Write a list of 10 things you want to remember during difficult times.
- Remember when you were applying to grad schools and you spent about 8 months with your stomach in knots? Yet you never lost hope, even if there was very little left in the end. And you ended up going to the perfect school for you, learning so much, meeting some of the best people you’ve ever known, and making memories that will last a lifetime even if you don’t really want them to right now because it’s hard.
- The only person who can make you believe that everything is going to be okay is yourself.
- Even if you feel like you have no purpose…remember that you can still work on treating people with more kindness, being more patient, and making people laugh.
- Always make sure you’re eating enough, sleeping enough, laughing enough, talking enough (even if it’s to yourself), before you start frantically wondering if something is severely wrong.
- Your feelings are valid, but quite honestly, only to yourself. It is lovely that they tell you things and remind you of things but they aren’t reality. Remember not to act on them because that never goes well. And if you do act on them, well, go easy on yourself. It’s going to be okay.
- Go and be in the sunshine. Take some deep breaths.
- Get through life even if it’s just one minute at a time. Even if it’s just one breath at a time, even if you have to tell yourself to breathe in and out, even if it’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do.
- Challenge yourself. Challenge yourself to do better, be better, think quickly but act slowly. Even in the hardest of times, the act of challenging yourself will give you the purpose you need to get out of that hole.
- Be yourself. You know that you’re weird, and odd, and dorky (unsurprisingly, I am supposed to be in Hufflepuff), but embrace it.
- Don’t sell yourself short. You are stronger than you think, tougher than you’ve seen…and you make more mistakes than you care to admit, but you learn more lessons.
