Motivate Yourself: 5 Reasons to Smile

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

15 Aug 2006 09:00 AM

We all get down. We all feel overwhelmed and stressed. In fact, feelings like depression, upset, anger and nervousness are all pretty normal. It's how we cope with those feelings that can help us define the difference between success and failure in our personal choices and fitness programs. When I was younger and I would struggle with these feelings, I would think - of all things - of movie The Sound of Music and the song Julie Andrews sang: A Few of My Favorite Things and truthfully, as cliché as it sounds - then I didn't feel so bad.

So when I am feeling down or depressed, I look for reasons to smile and here are my 5 surefire reasons that I seek out and even on the bleakest of days - I smile.

• Baby Animals - When we lived on a farm, one glance out the window at the young horses frolicking in the field with their mothers always brought a smile to my lips. My dogs and cats do it now - even when they are goofy - in fact, especially when they are goofy
• Walking - When I am struggling with work or feeling like I am never going to get it all done - I throw on my shoes and hit the treadmill. A fifteen to twenty minute brisk walk can help me shake off the blahs faster than anything
• Cleaning - When I am very upset, usually angry, I clean. I love to look at a freshly vacuumed floor or seeing order take shape around me - it's very calming for my mind and when I come home to a clean house
• Memory Lane & Pictures - I have five boxes of photographs that I am gradually organizing into memory books, photo albums and scrapbook ideas - the pictures are a great way to start me grinning - especially some of the funnier ones of the animals and the midget (not to mention this great set of my husband as a teenager posing - those always leave me laughing)
• Up Music - I have two CDs that are designed specifically to make me smile - from rousing symphonies like the William Tell Overture to the Star Wars theme to Who Let the Dogs Out - this up music can lift my mood right off the floor and send it bouncing into the stratosphere

So what are a few of your favorite things that help you to feel not so bad?

Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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