Self-Help: How I Restarted My Life

Again and again, I’ve told in this blog how 2017 have been so harsh to me in different levels. My life was so full of negativity that made it hard for me to bear. Then one day, it came to me, that I shouldn’t live like the way I’ve been living before. Instead, I thought of doing a do-over of my life and live with a positive outlook.

There are many ways that maybe some bloggers or self-help books have developed that will teach us on how to start again in life. For me, I’ve developed a number of ways that helped me and might help you also in bringing back that light in our lives.

1. Journaling

The first thing that I did was to go back to writing on my journal again. I just grabbed one of my spare notebooks and decided to write all of my thoughts one night. I stopped journaling before because I was so full of myself to the thought that I have a girlfriend that will listen to all of what’s in my mind. But now that my girlfriend and bestfriend is gone, I’ve just been clouded with all of the negative thoughts. Having a new ventilation of thoughts helped me in having such a peaceful mind. It became my night time routine, before I go to bed, to write all that has happened to me throughout the day, all of my frustrations, and my reflections towards myself. I’ve also started doing a stream of consciousness notebook which I write on every morning when I wake up. It serves as my morning brain dump just so I can have a clear mind when starting my day. Honestly, I do have trouble in making this morning journal consistent but it still helps.

Read: How Journaling Helped Me in Surviving

2. Cleaning and De-cluttering

I strongly believe that one’s own belongings and how they are organized says a lot about a person. When I was in stuck in my frustrations, I decided to clean my room, organize my closet, fix my shelf and my desk, and even replace all my sheets. It was somewhat sad but I threw all of my past letters, writing notebooks, and memorabilia that just didn’t have any effect on me anymore. I got rid of my clothes that I didn’t wear anymore and those that didn’t make me feel confident. After cleaning and de-cluttering, my room felt really brand new. I can breathe again and I can move freely again. It lifted my spirits up and made my happy again.

3. Letting Go of the Toxic and Re-kindling Old Flames

When I was with my girlfriend, I had no one to talk to but her. I’ve talked to some of my friends, but they were very brief. When she broke up with me, I still talked to her and still vent out my frustrations to her. I still consider her as my friend. But one day, I just decided that talking with her brings me no good because I still succumb to a negative side of myself. I don’t talk to her anymore and honestly, everything in my mind right now is so peaceful. I’ve been talking a lot with my friends now and talked to a lot of my high school friends and other friends that I’ve lost contact with. And the communication felt so amazing. If you see my right now in our chat boxes, I am the noisiest of the bunch because I’ve never felt so grateful to have friends that are there to support me and encourage me even after all the dump I’ve been through.

4. Going off of Social Media

They say that deactivating your social media accounts will really help you a lot in coping with stress. And it worked for me! I deactivated my Facebook account and didn’t visit my Twitter and Instagram accounts for 15 days. It was the most peaceful days that I’ve been in. I didn’t see any bad news from the country and didn’t know anything that was happening with the world. I just lived myself with just me as the center of my world. I would only go to YouTube and watch videos that make me happy and inspire me to have a positive life. I have now come back to social media but this time, I have a new perspective which helps me in filtering all of the negative topics that I see from the internet.

5. Developing a New Lifestyle

To tell you the truth, I don’t have a very healthy lifestyle, both mentally and physically. When all the stress came to me, I didn’t eat, didn’t shower, just didn’t move for days. I couldn’t bring myself to live a healthier life. But then I realized that no good will come to me if I continue being such a dump. Having new lifestyle apps in my phone really helped me in developing a new lifestyle. They helped me in trying out new things and live my life a little healthier even in just small adaptations in new acts. More on these lifestyle apps on my next blog post!

Read: Helpful Lifestyle Apps That I Use

6. Healing Trips

I love travelling but I never really got the chance to take many opportunities in travelling. Recently, my friends and family have been inviting me to go to places with them and without second thoughts, I happily went with them. They were the most joyful and healing trips that I’ve been. Going to these places helped me reflect on my life and just have time for myself to enjoy everything. I promised myself that I would enjoy more and just be the center of everything.

These are the steps that I’ve took in restarting my life. Many of us are struggling in their own dumps and it will never be too late to come back to a more positive life. I never let myself be my priority before. I always put others in front of me so whenever I am stuck with stress and frustration, I only push them below me just so I can have space for others. I am so lucky that finally I’ve decided to love myself and have a more positive outlook in life.

We can always live in a positive way. There’s no need to rush. There are different steps that we can take and I hope that in some way I helped you even a little.

-KM