Five Ways to Life Yourself Up When You are Feeling Stuck & Down in the Dumps

I consider myself to be a fairly positive person and I love to laugh and smile a lot. However, I am also human and there are times, especially those heartbreaking days after a loss, where I feel anywhere from broken to downright depressed.

I used to think I had to wait until that feeling passed until I could be happy again - that I had to struggle with the sadness and depression until someone or something decided I could be happy.

What I know now is nothing could be further from the truth. That is because you and I have the emotional resourcefulness available to us to shift from how we are feeling to how we want to feel.

Here are a few of the things I am doing, right now, to pick me up when I am down, and help me feel how I want to feel: 

1.) Compliment myself - when I feel down I can go into a negative self-talk. Forcing myself to compliment myself, even if I have to acknowledge myself for picking my dirty underwear up off the floor, can make a really profound shift. It helps me wade through the emotional mud.

2.) Exercise - without fail exercise, and eating healthy, has been at the forefront of my healing process as it has been essential in helping me cope with some of the overwhelming pain that comes with loss. Whenever I need to snap out of a "less than ideal emotional state," I do my best to eat healthy 80-90% of the time (the other 10-20% is for fun) and exercise 5 - 6 days a week doing a combination of weight training and cardiovascular conditioning.

3.) Laugh - laughter, as they say, can cure all and it really does wonders to help you make changes, very fast. When I need a good laugh, I hop over to Youtube and pull up some videos I know will warm my heart with laughter. (Note: I encourage you to build a funny video playlist on Youtube so you have easy access to your resources).

4.) Practice Gratitude - conceptually I got it, but it wasn't until I started doing it that I really experienced the profound emotional shift that came when I began to focus on gratitude daily. Every morning I spend a few minutes reciting as many things as I can think of that I am grateful for. If the weather is nice, I will do this outdoors. Nature seems to add a little extra emotional energy to the experience. (I share a daily gratitude post on my Instagram account. Be sure to follow me there and share what you are grateful for).

5.) Connect with positive people - it has been scientifically proven that we are all omitting a certain energy field and that we pick up on the energy of others. It has also been said we are the average of the 5 people we surround ourselves with the most often. Want to feel happier, more inspired, more fulfilled, then surround yourself with people who radiate those emotions. As soon as I connect with others that lift me up, I immediately feel uplifted and I bet you will too! (This is, in part, why I created the Moving Forward Group, so that we could surround ourselves with like-minded people who are wanting to heal and move forward from their loss).

I hope this email was helpful to you. Give the above five a try and let me know how they work for you.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse

http://www.jessebrisendine.com 

You Must Become Your Own Super Mario

There is one person and one person only that holds the power to take your life to the next level and that is you.

Life isn't like a Mario Brothers video game where you can just find a magic power up and level up in life.

To get to the next level requires 3 things from you:

1.) A decision - you must decide that it is no longer acceptable to continue on as you have. You must draw your line in the sand and decide that from this day forward you are going to live life at a new level.

2.) A commitment - you must commit to playing a bigger game. You must commitment to beginning a new journey and traveling a path few have ever traveled before. You must commit to remaining on the path and acquiring the tools/skills necessary to travel this path. This path will not be free from obstacles or challenges so you must commit to facing them as they arise.

3.) Implementation and Effort - no one said it would be easy, but the destination will be worth the effort it takes to get there. Learn, implement, learn, implement, learn, implement, adjust, refine, learn, and implement more.

If you stick with it your efforts will yield what you seek.

You hold the power.

Today can be the day you begin to take your life to the next level.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse 

http://www.jessebrisendine.com

http://www.facebook.com/1year1000challenge

Why People Refuse to Change and The Secret Payoff They Get

It is Easter morning as I sit here and type this to you!  I am getting ready to enjoy some yummy Easter snacks, but wanted to be sure to share this message.

I, and likely you, have heard it many times before: "I wish I, he, she, they, could/would change."

Yet they don't, why?

There are many reasons why someone doesn't change and in this video below I have included a few of the big ones.

Let me know what your key take aways are from it.

Any questions before to leave them in the comments.

AND

If you want to take advantage of the special opportunity I mention in the video, you can do that by click here.




Carpe Diem,

Jesse

http://www.jessebrisendine.com

http://www.facebook.com/1year1000challenge

I Cried When I Sold my Car

A couple weeks ago I bought a new car and as a part of that process traded in my old car.

The last few years I have had ongoing back problems which has limited a lot of the things I enjoy doing physically. 

For the last year I have been pulling the magnifying glass out and looking at day to day behaviors in an attempt to asses where I can reduce certain movements and the toll they take.

One of the more taxing movements was getting in and out of my car.

Realizing this I began the process, about six months ago, to look for a new car.

I say "began the process," because I was not overly motivated to look.  I still liked my car enough and it still had plenty of miles left in it, but as time went on it became more evident of what I was giving up by not moving forward.

Have you ever felt like that?  Felt like you were giving something up by not moving forward?  Felt like your unwillingness to change was keeping you from something more?

I did my research and when it finally came time to make a decision I began to feel sad at the prospect of saying goodbye to my "Little Car," (a name I have affectionately called it for the last eight years).

When I signed the papers for my new car, I walked outside to look through my "Little Car" to make sure I had got all my possessions and say goodbye.  As I did this I began to cry.  In that moment I was flooded with this deep feeling of gratitude I had for my Little Car.

I looked at it and saw so many memories in the 109,000 miles we had traveled together. 

My Little Car was home to 1000's of laughs and tears. It was the vehicle that took me to so many amazing sunrise's and sunset's.  It always got me safely from point A, B, C - Z and back again.  It was what carried me to my Mom's house, in silence, after learning my Dad had died.  It was where countless heart to heart's happened. My Little Car had so much good news shared within it's interior as well as housed a number of heartbreaks too.

All this and more came rushing back to me as I said goodbye to my Little Car - a Gratitude for it I had never felt before.

When I finally drove away from it, my heart was so filled with love and appreciation for it that I found myself thinking: "I want to feel this level of gratitude all the time."

Gratitude adds a deeper level of meaning in life and when you live your life from a place of gratitude you will find that there just isn't a lot of room for the "other stuff."

I am grateful for all the amazing moments experienced in my Little Car.  I am extra grateful for the final amazing moment we shared together and the valuable life lesson that was contained within it: the importance of living each day from a place of love and gratitude.

Carpe Diem,

Jesse

http://www.jessebrisendine.com
http://www.facebook.com/1year1000challenge