Occasionally life throws us a little curve ball and occasionally it sends us a highly challenging event. How do you regain your mojo when you have been knocked off centre? This happened for me recently and I had to remind myself how to get back to my “normal” self. I referred back to my book: “YES YOU CAN create a life you love”, because I knew there was a section in there about how to help yourself feel good. I don’t know about you, but I’ve noticed that when I don’t feel great, I often can’t think of anything that will make me feel better – bizarre that! However, I also know that I have a “mood boosters” list that I can refer back to at precisely these times and I would highly recommend you create one for yourself too.
Embodying the best version of you
Create yourself a ‘mood boosters’ list. This is a list of things that will help to make you feel happier and more energised. It would be great to have a variety of things that you could do at different times.
When you feel your energy dip, physically, mentally or emotionally, it is vital to shift your mood as soon as you are able, by acting upon one or more of the things on your list. Generally, when you aren’t feeling well or happy, you won’t be magnetising strong, positive energy, creativity and abundance.
Some common mood-boosting activities are in the following list:
Rest and relaxation.
Calming physical exercise: yoga, tai chi, qi gong, Feldenkrais.
Cardiovascular exercise: running, swimming, cycling, going to the gym, Zumba etc.
Communing with nature: being in woodland, beside the sea, walking in the park or countryside.
Connecting with pets: dog walking, cuddling the cat, horse riding, visiting an animal sanctuary.
Enjoying a long hot bath, possibly with essential oils.
Spending fun time with friends or family.
Taking quiet time alone.
Meditation. You may find it helpful to listen to my guided meditations again: Chakra Cleansing or Cleanse your Energy Field.
Laughter: with friends, watching comedy on television, live comedy, romantic comedy films – there are many well-researched benefits to the healing power of laughter.
Receiving a healing treatment: massage, reflexology, acupuncture etc.
Focusing on and expressing gratitude.
Listening to music – upbeat, calming or spiritual.
Singing.
Dancing.
Cooking or baking.
Dates with your partner, for example romantic meals.
Walking barefoot on grass or sand.
Reading uplifting, positive, spiritual or motivational books.
Eating out.
Sunshine.
Going on holiday.
Looking at photos of your family or loved ones.
Bringing to mind some happy memories.
Burning candles or incense.
Sitting in front of a log fire, with a hot chocolate and watching a good film.
Refer back to this list and take action whenever you need to elevate your mood.
‘Do something today that your future self will thank you for!’ Anon
Activity 8: Stop doing things that make you feel miserable
Don’t indulge in watching negative television programs, negative self-talk, excessive negative news-watching, complaining or negative conversations with others. Avoid bingeing on food, alcohol, television, social media, suppressive or mind-numbing technology, mood-numbing drugs etc. Stop procrastinating on taking daily action in the direction of manifesting your dreams and then complaining or feeling frustrated that nothing is changing. Don’t judge, criticise or gossip about other people. Don’t give your energy away to people, places and things that you find draining.
While it is important to try to avoid activities that make us feel miserable, it’s also important not to feel guilty about doing some of them from time to time. This is part of being human, and we need to accept that we are perfectly imperfect! Sometimes we all do things that aren’t as life-affirming as they could be. This is an aspect of human nature which is highly encouraged in western societies, as you realise if you just turn on daytime television! Many of us can become slightly obsessive or addicted to hanging out in a negative way or feeling.
Journaling can help you bring awareness to your day, to seeing when you are engaging in activities that aren’t helpful in creating the changes you want in your life. It is really important to focus on self-love. Berating yourself and feeling guilty are not going to help you let go of doing these things. Sometimes you just need to bring awareness to the unskilful behaviour, and then you can re-set your intention to engage in more positive activities. Sometimes you may overindulge in negative behaviour: for example, getting lost in social media trawling, excessive TV watching, food, alcohol etc which might make you feel bad, but this can then give you the motivation to stop doing it again.
When recovering addicts work on a 12 step program, one of their brilliant mottos is to take their recovery one day at a time. Don’t beat yourself up for what you did or didn’t do yesterday, just refocus on what you want to do today.
From a very young age we are fed the idea that one day in the future we will have our lives sorted out and only then can we then lead a perfect happy life. We look around at others, especially the rich and famous, imagining they have perfect lives. But we are all human beings, with human minds full of internal chatter. We are all on personal and frequently challenging journeys. We may be exceptionally gifted or skilled in some aspects of our lives, but human perfection doesn’t exist. So don’t give yourself a hard time for not being perfect!
We are all learning, expanding and facing challenges, both internal and external. We can only live today, in the present moment, not in some projected fantasy of the future, with the idea that when everything is sorted, only then can we be happy. You can attain happiness today by changing your internal world, by accepting your current circumstances and making the decision right now to choose to be happy.
Remember: you can’t feel good if you are having negative thoughts, and you can’t be feeling low or miserable if you are having positive thoughts.
Watch your thoughts. Don’t focus on the negative ones: notice, observe and acknowledge them, but don’t indulge or expand upon them. Keep your concentration on the good and positive things in your life and how you can improve your emotional state. This is really important. If you ever notice you’ve started to slip into not feeling so good, recall your most recent trains of thought. Whenever I do this, I always notice some (or lots of) negative inner chatter. It might be that someone has mentioned something that triggers a negative reaction in me or an old negative belief, for example, anger or anxiety and then my mind goes into negative overdrive and my well-being drops. Once I become aware of this, I then remind myself to refocus and shift my attention to gratitude and refocus my intent on the direction I wish to be heading. You may wish to re-refer to, and act upon, some of the activities that help raise your vibration and your mood-boosters list.
‘The meaning of life is actually very simple. We come here to enjoy life and love in a human body on this planet as fully as possible, while simultaneously bringing unconditional pure love into the world.’ Blake D Bauer, author and spiritual leader.
Other short activities to raise & maintain your energy field
– Use sage to ‘smudge’ yourself and your environment. Buy yourself a sage smudge stick (there are plenty available online) and read or watch directions for how to use it on YouTube. You can use it to cleanse your rooms, especially your bedroom and your workspace. You can also cleanse your aura by wafting it around the outside of your physical body, or by getting someone else to do this for you.
– Buy some beautiful candles and light them when you are in need of extra support. Candles have been used in sacred ceremonies for so many centuries that they have a powerful energy to them.
– Burn some lovely scented incense or essential oils, or one of my current favourites is an electric essential oil diffuser. Use your olfactory nerve (your sense of smell) to uplift your energy. If you buy some incense sticks, make sure you do some research and buy natural, ethical and non-carcinogenic incense for your health and wellbeing.
– Listen to some uplifting, calming or upbeat music depending on your mood.
– Do some exercise. There are many well-documented benefits to getting regular physical exercise. Only do exercise that you really enjoy, as this will make you feel good emotionally and physically and your motivation to continue to do it will be greater.
– Open your windows and allow in some fresh air to clear the energy in your environment.
– Do some cleaning: a clean house can help you feel cleansed physically and emotionally. Do it yourself, or, if possible, treat yourself by paying someone else to do it for you.
– Smile at others, silently sending them love or blessings. Wish that they have a lovely day, especially people you feel need extra support or love at any particular time.
– Close your eyes and focus on 3 wishes: one for yourself, one for someone else and one for the world. Send them out into the universe with love.
Don’t underestimate how much some of these ‘other’ activities can help you feel better, physically and emotionally. Try them out and use them regularly. When you have got to this stage in the process, you really need to try to hang out in a high vibrational energy state as much as possible. This needs to be a major focus for you from now on. Learning how to prioritise yourself, your needs and your happiness means you then have more to give to others.