“My mouth smiles, but my eyes don’t. I see my surroundings but can’t make out the colors and magnificence of what I’m looking at. I listen to podcasts, motivational seminars, and my friends, but I only hear mocking laughter telling me that I’m a loser. It’s like I’m closed off to everything good in the world, and I can’t live like this forever.”
This is a 3-year-old journal entry. It hurts to read it because I still feel the pain of being deep in the trenches.
Time has flown, I’ve gotten older, and the world has changed yet again, but I continuously cycle in and out of this low-energy, jaded state of mind. My zest for life ebbs and flows, and that’s not supposed to happen.
My depressive state kicks in when there’s a big life change — a new job, a job loss, a heartbreak, a death in the family, etc.
It’s my way of shutting off the pain. But with shutting off the pain comes saying goodbye to everything good in my life too. And life is full of struggles, but that doesn’t mean we should give up and lose ourselves forever.
Have bad days, mourn, throw a tantrum, and be sad for a while, but don’t let them kill your spirit.
This post will explore the seven actions I took to revive my lost love for life again.
Table of Contents
1. Become More Spiritual
To renew your spirit, you have to open your spirit. This means you have to open it to the wonders of God or whatever higher power you believe in.
When I was in darkness, I stopped praying. And my name means “prayer.” I was raised to believe that prayer can lighten any load you’re carrying. But I stopped, and I lost my footing.
Prayer keeps you tethered to something bigger than you. It’s where you can draw strength and light when you want to give up.
Another thing I did was become more open to meditation. I’ve always been off and on with meditation and never fully committed to the practice. But once I started pushing myself to be present, did I realize how distracted and foggy I was.
Meditation doesn’t have to be scary. Download the Insight Timer app or sit for 5 minutes, focusing on your breathing.
Lastly, read more books on spirituality. If there’s a Guru you believe in, pick up their books. These books are spiritual guides. They’re kind and non-judgmental and hold the power to revive your spirit again.
Related Post: 65 Swami Sivananda Quotes and Teachings on Love, Peace, and Life
2. Document Your Life
The act of documenting one’s life has been around since pen and paper existed. Today, you can do it through vlogs or audio recordings.
I still prefer the therapeutic nature of old-fashioned journaling.
When you start documenting your life, you’re forced to be present every day. You look for things to write about. You’re more in tune with your emotions and view life’s splendor more openly.
There are days when I think I have nothing to write about, but once I press the tip of my pen onto my journal, the little details of my day emerge — the things I thought were insignificant but actually bring a smile to my face. And I know that I’ll smile in 10 or 20 years when I read that journal entry again.
Find your favorite method to record your life — I guarantee you’ll start loving your life a little more.
Related Post: 163 Most Inspiring Self-Love Quotes
3. Alienate Yourself from Your Emotions
Putting all your focus on your emotions is a bad thing. Because emotions are fleeting — they can change in an instant. And it’s so easy for them to take you down and make you start overthinking.
Losing my spirit for life came as a result of becoming a victim of my emotions. One day, I’d feel great about myself, and the motivation would flow in spades. The next day, I’d hit an all-time low and spiral into depression for a week. That cycle kept repeating.
It took me a while to figure out that how you feel in a moment isn’t a reflection of your life.
The quote, “A bad day doesn’t mean it’s a bad life,” sums it up pretty well.
Instead, loosen your hold of your feelings by writing them down, speaking more positively about yourself, or simply just ignoring them and moving on with whatever you have to do. This way, you won’t live in your head but in the real world.
Meditation also helps with this because meditation allows you to view your emotions from an independent lens. You can see them and feel them without judgment.
Repeat the following affirmation when meditating, “The negativity I feel now is just a passing shower. I can easily change my negative thoughts into positive ones.”
Related Post: 106 Mindfulness Affirmations for Calm and Clarity
4. Help Someone Else
When you feel like you can’t help yourself, the best thing to do is to help someone else.
I’m aware that might sound cheesy and fake righteous. But being selfless, if only for a minute, will make you feel a thousand times better than playing the victim would.
And you lose your love for life when you become a victim of life.
Everyone wants to receive help, but very few want to give it. However, a give-and-take relationship must exist in the universe to create harmony.
While stepping outside of yourself, you might find yourself and your spirit for life.
Note: Helping someone else doesn’t have to be a grand gesture like donating $10000 or renouncing the world to help starving children. Give someone just 5 minutes of your time. Donate 1% of your earnings. Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Or show a stranger kindness. True generosity costs little to nothing — but the rewards are limitless.
5. Seek Hope and You Will Find It
When you lose your spirit for life, you feel hopeless and useless — as if your existence holds no meaning.
I remember waking up and immediately wanting to go back to bed for the rest of the day. I felt like I had nothing meaningful to contribute to the world.
And probably the most important lesson I’ve learned throughout this bleak period is that if you look for hopelessness, you will find it.
Your brain becomes wired to seek negativity wherever it looks.
Fortunately, the good news is that if you seek hope, you will find that too. You just have to be open to it.
What’s the difference between a good day and a bad day? How you perceive it.
If you allow a bad situation to ruin the rest of your day, you will go looking for the bad. Everything that happens just ends up being a confirmation that this day is truly shit.
But if you are open to changing your perspective and seeking positivity, then even if something bad happens, your thinking will automatically make it a positive experience.
This is liberating! You have the power to shift your perspective of life with your mind alone.
Now, on days I feel unworthy, I list all the ways I’ve made a positive difference (no matter how small).
Remember, if you’re here, your life has meaning. You deserve to be here, and an entire world of happiness is waiting for you.
But it’s up to you. Which one will you seek, hope or despair?
6. Unsubscribe from Influencers Who Make You Feel Worse About Yourself
I used to subscribe to every blogger’s/author’s/influencer’s email list if they managed to impress me once.
But 90% of them stop resonating with me soon enough. However, I continued to keep them in my emails. I’d read about their so-called amazing lives and opinions and always found something lacking inside me.
The next thing that took control over my life was YouTube, particularly YT Shorts. Why is that even a thing? I liked YT better when they only did long-form content because my scatterbrain can’t handle the content overload.
Anyway, I would spend hours scrolling to the next video and the next, all while learning nothing new and just feeling bad about my life overall.
You might feel the same on Instagram, Twitter, or even LinkedIn (the worst.)
And as much as it’s nice to stay in the loop and be with the “in” crowd, it’s not worth losing yourself and your zest for life.
So, the next time you watch a creator’s video or read their content and feel like it makes you feel worse about yourself, go ahead and unapologetically unsubscribe, unfollow, or close the Google tab.
The only person you should be subscribing to is yourself.
7. Embrace Your Unique Journey
How many times have you heard that life’s a journey? Over a 1000? Yeah, me too.
And it’s true.
I lost my way when I started comparing myself to others — my friends, cousins, and strangers on the internet.
I hated my life because it wasn’t on the same page as theirs.
But to embrace your love for life, you have to embrace YOUR life — nobody else’s.
Start enjoying your mundane routine, love the spontaneous moments in your life, and be grateful for the days when you feel like you’re losing your mind and the days you feel like you have it together.
It’s all yours. Nobody else gets to live it, so love it.
Final Thoughts
“Enjoy the meanderings, the soul-searching, the loves lost, the time wasted. All of it will add up to a complex & very unique “you.”
Did this post help you renew your zest for life even a little bit? Let me know in the comments :).
Remember, it’s okay to feel lost. We all do. But don’t let the “lost” turn you into a negative, dispirited, and jaded person. I’ve been that person, and it sucks.
Look for hope, and you will find it.