Hello and welcome to my blog! Happy Monday! I’m not on a happy pill. This is just how it feels when my depression gives me a break. It’s like I was drowning and I got up for air. I take a deep breath, feel it fill my lungs, and slowly let it out. So much better than the feeling of my chest caving in.
Also, you know me. I get super excited when I’m ready to show you something creative I made. I’m working on a few projects at the moment, but this post took me 3 weeks of preparations, with no wifi or electricity 10 hours a day. I present to you a few positive affirmations for when your brain feels numb or you are overwhelmed with negative thoughts and you want to replace them with positive ones. I even made canva designs of each affirmation so that you can download and maybe even print. I didn’t come up with these affirmations. I did a 21 day positive affirmations challenge, but all the designs were made by me. I hope they help.
I don’t have much silver and gold, not because I was never a fan, but because we couldn’t afford it. I got my 1st silver set from my friend, a necklace and earrings. I got my only gold earrings from my mom when my niece was born. I got a few more as gifts but I never actually bought anything silver or gold, besides my gold simple wedding ring. I was too shy to ask for these things when I 1st got married because I wasn’t used to them. I regret not asking, but the past is the past and now in this economic crisis, I can’t ask anymore.
Anyway, I have accumulated a lot of faux bijoux over the years. I gave away half of them when I got married, but then bought more later on. I haven’t bought any faux bijoux in 3 years. I have a varied collection. I have hearts, butterflies, stars, and other shapes and sizes of necklaces and earrings. I have one bracelet which I rarely wear.
Every once in a while, when I’m feeling girly or when I want to cheer myself up, I put on a necklace and sometimes even earrings. Even though I have a wide variety, there are only a few my husband likes, so I reserve the ones he doesn’t like to when I visit my family or when friends come over. I wear silver when I go to my grandparents, otherwise they would make snide comments about how my jewelry is obviously fake.
I have a necklace that has 3 pendants on it. The 1st one is a circle with the word peace written on it, the 2nd one is a heart with the word love on it, and the 3rd is a star with the word joy on it.
I wear this necklace when I’m severely depressed, like right now. My husband doesn’t like it, and requests I remove it every time he sees it. I don’t know why. It’s my favorite necklace. I love shirts with quotes on them, and necklaces are no different. When I wear this necklace, I immediately begin to repeat the words as I rub the pendants.
Peace
Love
Joy
It works as a mantra to help me tune out all the bad things that happened during the day, like my son breaking my favorite cereal bowl and spilling cereal all over the kitchen (the floor is still sticky after mopping it 3 times), or the drama I created with my husband for no reason, or my lack of energy and my apathy for everything lately, including spending time with family and texting friends, or the economic and fuel and political crisis in Lebanon.
Peace is my ultimate goal. To find inner peace despite everything going on around me.
Love is what I try to give and I’m learning to accept it in all its forms, even if it’s delivered in a love language different than mine.
Joy is the mindset I aim to have. I don’t want to chase happiness like I’m chasing a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. I want to find joy, even in moments of sadness and distress.
With peace, love, and joy, I will now go and be a better parent, a better wife, a better friend, a better sister, a better daughter.
Hello and welcome to my blog! I’m having a bad day today because I hate confrontations, and yet something happened yesterday that made me want to avoid certain people. However, fate has it that I most likely will have to see those people today. I have the choice of declining and looking bad or going there and facing the music. I decided to go, but to tell someone what happened and how upset I am by it. I didn’t go yet but I’m dreading it because I hate confrontations. They always seem to backfire. I lose my cool, say something I regret later, then beat myself up all over again.
I tend to swing back and forth between hating myself and righteous indignation. I know I complain a lot, especially about marriage and parenting, but only because the most people I interact with are my husband and son. Believe me, before I got married, I complained a lot about my parents and siblings, and I’m sure if I had a job I’d complain about that too.
I decided to stop complaining about my husband and son, not to their faces or behind their backs, but that’s difficult to implement. It will be a lifelong practice. Today is my chance to prove it, to start defending my husband, no matter how scary it is.
Part of me wishes that something would happen so I don’t have to go, but I need to believe in myself and get out of my comfort zone. Here are some affirmations I picked up to help motivate myself for the task ahead. Maybe they’ll help you too if you have something difficult you need to do but are too afraid to do.
Affirmations to help you believe in yourself:
You’re capable of amazing things.
It’s okay to take as many moments as you need for yourself.
It’s a good day to have a good day!
If you have the power to make someone happy, do it. The world needs more of that.
It’s time to start being the person you want to be, not the person you think everyone else wants you to be.
The sky isn’t the limit, your mindset is.
Never stop doing great just because someone doesn’t give you credit.
Today I want you to think about all that you are instead of all that you are not.
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above it.
Hello and welcome to my blog! Today has been a long but productive day. I cooked. I cleaned. I watched 2 episodes of The Resident Season 2. I spent a lot of quality time with my son, all the while my neck and shoulder were hurting because I slept on the same side all night.
Here are some gentle reminders for you this Monday
Be the reason someone feels welcomed, seen, heard, valued, loved, and supported. 🖤
I try to motivate and inspire others, even when I’m not feeling so motivated or inspired myself.
Beauty is how you feel inside, and it reflects in your eyes. It is not something physical.
This is so true. When I feel beautiful, it usually has nothing to do with my appearance, but my mood. Naturally, when you feel good, you take care of yourself more. You eat healthily, exercise often, sleep early, and it reflects in your appearance as well.
Be proud of yourself for being so strong.
You are so strong. You have been through so much but you are still trying. Keep going!
It’s okay to be scared, but you have to get out there, make mistakes, learn, be stronger, and start all over again.
Growth does not happen when you’re in your comfort zone. Bit by bit, get out of your comfort zone. Before you know it, your life will be much better and you will be happier.
Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.
I wish I encouraged and motivated myself like I did my loved ones. I often beat myself up for my mistakes and feel like I’m doing a lot of effort with little results, so I give up or slack, then hate on myself for slacking.
When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life.
This is something I’m working on. Life keeps getting in the way but I’m making room for the things that make me happy.
The sooner you start believing in yourself, the sooner you’ll start seeing results.
Another thing I’m working on.
Every day is a new opportunity to change your life.
Now say it like you believe it!
Take care of yourself, be healthy, and always believe you can be successful in anything you truly want.
Hang that on your fridge or bathroom mirror.
Do more things that make you forget to check your phone.
When I visit my family on Saturday, my phone usage goes from 7 hours to 3.
The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
Mindfulness is key.
This is your Monday reminder that you are amazing and you can handle anything 🙂
And with that, I wish you all a great day and a great week!
Hello and welcome to my blog! Welcome to motivational Monday. Today, I’m ridden with anxiety and need some motivation as well. I didn’t write a to do list on Saturday nor on Sunday because I wanted my schedule to be free.
Today I wrote a to do list but kept feeling suffocated by it. It’s wierd. Sometimes to do lists relieve my anxiety, other times they give me anxiety. I know that I preach about picking 3 items and prioritizing your tasks and all that but I’m easily distracted and keep feeling like everything on the list is equally important. It’s hard to decide whether I should exercise or organize my miscellaneous items drawer 1st, so I have done neither so far.
Also, we have no electricity at the moment so I can’t work on my laptop (its battery is ruined so it must be hooked to the charger to work) and that’s looming over me. I’m not one to go overboard with editing but I’m working on a project (stay tuned) and it’s really important that I make sure the work in it is 100% original, no plagiarism. It’s causing me great anxiety that I’m avoiding working altogether. I mean, if I didn’t procrastinate so much, I would have accomplished so much more in life by now. Anyway, now that I got all that off my chest…
Get motivated with me on motivational Monday!
Mindfulness is an attitude rather than a skill. It’s about making our everyday lives more pleasurable and present.
This is so true. I struggle to be mindful but I’m really working on it and I’m getting better. I’m not really being mindful today but I try to be.
You are enough. Every morning, every sunrise, every day.
This is so hard for me to grasp sometimes but I have been raised to the concept that my value as a person increases with my accomplishments. I even unconsciously judge my siblings sometimes based on their accomplishments. I’m still being judged my my loved ones based on my accomplishments or lack thereof (they’re not impressed by my master’s degree anymore since my younger sister is getting her PhD and my blog doesn’t phase them because I don’t get paid for it).
Remember that everything you do contributes to where you are going.
Best selling author here I come. One day.
Gratitude and mindful self-compassion can heal and bring peace to you. Gratitude comes when we are mindful, observing the simple beauty in our lives.
I always pray “God make me content with what you have given me” and right now, as I read this reminder, I slow down and feel so grateful. I have a lot of gratitude moments during the day, but only when I slow down and am mindful of my surroundings and my life.
You can start over any time. Just don’t stop being you.
I wish I could start over. But usually when I imagine starting over, I imagine creating a new identity some place new.
Your body loves you, love it back.
I’m not there yet. I can’t tell you how much I hate my body right now. I lost 6 pounds during Ramadan and everyone complimented me for it. What did I do as soon as Ramadan was over? I went back to emotional eating and I’m pretty sure the weight is back.
Living moment by moment and seeing everything afresh without judgement and worry lets us experience life rather than simply get through it.
So true. I have no comment for that.
Under the influence of clutter, we may underestimate how much time we’re giving to the less important stuff.
I’m not a minimalist but I admit my mind and surroundings get a bit cluttered sometimes and it really gets me off track.
Reminder: You’re stronger than you think you are.
I hope so.
Outer order contributes to inner calm.
Try it. Tidy up your space and notice the impact is has on you.
Remember: you are not what you own.
I wish a lot more people knew this…
Update: I finished almost everything on my to-do list. I exercised, worked on editing a bit, but I’m leaving the organization of my miscellaneous items drawer for tomorrow. Wish me luck!
Hello and welcome to my blog! Welcome to the daily reminder series. I get these reminders on the 21 days challenge app at least twice a day. In case you didn’t notice. I’m loving the app. I can’t talk about it enough! I wish I talked about my books as much as I talked about this app.
This is so true! I remember when I was in school I was discouraged by my peers to ask the teacher a question if I didn’t understand. Later on I realized many adults have the mentality that it’s a weakness to show you don’t know something, that you must appear that you’re put together all the time. I agree that you shouldn’t be falling apart all the time in public. That’s what drama queens do. But if you feel like you need help financially, for example, it’s okay to seek someone you trust and ask for help. The people too proud to ask for help usually end up in more financial trouble. If you need help with your mental health, it’s okay to seek a trusted friend and open up or go see a therapist. If you need help moving into a new house, it’s also okay to ask for help.
Some people are very dependant on others and come out as needy and others are too lazy to do things themselves and always rely on other’s help. Avoid helping those people or at least establish boundaries with them. However, it’s usually the ones who don’t ask for help who need help the most. Seek those out and help them.
Are you too proud to ask for help when you need it?
Hello and welcome to my blog! If you have been reading my blogs lately, you’d know that I was getting really tired and cranky because I’m fasting. That’s why it was really important to me to do this 21 day positive mindset challenge. As soon as I saw it, I knew I needed it.
We are going through tough times in general (I’m doing fine, thanks for asking) and the mind has the ability to overthink and go into negative rabbit holes of anxiety, depression and paranoia. So I tried this positive mindset challenge and I won’t say it transformed me into a rainbow and sunshine person, but it really helped me battle my inner demons (hopelessness and despair).
Here’s your guide of 21 days to a more positive mindset
Day 1
Practice smiling. Smile at strangers, in the mirror, smile whenever you can! You’ll feel so much more positive.
I hadn’t realized how much I had been using my poker face or frowning until I saw the challenge. It made me very aware of my facial expressions.
Day 2
Appreciate the little things today. Someone’s smile, the sunset, your morning coffee, the warmth of a sun ray, the sky.
I often do this from time to time but it was a great reminder to slow down and appreciate the details and I carried this practice with me throughout the whole challenge.
Day 3
Instead of thinking ‘my life is horrible’, think ‘things aren’t great at the moment, but this will pass. Better days are coming!’
I’ve beendoing this for some time through the gratitude app. Everyday, they send me a quote, a thought challenge a blog post, a gratitude story and an affirmation. However, I haven’t been able to tap into the application lately because I was busy so the thought challenge followed me here, thankfully!
Day 4
Rather than thinking of the horrible things that might happen, consider the great things that could come from your current situation.
I often fear worst case scenarios and panic. Sometimes it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel or to feel that things could actually get better. This was a nkce reminder of a more positive alternative future.
Day 5
Instead of saying ‘I give up’, say ‘this is hard but I’m going to keep trying’.
Consistency isn’t my strong suit (I fluctuate between extremes) but perseverance is what brought me far into my goals and it does pay off.
Day 6
Stop caring for what other people think. The thoughts of other people are not designed to make you happy and positive.
I wish I could actually implement this in my life. There is this part of me that always seeks approval because I have always felt like I did not fit in. Part of me wants to be liked and admired and valued. This was an important reminder that “I am therefore I have value” and not wait for others to validate me. It’s a work in progress.
Day 7
Instead of thinking ‘why is this happening to me?’, Think ‘ what is this teaching me?’
This is a very important teaching and I’ve heard it in many inspirational talks.
Day 8
Trust that better things are coming if you’re open to the possibilities.
Hope in a better future is vital for a healthy mind.
Day 9
Instead of thinking ‘I can’t do this’, think ‘I don’t know how to do this YET’.
I once read a blog post that said whenever you think that you can’t do something, add YET to the end of the sentence. It makes a big difference.
Day 10
Don’t compare yourself to anybody else today. It’s a total waste of time.
Deleting instagram for a week helped with that. I feel like instagram is the homeroom of comparisons. There’s a competition about who can make their life look more glamorous.
Day 11
Remember, even if you can’t control a certain situation, you can control your response.
Struggle if my life. This is a great reminder that life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you deal with it. So respond rather than reacting.
Day 12
Meditate. This will help you with overthinking, lowers your stress and can help you to be more positive.
I was working on meditation from January until March of 2021, but I did neglect it a bit until I saw this reminder. I still don’t meditate daily because it’s nit in my bullet journal, but I do meditate occasionally and I am getting better at sitting still while I’m meditating.
Day 13
Practice positive self talk. You can use positive affirmations with your meditation.
My affirmations are:
I am strong
I am smart
I am kind
I am beautiful
I am confident
I am assertive
I am brave
I am loved
Day 14
Start or end your day writing your gratitude journal.
I wrote a gratitude log prior to ramadan. Remembering what I wrote was a great reminder.
Day 15
Surround yourself with people you love and who love you back.
I have my husband and son, and my siblings and parents. I also have a few good friends. What mire could I ask for?
Day 16
Listen to music. Music can have a positive effect on your health and day.
Day 17
Practice acceptance. Appreciate everything you have right now.
This was hard, because I’m propelled to try to change what I don’t like. Serenity prayer comes in handy here.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.
Day 18
Listen to an inspirational youtube video/podcast (like ‘The Happier Podcast’). Fill your brain with motivation.
Or the Happy Times Podcast by Joey Kidney. Or Kayln’s Coffee Talk by Kayln Nicholson. Or even The Science of Happiness or Pick the Brain Podcast. I actually watched inspirational YouTube videos for an hour or so.
Day 19
List 5 things that made you smile today.
Making crepes for my son
Seeing my son eat the crepes
Painting with my son
Making a banana cake
My son’s cousin hugging me
Day 20
Instead of saying ‘I failed’, say ‘Mistakes help me learn’.
Day 21
Limit social media time. Spend more time creating and working on yourself than consuming other people’s content.
Hello and welcome to my blog! Welcome to the Ramadan series where I discuss universal concepts like kindness and inner peace from my experience. In today’s post, I’ll be discussing self doubt. My area of expertise…actually I will talk about freedom from self doubt.
To me, it feels like everybody else has it together and I’m a mess making mistakes left and right. I’m always falling short in some area or another. Ever since I read the book feeling good by dr. David Burns, I have come to identify my negative thought patterns.
The thing is, I’ve been learning about automatic negative thoughts long before I read the book. I had been trying cognitive behavioral therapy on myself for years before it finally clicked and I got to the point where I felt like I could actually control my thoughts rather than have them control me.
But even after realizing that the thoughts in my head aren’t real, that they are a figment of my anxiety and depression, that I must challenge them with rational thoughts, it’s still hard. The challenging the automatic negative thoughts part.
Some people take pills to numb their brain or slow it down (it feels likes it’s running a mile a minute sometimes). Others go to therapy or to a counselor. Some surround themselves with people who can help them get out of the negative self doubt spiral and offer empathy and sometimes solutions or suggestions.
If you need help from friends and family to help you challenge these thoughts, they would probably say things like “no you’re not stupid” or “everyone makes mistakes. Just pay more attention next time”. A bonus would be when your loved ones constantly affirm your positive attributes, not just when you’re feeling self doubt, so that when you slip up (and you will because you’re human) and nobody is available to give you a pep talk, you can affirm yourself.
I’ve been teaching my son positive affirmations for weeks. A few months ago, I wrote on the fridge: M is strong, M is brave, M is kind. I also printed out something that said “I’m proud of you. Work hard and be kind”. The 1st one had no effect on him. The 2nd one helped a bit, especially when I had to keep reminding him to be kind (he is either super kind or the complete opposite).
The affirmations I taught him to tell himself are working though. I told him your brain believes what you say so say good things about yourself. Don’t call yourself ugly or stupid. Say:
I am strong
I am fast
I am beautiful
I am brave
I am smart
I am kind
At 1st he wanted to use these to attract more toys into his life by saying I have new toys (he thought toys would magically appear) or make himself taller by saying I am tall but I told him it doesn’t work on physical attributes, just character attributes.
I struggle with self doubt a lot, and as an adult, I still can’t counteract my negative thoughts on my own. I don’t want the same fate for my son. I see him start to have an anxiety attack often and I don’t want to tell him “You have anxiety” and let that define him. Besides, that’s a professionals job. He might not have anxiety. He might just be struggling with a few things and it’s my job to teach him how to cope and how to thrive and to nurture him so that he can challenge his negative thoughts (they’re few and far in between thankfully) on his own and learn to surround himself with people who lift him up not bring him down.
Do you struggle with self doubt? How do you deal with it?
Hello and welcome to my blog! I’ve been reading a lot of blogs lately (trying to catch up) and several posts in the past few days were about complaining. They said that the more you complain about something, the more you invite it into your life.
It really made sense to me. I have noticed that I have been complaining about all the things I can’t have, and I don’t fail to mention in every post the situation in Lebanon. I don’t go to the extent of some people who all they talk about is how expensive things are getting, but I have been complaining about not being able to go out and about, and guess what? I’m still not going out and about. In fact, Lebanon has been in lockdown for 2 days but it feels like forever.
Okay enough complaining.
Now in those blog posts I read, they mentioned that to get what you want, you must practice gratitude for what you have, and thus invite more of that in your life because what you focus on grows. They also said something about coming from a place of abundance instead of coming from a place of lack by acting as if you already have what you want.
Anyway, the idea was that by coming from a place of abundance, you will manifest these things into your life.
Side note: I also listened to a bunch of coffee talk podcasts by kayln’s coffee talk and she talked about non attachment and how it gives you inner peace. She recommended the book “The courage to be disliked” which I have as a pdf but haven’t read yet. Back to the topic at hand, gratitude and manifesting.
I have been practicing gratitude for a while, but it doesn’t seem enough to stop me from complaining. I would say I’m grateful for food and shelter, but I’m mad that I can’t drive yet (I have a license but don’t have a car and my husband won’t let me use his because I haven’t had much practice yet).
I also realized that it was really difficult for me to visualize having what I want. I don’t know how to do a vision board. I could easily learn but it doesn’t interest me for now. I can’t even visualize myself on my death bed!
However, I had a Eureka moment while coloring on my phone (I use this app called Happy Color which my sister showed me a year ago but I hadn’t used in about 6 months) and I realized I’m coloring the things that I want in my life. I decided to manifest these things through the pictures I color. I already colored a few and I’ll share them here to help manifest them into my life.
Happiness. I suffer from bouts of anxiety and depression and I would like to have a positive mindset and pure joy regardless of circumstances. I manifest a positive mindset into my life. Speakers. What does the image of the “Inside Out” movie have to do with speakers? The speakers on my laptop are ruined and I’ve been using earphones for 2 months. My son is 6 and so I won’t put earphones in his ears. I have the movie Inside Out on my laptop and my son wants us to watch it together. We can only watch it if the speakers get fixed, but in the current economic situation, it’s too expensive to fix them. My husband got me external speakers that work via bluetooth but turns out my 9 year old laptops bluetooth doesn’t work and my laptop needs formatting. He returned the speakers then decided not to get different speakers, nor format my laptop. I manifest a format or speakers into my life. This image looks nice. A girl swinging contently on a swing tied to a tree with a cat nearby. Personally, I don’t like cats and swings make me dizzy, but I look at this picture and I see an idea for a novel. I’ve never written a novel before, but you never know, right? Also, when I think of a novel, I remember my other books, but instead of complaining from lack of sales, I manifest book sales and writing a novel into my life. I love picnics. I haven’t gone on a picnic in 6 years. I manifest going to the same spot I went last time.
There’s also one more thing I’m trying to manifest, but it’s personal and it’s big so I’ll keep it to myself, but I manifest it into my life (said with not as much confidence as the other manifestations).
What are you going to manifest into your life?
End note: manifesting does not mean you don’t work hard towards getting what you want. Nothing is served on a silver platter. Manifesting is the attitude you adopt instead of complaining in order to invite things into your life via Law of Attraction (I read The secret a long time ago).
Today I thought I’d share some designs I made on canva (an application). The purpose of me making these designs was to uplift myself and others. I tried putting them on instagram but they didn’t get much hype. However, making them helped with my mood (which wasn’t so great yesterday and definitely not great today).
I have a lot to do but I don’t feel like doing anything. So I’m writing to motivate myself and you to just maybe calm down and be more mindful.
I read motivational quotes all the time, but I noticed the pretty ones make me feel better, so it’s not just about the words, but the colors and shapes. I see these things on pinterest and instagram all the time and with a bit of encouragement from a dear friend, I started making them myself. I still need much improvement as I almost always start with a template, but I hope these images and words helps brighten 🔆 up your Monday!
Did you like these designs?
Did the words have a bigger effect because of the designs?
