Not much fun is it?  Luckily, there’s lots you can do to turn around a bad day. 

Accept Your Bad Mood
During a day of sadness or despair, you don’t have to deny or pretend that life isn’t painful. You don’t have to minimalize what you are feeling.  There’s nothing worse than being in a bad mood while trying to pretend that everything’s fine.  Pushing down or denying sadness adds guilt to the experience, and leads to ignoring your needs for self-care. Acceptance of the situation allows you to take a breath, and take care of yourself in ways that are helpful. 

Decide to Persevere
Make a conscious choice to persevere through the day. Tell yourself that this happens to everyone, and as bad as it seems, it can’t last forever. The first step to overcoming a sad day is to realize that just because you feel horrible right now, doesn’t mean it will be that way tomorrow. 

Slow Down and Relax
Sometimes those sad, sick, lonely, or tired moments are a sign to slow down and reflect a little bit. Instead of running out the door in the morning, or escaping into the television at night, take a little time—even if it’s just a few minutes—to breathe, enjoy a cup of hot tea, read something inspirational, and listen to soothing music. Fill your physical senses with as much comfort and beauty as you can. 

Express Yourself
A common tendency is to push down uncomfortable feelings while hoping they’ll go away on their own. However, pushing down your emotional state is neither healthy nor your speediest course to feeling better. What does work is giving your emotions and feelings expression. This doesn’t mean looking around and finding someone or something to blame your emotions on. There’s no need to “fix” your mood, or even uncover the reason why you’re feeling bad. Who knows, maybe you slept badly, or you’re coming down with the flu. What’s important is that you give expression to what you’re feeling. Talking honestly to someone about what you’re going through, or writing your experience in a journal frees up some of the energy of those heavy emotions and helps you get back into the flow of things. 

Radical Self-Care
Sometimes, nothing really helps, except getting through it. And one of the best ways to “get through it” is to take radical care of yourself right now, when you need it most. If you’re having a really bad day, it may be a good idea to withdraw for a short time if you can. Take a walk in nature. Sit outside in the sunshine. Take a warm bath. If you’re at work, consider going home early or giving yourself a mental health day. Look inside yourself and engage in the actions that bring comfort.

Everyone occasionally experiences a terrible mood. Even if you’ve somehow found yourself in a terrible funk, that doesn’t mean you can’t pull through and recover. Even the smallest action can sometimes change our perspective and begin to turn things around. 

Above are just a few of the many ways to successfully handle a bad day. What’s your experience? How do you get yourself through those days where the sun just doesn’t seem to be shining for you? Take a few minutes and share your tips with us in the comments section below.  We’d love to hear your best ideas for handling a bad day!

Can’t get excited about the day ahead of you?

Feel like you’re not in love with yourself? 

If there’s one thing I’ve learned during my 50 years of life, and over 25 years of helping myself and others lead a life filled with energy and enthusiasm, it’s that everything begins with an authentic desire to feel better. This is just another way of saying that what we all want to be filled with our own love, bubbling up from inside of ourselves, and expressed outwardly into the world. We want to be free to place our energy and authentic desires into creative activities that have meaning to us personally. 

While there are many ways and many paths to achieving this higher state of consciousness, I wanted to share some really specific and concrete things you can do today, right now, or this week to change the dynamics of your relationship with yourself and start feeling excited about your life again. 

Simple, fun, and effective! Here you go…. 

Create a Big Vision for Your Life.
Think big and write it down. There’s something magical about thinking into the future and imaging yourself living a great life. Writing down your dreams begins the process of crystallizing that imagined life by moving it into reality. No longer is your desire swirling around in your ethereal mist. It has now taken a step into physical life. 

Start Small.
A big dream is exactly that—BIG. And big often implies overwhelming. That’s why your big written dream is only a roadmap, not a daily action plan. Use your dreams as a guidepost to determine your everyday choices and actions. With each choice and action you can ask, “Did I move in the general direction of my dream, or did I wander off course?” 

Look for the Passion in Your Journey.
Having more passion involves a sense of knowing what you want and moving in that direction because doing so is important to you. You decide to face your challenges or attempt to bring your desires to life because doing so will allow a new expression of who you really are. You decide you want to feel differently in your body, overcome stress, end your struggles with weight, find a way to move through depression, or begin that new career because you want to live your life differently, more powerfully, and filled with more happiness. You may not succeed right away, but you have to know within yourself that what you want is important to you! 

Live in the Present.
Take whatever steps are necessary to heal your past, forgive and let go, and live in the present moment. Reexamine your past experiences from the vantage point of this present moment. How did you grow as a result? Was there a hidden gift in the experience? What did you learn as a result of the situation? Repeat this process until you can forgive yourself and others, let go of fear, anger, and resentment, and bring the wisdom gained from those past experiences into your present life. 

Demonstrate Appreciation to Yourself.
Author Melodie Beattie explains to us, “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.  It turns what we have into enough, and more.  It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.  It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.  Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.”  

Cultivating an inner appreciation for the joy that is already present in our lives shifts our focus from what is wrong with our lives to what is right.  If we take the time, no matter how troubled we feel, we can find something about ourselves and our life to be thankful for. Allowing yourself the opportunity to feel even a little better than you feel right now is how a great life expands. 

Look For the Best In Yourself.
Maybe you’re not sure exactly when it happened, but somehow it became a habit to focus on what was wrong with your body, your life, and your inner being. No need to dig up old skeletons, but there is a need to change focus. Start looking for evidence of your worth and beauty. Don’t just come up with a thing or two you enjoy about yourself, come up with a hundred wonderful things about you. Write those things down and begin the process of teaching yourself to recognize the love that is you. 

Engage in New Activities and Have More Fun.
So much of the self-help journey is focused on attempting to fix the undesirable parts of ourselves and our lives. While it’s important to learn how to love and embrace those hard-to-love parts, we often forget to hit the easy button. In this case, engage in new activities and have more fun. Humans thrive on new experiences. There’s something inside us that wants to play, to experience new things, to expand our talents and knowledge. One easy way to get out the rut and experience more vibrancy is to do something out of the ordinary. Today, find at least one new way to laugh and play and explore! 

Remember that what is most important in life is what will give you joy in both the long-run and the short-run, not just what will give you a moment of pleasure. Reflect on what you truly value in life and make your needs a priority. Give yourself more opportunities to engage in the actions that bring feelings of joy, love, and happiness. There’s nothing more important to yourself—and to the world—than your growing love of yourself!

Sometimes, we get so involved in reaching the goal (i.e. once I lose this weight, get a new job, find my true self, etc.) that we forget the easy and simple things that keep joy growing.

This article is to help those who need a reminder or two for quick and easy ways to feel better right now. Like seeds in a garden, joy blooms with daily care and attention.

Below are ten very quick and simple things you can do, each under one minute, every day to keep your joy growing strong. Here you go…

Ten Things to do Every Day to Keep Your Joy Abundant… 

1.  Today, choose for yourself heaven in your heart, light in your soul, and miracles in your life.

2.  Send love into the day ahead and expect joy and delightful experiences.

3.  Take a deep breath and accept that it is your responsibility to take initiative to do something for yourself to feel better.

4.  Ask, “What could I do right now to make today slightly better than it would be if I just let it run its natural course?”

5.  Take the scenic route and find a way to make your drive fresh, magical, and fun.

6.  There is only one way to create a fulfilling life for yourself… and that is by making fulfilling choices right now.

7.  Share your love daily.

8.  Burn the candles, eat on the fancy china, wear your best clothes. Don’t save it for a far off special occasion. Today is special.

9.  Walk your talk. Being harmonious in what you think, say, and do brings joy.

10.  Sing even when you don’t feel like it. Signing lifts your spirits like nothing else can. 

There are so many more simple ways to keep your joy abundant and growing. In fact, how about sharing a few of your ideas and tips in the comments section below. We’d love to hear your input!

The greatest desire of any individual is to become more excited about being alive. Make it your priority to take time each day to nurture your joy and keep your inner spark alive!

With snow on the ground, it’s time to bundle up and head outside. Gloves, hats, boots, and scarves make today a winter FUN day! This morning I headed out and had a snowball fight with my husband, built a couple of snowmen, and made snow angels.

Then I took a long walk to listen to the stillness around me. Above are my first daffodils of the season covered in snow, and below is a coyote in the woods behind my house. How awesome is that!

If it’s snowing by you, let out your inner child and go play!! You’ll be glad you did.

Stopping By Woods On a Snowy Evening
Robert Frost (1923)

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound’s the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

However, so often I hear people refusing to give themselves permission to give themselves alone time, even when they are exhausted. They place a higher value on being busy, being productive, and taking care of everyone but themselves. They feel as if spending time alone is a guilty pleasure that they are not deserving of giving themselves. 

As it turns out, solitude is a positive state, necessary to remain sane and healthy. If you’ve been super busy taking care of everyone but yourself, today’s article outlines the importance of putting alone time at the top of your everyday priority list. Achieving your goals, making space for all kinds of good stuff to come in, and taking focused action on what’s most important requires significant amounts of alone time. It’s only when you create space for solitude that you can reflect on your own inner desires, set new goals, and discover your courage to pursue personal dreams. 

Not everyone needs hours of time alone, but everyone needs his or her own personal balance between engagement with the world and engagement with self. Here are five indisputable reasons to end perpetual busyness and make no excuses for privacy and solitude. 

1. Time to Rediscover Self and Reevaluate Priorities
People often want to accomplish big important things in their personal lives…like achieving a fit and healthy body, overcoming an addiction, writing a first novel, or beginning a new self-based business. But one of the top reasons that stops them from achieving their goals is an inability to put themselves as a number one priority in their everyday lives. Deciding to spend time alone each day is an important step toward recognizing the value of putting self as a priority. 

2. Bring Back Your Lust for Life
You may be wildly busy in your life, but are you joyfully taking action on your most important dreams? It’s easy to push your personal goals to the back burner and think you’ll get to them tomorrow, next week, or next year. Unfortunately tomorrow never gets here. Each day becomes a repeat of the previous day. Living in a repetitive rut results in boredom and diminishing joy. 

To bring back your hunger for life, spend some time alone each day focusing on new experiences that would allow you to grow and branch out beyond the ho-hum of everyday living. To bring your dreams or personal goals back to the front burner, take a few minutes of alone time each morning and ask yourself these questions: 

• What is really important in my life today?
• What can I do to nurture the core central relationships in my life today?
• What is one action I can take on the dream that is most significant to me?

3. Time to Breathe and Release Stress Levels
Stress happens when we believe that we do not have the time, experiences, or resources to deal with a challenge or situation. Feeling pressured and anxious about a perceived unsolvable or impossible situation, our bodies release adrenaline and gear up for a fight or flight response to handle the immediate danger. Taking a few minutes of alone time to breathe and calm down helps bring new perspective that while the situation at hand may be undesirable, it is not a life or death situation. With relaxation comes a new ability to be at ease with yourself. And with ease comes the ability to tap into inner resources, grasp valuable insights, and find new innovative, creative solutions.

4. Be With Your Own Feelings
Taking time alone creates space to relax, clear out the world, and be with no one else’s feelings but your own. By stepping away from all the outside noise and busyness, you allow new opportunity to clear confusion and sort out your emotions and feelings. Once our head is clear, you can take the time to explore what you truly believe. 

5. Be Independent
A person who leads a self-reliant life is able to think for him or herself rather than meekly accepting other people’s ideas. When you’re relaxing by yourself it’s much easier to enjoy some self-reflection, be true to your own private heart, more independent, and more in control of your personal choices. Increasing your alone time can lead to an empowered ability to trust yourself, trust personal intuition, make decisions for yourself, and be confident in your own ability.  

Michel Montaigne, French Renaissance writer and scholar is quoted as saying, “A man should keep for himself a little back shop, all his own, quite unadultered, in which he establishes his true freedom and chief place for seclusion and solitude.” Indeed, for all men and women, creating solitude can refresh and lead us into acting genuinely. 

Starting today, make a solid decision to nurture yourself with solitude. Be sure to block off some time each day where you won’t be interrupted. Then relax and enjoy the alone time essential to your health, inner peace, and happiness.

My amazingly talanted graphic designer Ted Ruybal is currently working on creating the cover for my upcoming book Depression Freedom: Ending the Reign of Darkness. This is a very exciting time and I’d love to share the fun!

To view the  images of the book cover click on the link below:

Cover Samples for Depression Freedom

A PDF file will open which contains four separate cover possibilities. If you can’t read PDF files, you’ll first need to download the free Adobe PDF reader available at http://get.adobe.com/reader/

Now that you’ve opened the files, which design do you like best? Which features are most striking? What don’t you like? What would you change? At this stage of the design process, we have the flexibility to make the changes we want. 

I’m so excited to share these beautiful covers, and I can’t wait to hear your feedback. Leave your comments below or send me an email at Annette@AnnetteColby.com. I can’t wait to hear what you have to say!

With love,
Annette

May I share my three biggest ideas for 2010 with you? I’ll take that as a ‘yes.’ 

First is to promote my book *Depression Freedom* which will be in print within the next 4 to 6 weeks. I know the book is about depression, but it is uplifting and inspiring. The book was born from love and the ability to see the larger picture is the gift of this book. It’s different than anything else on depression that you may have seen or experienced. And it’s not just for people who are depressed; it’s also for people who are on a path of personal growth. 

Second is to write a series of daily pocket-book sized inspiration books around the topics of depression, divorce, grieving, facing challenges, and increasing joy, motivation, intuition, and creating a more harmonious relationship with the body. 

Finally, I’m also wishing to create a deck of 50 daily inspirational cards. I have always loved using these cards. I have them in my bathroom and scattered throughout the house. There’s just something exciting about seeing the beautiful card deck, taking an introspective breath, and then seeing what card comes up. It’s just one of those little things that adds an extra spark to the day. 

Those are my top creative ideas that I’ve been putting my energy into. What about you? What are your three biggest ideas for 2010? Share your comments below. This is your opportunity to express your ideas out loud and expand your inspiration! 

The world needs your joy sooner rather than later. Do whatever you have to do to make your dreams a priority. 

It’s your turn to be alive and joyful!

On the surface of the world right now there is war and violence and things
seem dark
But calmly and quietly, at the same time, something else is happening
underground
An inner revolution is taking place and certain individuals are being called
to a higher light
It is a silent revolution
From the inside out
From the ground up

It is time for me to reveal myself
I am an embedded agent of an secret, undercover
Clandestine
Global operation
A spiritual conspiracy
We have sleeper cells in every nation on the planet

You won’t see us on the T.V.
You won’t read about us in the newspaper
You won’t hear about us on the radio

We don’t seek any glory
We don’t wear any uniform
We come in all shapes and sizes
Colors and styles

Most of us work anonymously
We are quietly working behind the scenes in every country and culture of
the world
Cities big and small, mountains and valleys, in farms and villages, tribes
and remote islands

You could pass by one of us on the street and not even notice
We go undercover
We remain behind the scenes
It is of no concern to us who takes the final credit
But simply that the work gets done

Occasionally we spot each other in the street
We give a quiet nod and continue on our way so no one will notice

During the day many of us pretend we have normal jobs
But behind the false storefront at night is where the real work takes place

Some call us the “Conscious Army”
We are slowly creating a new world with the power of our minds and hearts
We follow, with passion and joy
Our orders from the Central Command
The Spiritual Intelligence Agency

We are dropping soft, secret love bombs when no ones is looking
Poems
Hugs
Music
Photography
Movies
Kind words
Smiles
Meditation and prayer
Dance
Social activism
Websites
Blogs
Random acts of kindness

We each express ourselves in our own unique ways with our own unique
gifts and talents

“Be the change you want to see in the world”
That is the motto that fills our hearts
We know it is the only way real transformation takes place
We know that quietly and humbly we have the power of all the oceans
combined

Our work is slow and meticulous
Like the formation of mountains
It is not even visible at first glance
And yet with it entire tectonic plates shall be moved in the centuries to
come

Love is the new religion of the 21st century

You don’t have to be a highly educated person
Or have any exceptional knowledge to understand it

It comes from the intelligence of the heart
Embedded in the timeless evolutionary pulse of all human beings

Be the change you want to see in the world
Nobody else can do it for you

We are now recruiting
Perhaps you will join us
Or already have….
All are welcome…
The door is open

-Brian Piergrossi
(From the book “The Big Glow”)

The fruit looks somewhat like a yellow human hand, with way too many fingers. It looks like it would be more likely to eat your head than be eaten. Unable to resist, I pulled out my iPhone and snapped a few pictures. Soon, a small crowd was gathered as we excitedly picked up the fruit, scratched its surface, and indulged in the powerfully aromatic aroma. 

The produce manager walked over and quickly began telling the history behind this beautiful exotic fruit. We learned the fruit is called a Buddha’s Hand Citron, and is a member of the citrus family. It smells strongly of lemon, but there is no juicy pulp hidden inside. Instead, it is used for its powerful zest to flavor certain lemon liqueurs and specialty vodkas such as Hangar One’s Buddha’s Hand Citron Vodka. In addition, Chinese and Japanese households hang it in their homes for good luck, happiness, wealth, and longevity,  and as a natural air freshener. 

This goes to show that you never know where you will discover unexpected delights! Something as simple as a routine trip to the grocery store could become a grand opportunity of flavor, fun, and new adventures. Happiness really is in the moment!

A Guide to Healing the Human Spirit 

Do you wonder why it is so hard to get better? Do you long to fill the loneliness within you? Would you like to experience true freedom of the soul? 

DEPRESSION is one of the major issues every awakening human encounters in their spiritual journey. This powerful book reveals new insights about the nature of spiritual depression … and how to move through it. 

Do you ever say:

• I have so much to be grateful for, why am I so depressed? Find out why. 
• If God loves me, why can’t I get over this? The answer may surprise you. 

Do you ever want:

• To release deep, age-old wounds and begin enjoying life in a completely new way? Learn how “fighting” depression keeps you in its grip.
• A fast and easy way to unfreeze stuck depression? It really is easy, and it doesn’t involve struggle.  

Have you ever considered:

• That suicidal thoughts are part of your journey? Surprising revelations about healing suicidal thoughts and making new, conscious choices. 

Depression Freedom: Ending the Reign of Darkness shows the steps you can take to lead yourself through depression to find the loving spirit that lies within. By using the insights and powerful healing tools offered in this book, you will discover how to stop the reign of darkness and embrace a new celebration of life.