Think of something in your life that is blocking your joy, peace, or contentment. Take some big, deep breaths. As you exhale, breathe out that negative thing and inhale something positive to take its place. You might exhale insecurity and inhale confidence.

Are you having a hard time forgiving yourself for regrettable actions or inactions? You are not your behavior. Forgive yourself. Learn from your mistakes. Resolve to be a stronger, wiser person who is unashamed and unafraid to run the race of life with determination and passion!

Have you ever heard (or seen in a movie) a doctor say, "This injury won't heal overnight. It's going to take some time." We don't want to hear that, do we? Overnight is long enough to wait when you're in pain! Just like allowing a physical wound time to heal, the same is true if you've been hurt emotionally by family, friends, fellow students, or a situation that surprised you.

Here's an idea that will brighten your week and, eventually, your life: Record your voice talking to "the future you." Speak aloud your hopes for the future in these areas:
✔ How you talk to yourself
✔ Intellectual and emotional strength
✔ Your health and physical state
Now, listen to what you recorded. Believe it! Make a plan to listen to it again in the future. Start the journey to the future you.

Billions of people may call the week a loss, a bust, or a complete failure, without giving small positives a chance to add up. Embrace the small plusses instead of being engulfed by "good reasons" to feel ashamed -many are nothing more than imagined.

Many say, "I'm going to go hang out with friends" without thinking if they are quality friends! For further thought, positivity can be a friend, too. "I'm going to take the next hour to hang out with positivity" will make your day far better!

Feel free to carve out some time to hang out with, guess who? With yourself! You can cultivate some super healthy thought processes during this time. Such as:

• Learning to love and appreciate yourself better.
• Chipping away at forgiveness - toward yourself and perhaps someone else.
• Telling yourself that accepting your current circumstances does not mean giving up on better days ahead.
• What is one thing you can flip? What life scenario is weighing you down but doesn't have to be? Reverse it. Gradually turn that negative into a positive.

Push yourself out of the negative chains when feeling unusually low and vulnerable. Whether it's music, a hobby, texting with a trusted friend or mentor, positive media, physical activity, sports, etc., you can help pull your mind away from an unhealthy mood.

Find an adult you trust and tell them one of the dark thoughts. Even just one for now. It might surprise you to learn that these thoughts are common and the adults you know might have had these thoughts too. Talk to somebody you trust.

Your attitude is the total accumulation of thoughts and impulses on how you view life. A negative or "who cares" attitude is guaranteed to bring you zero lasting fulfillment or happiness. What can you do? What should you do? Start debating with yourself! Begin mentally and emotionally crushing negative vibes and embracing the positives around you.

Whether you choose a New Year's resolution or a "right now" resolution, determine to be much more persistent in kicking out those thoughts or mental "blitzes" that seem to work overtime to devalue you as a person.

How good are you at taking the life happenings that get pushed toward you in stride? A big step in staying in a positive stride is to say, "I don't have to like this to be determined to rise about my feelings of shame and avoid another ruined week."

When we ignore, hide, minimize, or deny our feelings, they don't go away. This can be especially true with the feeling of guilt. Emotions build up and hurt us or others. Practice saying, "I feel __________ about _________."

Are you feeling guilty about something that isn't really your responsibility at all? For as much as it depends on you, make peace with others and yourself and do better, now that you know better.

For some of us, it is easy to get smothered by shame! Since none of us are perfect, there are always "good" reasons to feel shame - even the kind of shame that makes us want to give up. Here is a starting point for handling extreme shame:
Get out! Get out of the habit of allowing shame to rule your emotions.
Get away! Get away from people who seem to take pleasure in putting you down and shaming you.
Get help! Get help from someone you trust. Some shame is normal for humans and can, sometimes, be healthy to help us correct our behavior. You NEED to deal with EXTREME shame.

Guilt and shame are typical in a world that is always striving for perfection, and that can be devastating to our self-esteem, even to the point of making us want to punish ourselves. That's a no-no! That's playing unfair! When thoughts of punishing yourself enter your mind, you punish those thoughts by kicking them right out of your mind.