How to be positive during negative times

When did I become such a negative person? I open my mouth and all I do is complain. I don’t like being like this. My needs aren’t being met because…well, I don’t want to get into it now. I tell myself to smile. I practice it in the mirror. I tell myself I’m happy. I look around me and feel gratitude for the things I have.

The people in my life, though, that’s where all my trouble resides. I love them. I do. They love me. I know that much. They love spending time with me, but I feel their pain and I’m frustrated because I can’t help them. I can’t make them feel better. That’s beside the things that annoy me about each and every one of them. I try to keep it in because I tell myself this is how they are. Then I wonder what they are bothered from me about and it makes me even more anxious. Do I want them to tell me about things that annoy them about me? Things that I most probably can’t or won’t change? No. I’d rather not know. I want to tell them what bothers me about them, but I also want to avoid conflict and I know telling them won’t do any good because they won’t change.

Anyway, my focus right now is getting my 6-year-old son to eat breakfast. He woke up at 10 am and refuses to eat anything. He is lazily on the couch as if he is still asleep. I just suggested to him to go play with his toys, and thankfully he did. He loves to pretend play. Mornings and evenings have become a frustration to me because at night my son refuses to sleep until 11 pm and in the morning he refuses to eat until 11 am. Hopefully, if and when school starts, his sleep schedule will get better.

For now, I wanted to share a few motivating quotes I found on Pinterest. It’s one of the things I do when I feel down, search motivating quotes on Pinterest. I probably have more than 10,000 of these on my laptop and I made some as well, but searching in itself gives me joy. So if you’re feeling down or frustrated or demotivated, I hope these help.

Be the reason someone smiles today. Studies show that making someone else happy will increase your happiness.

Accept sadness, like you accept happiness. You can’t be happy all the time.

Sometimes the world may seem against you.

But don’t be so hard on yourself. Learn to forgive, learn to let go.

Everything comes to you at the right time. Work hard but be patient.

Grow through what you go through.

You survived another day. I’m so proud of you!

Here is some humor. Have a cup of positiviTEA.

Don’t stop working towards your dreams.

Don’t let people or things hold you back or drag you down.

Live as if everything is a miracle.

Be your own sunshine.

Terrible things are happening in the world right now. Poverty. Wars. Crime. So many negative events and I’m not saying to turn a blind eye and live in blissful ignorance, but rather adopt solution-oriented thinking. Sitting around and complaining never helped anyone

Positive affirmations to brighten your Monday

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.

To do this challenge, go to: https://21dayschallengeapp.com/app/challenge

You are doing your best.

Choose to be happy.

Love yourself today.

Your possibilities are endless.

You are worthy.

You are talented and intelligent.

You can and you will.

You are unique and powerful.

You are in love with yourself and your body.

You are in peace with your past.

You will be kind to yourself and others today.

You are worthy of love and respect.

Today will be a positive day.

You are grateful for all that you have.

You are more than your negative thoughts.

You accept yourself unconditionally.

You’re healthy and happy.

Everything that is happening now is happening for your ultimate good.

You are in charge of how you feel and today you’re choosing happiness.

Today you will not compare yourself to strangers on the Internet.

You have the power to create change.

Your feelings and thoughts are valid.

I hope these affirmations helped. Not all of them work for me, but it’s much better than negativity.

Motivational Monday: Cheesy motivation

Hello and welcome to my blog! Welcome to this motivational Monday which, unfortunately, will be the last one. I began this theme to motivate and inspire you to overcome the Monday blues. The daily reminders were too short and so I would gather motivational phrases sent to me throughout the week and compile them into one post and elaborate on them. But those became redundant. It’s the same thing. Love yourself. Believe in yourself. I felt outdated and cliche.

There will still be themed posts on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. All other days, I may or may not post and it won’t be themed. Some may be how-to posts. Others will be storytime types. A few will be promos for my books (speaking of which, Motherhood in poems in on sale now so hurry up and get it).

Anyway, here is some cheesy motivation:

Trust yourself, accept your challenges, and dig deep inside yourself to conquer your fears.

Let nobody ever bring you down.

You must keep going. You must persist.

Have self-respect, and compassion, and patience.

You can deal with anything that comes your way.

You can always count on hope and love.

Take it easy on yourself. Your worth is not determined by how far you have progressed.

Any small victory should be celebrated.

Forget about the pain of the setbacks, but remember the lessons they taught you.

Motivational Monday: Feel the magic in the air

Hello and welcome to my blog! I’ve been nauseated for the past 24 hours. I don’t know what’s wrong, but I could blame it on too many carbs in the past week. I’m still not better, and I fasted anyway because I didn’t feel I could eat anyway (I had only 3 dates for suhur). Tomorrow is the 1st day of Eid Ul Adha. I hope I’m better by tomorrow. No more carbs for me.

Anyway, despite Eid week being exciting, like all holidays where family gatherings occur, there is conflict and backhanded compliments and passive-aggressive relatives. So here are a few phrases to help you get through the week:

Tiny steps still take you there.

Don’t be intimidated by the length of the ladder. Take it step by step.

Your potential is endless.

Don’t be discouraged if someone tells you that you can’t do something. If you believe in yourself and work hard, you can do anything you set your mind to.

Magic is believing in yourself.

This reminds me of the song Feel the magic in the air.

Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.

Don’t quit yet, the worst moments are usually followed by the most beautiful silver linings. You have to stay strong, remember to keep your head up and remain hopeful.

Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground.

Dream big but be realistic.

You deserve to feel loved.

Not when you succeed or when you get that job or find a husband. You deserve love now, as you are, with all your flaws.

Happiness is an inside job.

Nobody can make you happy. Only you can create your own happiness.

Give love to your insecurities.

Don’t hate your body because you don’t look like a model. Don’t hate yourself because you’re socially awkward. Love yourself because of your insecurities.

Today is your opportunity to build the tomorrow you want.

Yesterday is gone. You can’t change the past, but you can change the future.

Stop worrying about things you can’t control.

Seriously, stop. If there is something you can do about it, do it. Otherwise, don’t worry about it.

Motivational Monday: Go after your dreams

Hello and welcome to my blog! Welcome to motivational Monday where I send you off with some motivational words to kickstart your week. Some people love Mondays, but most people get the Monday blues and need a few reminders to make it through.

Last night I slept, exhausted, but grateful for everything. I could barely keep my eyes open, but I recorded a memo to remember what was on my mind and I was supposed to listen to that memo today and write a blog post of more or less what was in it. But that was then and today I woke up exhausted and I had a busy day so far, so writing that is out of the question.

Also, yesterday was the 1st day of Dhul Hijja which is a very holy month in Islam. It’s the month in which Muslims can go to Hajj and those who can’t, myself included, can do a lot of good deeds, like charity, and get many rewards. If I find the time and energy, I’ll write a post about this soon. I also need to finish chapter 2 of my novella Tony and Sandra, but for some reason I’mdoing everything but that. So for now, here are a few reminders for the coming week:

It’s a lovely day to go after your dreams. If you dare to pursue your ambitions, they can all come true. Make sure that whatever you choose makes you happy. Don’t put any restrictions on yourself. Many people place limitations on themselves based on what they believe they are capable of. You can go as far as your imagination will allow. Remember that you can achieve whatever you believe.

Trust your life’s timing. Things don’t just happen; they happen for a reason. Throw off the bowlines, sail away from safe harbor, and catch the trade winds in your sails, because twenty years from now, you’ll be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did. So explore, dream, and discover.

Think about how many battles you’ve already endured. You’ll win this one as well, because every time you thought you couldn’t go on any longer, you did. Remember it won’t transform you unless it challenges you. Growth does not happen in your comfort zone!

Have a great day and a great week! Follow me on Instagram @sajidahaddad and @lostinthewoodswithnotv if you don’t already. Don’t forget you can find my books on Amazon. My latest book is The best advice to improve yourself and your relationships. I also recently republished the kindle versions of Growing up between USA and Lebanon, and Find your voice in the middle of the noise. I also published a paperback version of these books. You can now gain points on Amazon for buying books and redeem them for ebooks!

Motivational Monday: Be patient, you will be successful

Hello and welcome to my blog! Welcome to Motivational Monday, where I motivate you with inspirational phrases that probably won’t change your life but will brighten your day.

My mood is on the upside today, as opposed to how it was yesterday. It does up and down a lot during the day, I need every ounce of motivation to keep it up as much as possible. It’s like when you’re in the middle of the ocean and every wave throws you off balance and you’re trying to float and some waves are small, causing you to move a bit harder to remain afloat, while other waves are so big they seem to swallow you and you end up swallowing so much water you’re sputtering and feel like you’ve already drowned but you didn’t.

Aside from the dramatic imagery, I’m okay today. I feel almost at peace. I’m easily triggered by little things like a slight rise in someone’s tone of voice or if someone didn’t immediately answer my question or if I’m going to be late to somewhere because of an inconvenience like I am now.

Great things take time, be patient. I’ve always been an impulsive person, so it takes a lot of effort to be patient. I make rash decisions and regret them later, but I’m learning to slow down and think things through. My goals as a writer are like shooting for the moon, but I know I will get there some day. It may take years but it will happen. I just need to work hard and be patient.

Take your dreams seriously. Sometimes I doubt myself and think, how can I become successful? I tend to procrastinate for fear of failure. I get lazy and binge-watch tv shows instead of working. The writing part is easy, but to be successful, I need to do the tedious parts as well. I need to edit, create canva designs, and promote my work.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you learn. I’ve written about failure before, and about how we can change our perception of it. If we learned something, we didn’t fail.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s impossible. You can do it!

Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time.

A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.

It’s not selfish to love yourself first. In fact, you must love yourself 1st in order to love others.

Remember, you deserve good things. Imposter syndrome be gone!

Motivational Monday: Affirmations to help you believe in yourself

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.

You are loved no matter how you feel.

Wish me luck!

Update: The visit went well. I’m glad I went.

Motivational Monday: Motivating yourself out of depression

Hello and welcome to my blog! Welcome to motivational Monday, even though my Mondays haven’t been very naturally motivated lately. Depression creeps up on me and shows up as laziness and lethargy. I woke up at 5 am today because I wanted to watch a movie before my son woke up, so then he wakes up at 6 am and there goes my alone time.

I’m not complaining. I’m learning to embrace every moment as it comes and to try and enjoy life as it is, but something I have been reading a lot about lately is that transient happiness is about seeking pleasure, whereas long-lasting happiness is about finding meaning in pain, and with everything going on in this country, I’m trying to find meaning because looking for the next hit of dopamine is getting a bit addictive.

I keep needing more tv shows, more novels, and the effect seems to wear off pretty quickly when I compare it to reality. My son is adjusting well but I’m feeling guilty for being depressed. Does that make sense? I try not to show it. I seem busy and self-indulged but on the inside, I feel hopeless and helpless and I’m trying not to be.

Watching Islamic reminders on YouTube helps. Reading doesn’t help much anymore because I’m so unfocused but writing helps. I feel so lonely but I keep praying that God takes that loneliness away because only He can.

The following reminders I have gathered over the week are as much for me as they are for you. I even created designs of them on Canva to help them sink in.

You matter simply because you exist.

One day you will look back on this and you will be proud that you didn’t give up. So keep on going. You got this!

I hope you know how wonderful you are.

Happy looks good on you!

Be gentle with yourself while you’re growing…

You attract what you are, not what you want. If you want great, then be great.

Your potential is endless.

Be proud of how far you’ve come.

You can’t grow when you’re comfortable.

Your only limit is your mind.

The key to success is to focus on goals, not obstacles.

I hope these reminders helped. They helped me as I was making them and posting them made me feel like maybe one of you is going through something and needs a reminder or two. I’m off to eat ice cream with my son because that’s what we do when the electricity is off between 5 and 6 pm.

Motivational Monday: Feeling overwhelmed or insecure?

Hello and welcome to my blog! It’s been such a day today. Monday is starting to become my most dramatic day. It’s like all the drama charged up during the week is let out on Monday. It’s exhausting and very anticlimactic after having a wonderful weekend.

Nevertheless, I’m training myself to look on the bright side of everything. Despite all the pain and drama today, I’m grateful for the 3 hours of me-time (technically I had 2 hours of alone time) and for being productive (I may have overbooked my to-do list).

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, insecure, or you’re just looking for some Monday motivation, you’ve come to the right place:

Cultivate an optimistic mind, use your imagination, always consider alternatives, and dare to believe that you can make possible what others think is impossible.

Focus on the step in front of you, and not the whole staircase.

Stop comparing yourself to other people. If you enjoy what you are doing and it fills you up, that’s all that matters.

Take the risk. Don’t let the unknown stop you from progressing.

Sometimes later becomes never. Do it now.

Don’t worry so much about tomorrow that you miss today.

Enjoy the good moments, stay positive in the bad. Know that everything will be alright.

Dream it. Wish it. Do it.

Motivational Monday: Be your motivation

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!