridays!). As you do this, you will train yourself to be more awake and alive. Over time, you will experience a permanent shift in your vibrancy.