salaam readers. this past week was tough. i am dealing with the last requirements for school, we are planning on moving in three months (eek!) AND a hacker got into my website and spammed the front page with ads.

what a week.

i found this article extremely inspiring since we all get into a funk every now and then and it is essential to understand ways to get out of it. life is a constant roller coaster but if we respect the down times, we can really appreciate the highs. Dreamin’ the Life is a great site for motivation, inspiration and education…check it out!

10 Ways to Get Yourself Out of a Funk and Have a Better Attitude

Posted: 11 Apr 2010 06:57 PM PDT

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I’m in a funk. I just realized that I’ve been in a really negative today. So negative in fact that I am even annoying myself. I’m just grumpy for no reason, and have a crappy attitude.

I’m in a funk because the negative attitude is disproportionate to what’s going on in my life. I don’t have too much of a reason to be in a bad mood. I’ve had a great weekend. Been productive, got to sleep in, and had some good things happen. Yet I’m still crabby.

So here’s a list of things that can snap you out of the bad mood that mysteriously plops itself down in your path from time to time. (And no, it doesn’t say the usual: Go exercise. That one’s obvious, and for me it’s hard to motivate to exercise when I’m in a funk.)

1. Take a shower or a bath.

You never really feel worse after taking a shower. It makes you feel refreshed, more awake, which in turn brightens the mood. Or get a good book and soak in a hot bath. Force yourself to ease your tensions with a steamy shower.

2. Eat Chocolate.

Break out the chocolate bar and have a snack. It is proven to have anti-depressive effects, and simply tastes damn good.

3. Do your make up or do something to make yourself look better.

I feel better when I look better. When you are in a funk, you’re probably laying around the house in pajamas, being lazy. After you take a shower, put on make up. Even if you aren’t going anywhere, put on clean clothes  and spruce up your appearance a bit.

4. Be around people that love you.

It’s hard to be negative around people that love you, and show it. You can try, but making yourself be with loved ones reminds you how lucky you are to have good family or friends.

5. Be around people that make you laugh.

I’m lucky that my family makes me laugh. During Easter, we were all cracking each other up so much that we were crying, and unable to eat. The food got cold because our silliness lasted so long. Last week I was laughing so hard at work that I snorted. It’s hard to be upset when you are snorting.

6. Write.

Sit down for 15 minutes and write about everything that is stressing you out or bringing you down. Get it out, feel it, and think about it. Then let it go. Sometimes we feel worse because something is wrong, but we keep going on and try to ignore it. Writing is so therapeutic, and makes you realize things that you never would have if you didn’t get it out out of your head and on to paper.

7. Go to bed early.

Just like it’s okay to be in a bad mood sometimes, it’s also okay to not be able to snap out of it. Accept that you are having a bad day and just go to bed early. Get some extra sleep, and remember that tomorrow will be better. Most of the time, I wake up in a great mood just as mysteriously as I slipped into a funk.

8. Be grateful.

Shift your negative focus. Write down five things that you are grateful for right now. Or make a list of as many as you can think of. Even if you aren’t in a positive mood, there is always something to be grateful for.

9. Make a play list of happy music.

Carol King just told me I’m beautiful. Playing this song on repeat works wonders. Make a play list of only upbeat music, and play it loud.

10. Clean up for 15 minutes.

Tidy up your surroundings. Set a timer for short period of time, and do a minimal clean up. Your house is always more depressing to be in when it’s messy or unorganized. It doesn’t take very long to do a little clean up, and has a big influence on mood.

In the past couple hours, I’ve taken a shower, and done my hair and make up. Carol King is telling me I’m beautiful and I’m munching on some chocolate. I’m about to get dressed and go out to dinner with some friends and family who love me and make me laugh. That should do the trick.

salaam readers! inshAllah you had a great weekend. we had a nice one, busy since we were at a conference and meetings all weekend. i was able to go to a sisters “southern style” brunch which was a lot of fun! i made some yummy vegan apple pie cookies which you can find the recipe for HERE.

i thought that this short article about motivation might be useful for many of us who are trying to get through the “blahs”, that time that comes after a long, hard winter. we are all stressed out, trying to find time to do everything and sometimes you need to take a step back and realize what it really means to be productive. this motivation is from Upgrade Reality which is a self-improvement website that has a bunch of other interesting articles…check it out!

How to Be (un)Productive

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Being unproductive is the one thing we are naturally good at. Stalling, procrastinating, coming up with excuses why you should not get to work. “I just wanna check my email for 5 minutes, I swear”, and before you know it an hour has passed. Watching Youtube videos, reading your favorite blogs, sitting on Facebook. It is so easy to become distracted on the internet.

Even in real life, Televisions (and DVD players) are one of the biggest contributors to unproductivity (if there is such a word). Especially TV series, I know how addictive they can be. Once you start a good show, you have to keep watching it, and often there are 3 or more seasons, which cause you to watch for hours and days on end. And that promise to get to work as soon as we are done with the movie, that is just to clear the guilt that we have of knowing we should be working instead of lazing.

Its easier to be unproductive but at the end of the day it feels better being productive. It takes a little more effort to sit down and get in the productive mode, but once your work is done, it feels rewarding, and hopefully is.

For the first week in Amsterdam, I have been super unproductive. I went out every single night, came back between 2am and 4am and only woke up sometimes as late as 2pm. I managed to do two blog posts and that was pretty much it. I spent hours watching Prison Break right from the beginning (it’s an awesome show by the way, I’m almost done with season 2 now) and ate a lot of junk food like fries, chocolates, burgers and crisps.

It was fun to do for that week, and I don’t regret it. However, after a week it starts feeling dirty and unnatural. It doesn’t feel good going out to clubs and bars every night, getting home so late and sleeping through most of your day. Getting nothing done during the day and eating unhealthy doesn’t feel very good either.

Life is not about being a workaholic, not at all. It is nice to take vacation, do nothing and be lazy or do some hobbies. I just know how hard it can be to get yourself to sit down and work, especially when you work for yourself and not for a boss. There is all the freedom to do nothing if you want, but there is also the responsibility to get things done, build up the business and make money.

Let’s take UpgradeReality as an example. The aim is to build it up to a great, helpful resource about self improvement with a couple thousand readers and high rankings in search engines. If I procrastinate and watch TV instead of working on my blog or writing blog posts, I am not magically going to get more readers or better rankings. However (if I take things day by day or week by week and keep writing posts and guest posts on other blogs), over time UpgradeReality will grow towards the goals I set for it.

How To Be Productive:

The key to being productive is to resist the temptation of procrastinating and just getting to work. Once you sit down and start working and get in that mode, then being creative and productive comes pretty easily. The fact of knowing that things are not going to happen by themselves, combined with the ambition to get somewhere, make money and achieve things, are a good motivator to focus, sit down and start working.

I find that getting things done and working on something actually feels good. Sometimes writing a blog post for me seems like a big chore, and I beat around the bush, but once I sit down and start writing then I really enjoy the process and the end result.

Laziness of often justified by “I dont care”.
“I dont care if i get fat.”
“I don’t care if I dont make that much money.”
“I don’t care if I don’t have a date for friday nights.”
The truth is that deep down you really do care.

Another helpful secret to working consistenly is finding some sort of routine. If you work for youself you have the luxury of choosing your own routine. Personally I am most productive early in the morning when I wake up. For the rest of my time here in Amsterdam I choose to wake up, work for 2-3 hours and then taking the rest of the day to enjoy and have fun. It can turn out that I work 6 hours or more, but only if I want to or feel that I need to. I want a minimum of 2 hours a day dedicated to my projects.

Maybe you are more productive at night. In that case it is wise to set up your routine for those hours. If you are really dedicated and focused, then you can be more productive in 2-3 hours than most people can in a 8-10 hour shift. This is great because you get more done AND you have more time to play.

The Secret To Being Productive:

• Resist the temptation of procrastinating.
• Motivate yourself with the goal of achieving something.
• Sit down and get to work.
• Focus and dedicated your attention to your work for a few hours.
• Rinse, wash and repeat.

Have a Rockin’ day
Diggy

Seek Danger (An Open Letter To A Friend)

Stop.

Stop listening to everybody around you.

Stop following aimlessly.

Stop making excuses.

Start going after what you want.

Make decisions.

Don’t apologize for those decisions.

Some decisions you make will be wrong.

You will fail.

Some decisions you make will be spot on.

You will succeed.

Some decisions you make will just be.

That’s OK too.

You know what you want. Your friends and family know what they want for you.

There is a monumental difference between the two.

It’s the difference between being happy and just being.

You can’t please everybody.

Don’t try.

Most people won’t agree with you.

Good.

Agreement is safe.

Acceptance is safe.

Doing what you’ve been doing is safe.

Seek danger.

Salaam! This Monday’s motivation is an article from one of my favorite inspirational website, Zen Habits. We can all get into slumps of self-doubt and sometimes it is hard to get out of them. We need to remember that we are wonderful, accomplished people who can do whatever we set out to do! I need to take this advice to heart, especially when I get so stressed out about all of the things that I have to get done every day, every week, etc.

Self doubt has been something I’ve struggled with all my life, from debating whether I could get into a top tier university to believing I could succeed as a writer. It’s a very human emotion, and it’s made worse for some people because of life experiences or temperament. Self doubt also makes you feel alone. Sometimes you think you’re the only person in the universe who suffers from a crisis of confidence, and you wish that you could be more like your successful, self-assured neighbor. Well, I guarantee that your neighbor doubts himself every now and then too.

You won’t ever be able to rid yourself of doubt entirely – believe me, I’ve tried. But I hope that these suggestions will lessen your pain when dark thoughts are all around you.

Go back in time: The first step to overcoming self doubt is to recognize that it’s there in the first place. Think about the circumstances that are leading you to feel insecure, and see if you notice any patterns. Are there particular situations (for example, dealing with a new boss, speaking in public) that prompt you to feel this way? Make a note of times in the past when you doubted yourself but ended up coming through with flying colors. Knowledge and recognition of your past successes will bolster your courage regarding what you can achieve in the future.

Defeat the doubtful thoughts: In one column, write a doubtful thought, and in the opposite column, write facts that dispute that doubtful thought. For instance, suppose you are afraid to invite a new colleague to lunch because you’re afraid you won’t have anything to talk about and she won’t like me. Statements that refute that thought might be: “We can spend at least an hour talking about the office culture here and what she did before this” and “She will like me because I’ve made a sincere overture to get to know her better.”

Keep an event journal: If you are a person who experiences a lot of self doubt, then it’s time for a test. In the course of a single day, write down all of the things – simple and complex – that you accomplished without a hitch. These can be things like “ran productive staff meeting” or “had great talk with Brandon over coffee.” Then, write down the things that didn’t go so well. You will inevitably notice that the list of things that went well far outweighs the list of things that didn’t, and this will hopefully allow you to see your doubt in a different light.

Call on your cheerleaders: Often, our loved ones can see our lives much more objectively than we can. Being a natural introvert, I sometimes doubt my interpersonal skills, and when someone doesn’t respond to me in the way that I expect, I occasionally get paranoid. It always helps to call one of my best friends so that she can assure me that I do in fact have a lot of wonderful relationships in my life.

Celebrate your successes: When a situation in which you doubted yourself turns out better than you expected, don’t just nod and smile and move immediately on to the next thing. Take a moment and reward yourself for a positive outcome. Do something you enjoy like going to your favorite restaurant or eating a delectable dessert. Taking the time to cement positive emotions in your mind will hopefully make the doubt disappear more quickly next time.

Salaam. Let us remember Dr. King by continuing in our struggle for justice and freedom for all.