Life’s a mess. I’m sure it’s the story of your life as well. Mess is unavoidable. It infiltrates into every aspect of our lives. It’s very easy to lose hope in the midst of all these chaos.
Emotionally, we fill our minds with negative thoughts. Spiritually, we clutter up our hearts and souls with emotional debris. Physically, we put our bodies through unhealthy lifestyles and environments.
Everyone knows it is freeing, liberating, and empowering to sort through and declutter our mess. When you contain positive thoughts, you will have glow from inside out. But is it really easy to have a peaceful life and find our purposes in life when everything seems to go wrong? It seems difficult, but try to devote your time and follow these 10 steps to bring positive energy back into your life.
1. Keep the positive thoughts, throw away the negative ones.
Your mind might be obsessed with negative thoughts, trust me, most minds are. The more negativity you visualize, the more these thoughts become your reality. Stay conscious and divert your attention to peaceful thoughts when you catch your mind generating negative thoughts. Once you fill your mind with positive thoughts, you will become more logical to deal with whatever you are facing. Put into practice: Say you are lost in a foreign country, without a map or phone, you start to get anxious. What you should do instead is, take a deep breathe, acknowledge where you are now, and appreciate your surroundings — you are having an once-in-a-lifetime experience.
2. Treat your body with the respect it deserves.
How does your body feel right now? Do you have an appetite? Or do you feel heavy and bloated? You might alleviate your emotional burdens through eating, usually junk food. Do you know when you feel physically weighed down, it’s mainly because of your unhealthy diet? It’s always good to clean up your diet and eat food with more nutrients and fibers. While you are cleansing your body, you are also clearing your mind. After all, you are what you eat. Put into practice: Substitute your afternoon snacks with fruits, or your sodas with smoothies. They help you stay awake more too!
3. Let go and re-ignite the fire of your soul.
When your soul is depleted and there’s no motivation to pick you back up, you are only going to continue in this downward spiral. Let go of things that no longer serve a purpose in your life. Leave your sorrow, anger, resentment, guilt, jealousy, and regrets behind. There are challenges everywhere, don’t get overwhelmed, instead see silver lining in every hardship. To put your soul in a positive state, take the time to find your passion, plan how you could achieve your dream, and be brave and strong to face whatever is thrown at you. Put into practice: If you want to travel the world, go ahead. Make plans to save money and decide your route. Don’t let uncertainties stop you from chasing your dreams, but rather think of solutions to resolve the problem.
4. Transform your living space into your safe haven.
Decluttering your body and mind is definitely important, but you also need a peaceful space to regain your soul and energy. Create an environment for you to relax, restore balance, and rest. As you enter this safe space, you can let go of your thoughts in any way you want. Put into practice: Decorate your “decluttering space” with scented candles, plants, photos of precious moments, warm (slightly yellow or orange) lighting, or even a comfy couch and fireplace.
5. Keep your eyes on what you have, not what you want.
I’m sure you often find yourself comparing the things you have with others, or you might be a lifelong sufferer of FOMO (fear of missing out). When’s the last time you say “thank you” for everything in your life? The longer you focus on what you want and what you don’t have, the less grateful you are with the things you have. You might already have the tools you need to achieve your goals, but your desire and negative thoughts blind you from succeeding. Put into practice: Take 5-10 minutes each night before you sleep, list the things you are thankful for. It could be something insignificant, or something life-changing.
6. Approach every situation gently. Calm, cool, collected.
It is common to be frantic over a tricky situation in your life. You might even be abrasive or hotheaded. Try to take a gentler approach towards every situation. It calms your emotions down and allows you time to evaluate what happened. Put into practice: When your boss suddenly tells you to pitch to a client in an hour, what would you do? Freak out and curse your boss? Or take a deep breathe to be rational and logical? The latter usually works better.
7. Give yourself time to block out the rest of the world.
You have probably opened multiple applications on your phone or computer right now. You might even have many tabs on your Internet browser. Think about it, the only time you are not connected to others is when you are sound asleep. It seems to be a norm for everyone to be available 24/7, because technology has made communication instantaneous, but it is also very draining. You don’t always have to stay “online”, sometimes, going offline helps you regain your energy back. Put into practice: Set 30 minutes apart for your personal alone time every day, no phones, no computers, no social media. Take the time to do what you like without any distractions.
8. Stop, wait a minute, and take a break. You need it.
Society has trained us to be alert at all times. Once you lose focus, you lose the opportunity. But is it worth continuing when you feel overloaded? Take a break from what you are doing. You deserve to rest and recharge. Put into practice: When you feel stress and work and other miscellaneous things are piling up, allow yourself a time-out session to breathe and escape.
9. You are the only one in charge of your life.
Remember, this is YOUR life. You are the only boss of your life. Don’t be obliged to someone else’s opinion or interest. Make the best choices for yourself, the sooner you drop bad memories and resentment, the sooner your life can change. The past is gone, and it’s time to organize your life, and you are the only person with the power to change any situation in your life. Put into practice: For example, you said something hurtful to a close friend and now the relationship is in jeopardy. Acknowledge what you’ve done wrong but don’t dwell on it, and come up with solutions to move forward to try to change the current situation, like apologizing to your friend.
10. A new day means new opportunities.
Nina Simone puts it best in her classic hit Feeling Good. As you leave your past behind, you are also looking at the future. Just because you had a crappy yesterday, doesn’t mean your today is full of disappointment. A new day offers endless opportunities, it also generates and renews energy and hope. It is up to you to choose how you want to experience today. Put into practice: Let’s say you had a terrible day yesterday. Today, you can replay what went wrong, or instead, learn from your mistakes and be open to whatever life challenges you with. Maybe there will be a new opportunity waiting for you.
It takes time to take you out from the mess to positivity. (But it’s all worth it.)
It is vital to understand you shouldn’t be trapped by the mess in your life, but take what you’ve learned from the situation and make a change. No life is a smooth-sailing one, but your attitude determines your altitude. Take one step at a time, declutter your mind, clean your body, clear your soul, then everything else will slowly fall into place. Start your day by saying, “I can conquer the world!”
