It is easy to tell yourself or someone else to "Live life to the fullest!" everyday. But it is not everyday that we are able to muster the strength or positivity to make the very best of the day ahead. Our energy cycles are constantly shifting and changing. We may wake up on the wrong side of the bed on some mornings, and not feel too motivated to seize the day. It is only human to lose your spark sometimes.

If you've been feeling a little uninspired and unmotivated recently, it might be time to pause, take a step back, and analyze what exactly has been dampening your mood. By no means should you continue to go about your days having had the "life" sucked out of you. Before you find yourself scrambling to find little fragments of happiness wherever you can, take some time to reflect on how you can build a life and a mindset that will serve your happiness and help you make the best of what life has to offer.

If you are looking ways to perk yourself up, here are some things you can try to reignite your passion for life and living it to the fullest!

Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

5 Ways You Can Reignite Your Passion For Life

1. Do something creative!

“Creativity is a great motivator because it makes people interested in what they are doing. Creativity gives hope that there can be a worthwhile idea. Creativity gives the possibility of some sort of achievement to everyone. Creativity makes life more fun and more interesting.” ~ Edward de Bono

Trying something creative for a change or a breather gives you the opportunity to explore some self-expression. Everyone's expression is unique to themselves, and you can take some time to embark on a creative activity to express yourself in any way, shape, or form. Creative activities have also been proven to have the same effects on the mind and body as meditation. Both have a calming effect on the mind and tension-releasing effects on the physical body as it causes dopamine, an anti-depressant chemical, to be released in the brain.

Photo by Alice Dietrich on Unsplash

Getting creative can mean multiple things. Creating art, or a solution to a problem, or a more convenient way to go about a task all require some form of creativity. You can sign up for a dance class, buy some acrylic paints and a canvas to create an artwork of your own, refurbish a part of your room, or even find a way to make something a little more user-friendly in your kitchen. These are all things that require creativity! Such activities can equip yourself with a renewed sense you purpose, reinvigorate you with some excitement, bring about a sense of ownership, and most definitely can reignite some passion in your life.

2. Create a short-term goal for yourself to work towards.

We all have the capacity for goal-setting in our lives. If you set your sights on a goal with conviction and passion, you will push yourself to make the steps to move toward achieving it. Both short-term and long-term goals are equally important in your journey. Long-term goals ensure that you are pacing yourself healthily, and your route to achieving a goal is sustainable and fortifying. However, if you've felt a little burnt out by the idea of something being very far out of reach and need a little push in the right direction, consider making some short-term goals to work towards.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

Short-term goals can give you clearer focus and a more intense sense of direction. A shorter time frame and an end-point that is within reach can increase motivation and your levels of productivity.  A clear and concise plan with action steps towards something you feel is more within your reach can help kickstart some motivation that you can carry through to other goals that you may set. Sit down and think about something you've been wanting to achieve or try out for the longest. Plot a short timeline for it, maybe a month or two, for you to achieve it. Start working towards it, and proceed with a renewed sense of clarity, direction, and focus.

3. Invest time and energy into your relationships

Humans thrive on connections. As social beings, healthy relationships contribute to the quality of our lives in so many ways. We enrich our lives by connecting and forming quality relationships. Be it friends, family, or romantic relationships, having the assurance and comfort of people that we love and love us back around us is a crucial part of the building blocks of our lives. While it is equally important to be able to stand on your own two feet and be mentally and emotionally strong enough to pull ourselves through difficult times, it is also these connections and pillars of support we look for in times of doubt, anxiety, and discomfort.

If you're having a tough time, or feeling mentally or emotionally clouded, consciously remind yourself to not withdraw from connections and your people, but instead reach out and lean on them for a little bit of support. Invest some extra time and energy into these connections for them to help fulfil our most important human need of all; love. Take some time to make plans with friends and family you have not spent quality time with in a while. These plans will remind you that do indeed have people around you, and that you have things to look forward in your life.

Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash

4. Make a list of 10 thing you are grateful for in your life.

In the midst of hectic schedules and fast-paced lifestyles, we tend to lose sight of the very gift of life. We gloss over the things that we should be grateful for, like running water, the food we get to enjoy, being able to bask in the sun, being able to dance in the rain, feeling the soil and grass beneath our feet. These are the very things that can being joy to our lives and that we can most definitely look forward to every day.

Just like meditation, or trying out something creative, journaling comes with a whole host of benefits for your mental and emotional health. If made a consistent habit, you can reap the benefits of this activity even more. Journaling helps to alleviate stress, remain focused on your goals, helps you keep track of your days, and in the long-run, will improve your well-being. Use journaling and the alone time to make a list of 10 of such things in life that you are grateful for.

If you're looking into getting into daily journaling as a habit, and you have never journaled regularly before, you can consider downloading a digital journaling app like Journey to help you get started and guide you along.

If you're just starting out, and finding it a little difficult to stay consistent with your journaling, Journey can keep help keep you accountable by setting daily journaling reminders and sending these reminders to you via notifications or email. You can even activate email reminders and just reply to the email reminder with your journal entry. Your journal entry will then be automatically uploaded onto Journey as a journal entry of yours. Hassle-free and easy!

While journaling and making this gratitude list, look at the little things around you that make life pleasant and worth living or waking up to everyday. Remind yourself of the life that you have been blessed with, and work towards making the best out of it every opportunity that you can.

5. Use positive self-affirmations

Our thought processes follow predictable patterns. More often that positively reaffirming thoughts, negative thinking rewires the brain and causes it to fall prey to negatively affirming and pessimist cycles. However, the brain is malleable, and you can train your brain and yourself to cultivate and react with positive thoughts by clearly defining your end goal rather than thinking about what you are afraid of and want to stay away from.

To do this, make use of positive self-affirmations to rewire your brain and urge you to believe that you can be or achieve whatever you set your mind to. Affirmations, or simple, positive mantras can have profound effects on the conscious and unconscious mind. Choose two or three positive affirmations, place them up around the house, and recite them with passion every day to reinvigorate the mind. What the mind believes, the body responds to. They hold pivoting influence and can help you feel energetic, positive and driven.

If you're feeling a little deflated or uninspired, taking time out to pause and recalibrate to reignite your inner flame is a must. If you’re longing to find a full heart and a motivated soul that reminds you how magical and wonderful life is, it’s time to rekindle your passion and purpose for living!

Sending love and strength!