Are you feeling blue and wondering how to get back on track? How can you find the motivation to bounce back and move on? Here are 7 things to do, things that will help you rediscover your zest for life!

1 – Getting off on the right foot: taking stock

So there’s no need to question our whole person or our whole life. It’s simply a matter of asking ourselves a few questions to make sure we’re on the right track.

So, how do we take stock?

I invite you to answer these questions:

What do I like and dislike in my life?
What do I want to keep and what don’t I want to keep?
And, what small actions can I take to rediscover the joy of living?
Taking stock is an important moment, but it’s also a joyful one. In fact, the aim here is to take a curious and benevolent look at your life.

In fact, we don’t take stock with a view to finding false good reasons to explain our blues.

Because the aim is to make a fresh start.

In other words, see the positive and focus on that.

2 – Setting goals

To get off on the right foot again, it’s essential to set goals. But not just any goals, and not just any goals.

Because a goal has only one purpose: to bring more joy into your life.

But, all too often, we set goals that we think we should set for ourselves, “I must” or “I must”.

What if you set yourself goals that start with “I want to”?

Follow your desires. Enjoy yourself. That’s what you’re here for.

After all, you’re not here on Earth to do things the way you think you should. You’re here to follow your joy and live it every day.

Then it’s a matter of setting goals that make you happy, but not just any old way.

Indeed, we often tend to ask too much of ourselves and want to go too fast. As a result, we give up before we reach our goals, because we’re exhausted or even disgusted by all the effort involved.

That’s why I invite you to set yourself joyful goals and put in place tiny, joyful actions to achieve them.

Let’s say you want to cook more.

Instead of trying to make new recipes every day, why not make a new recipe every Saturday night instead.

One step at a time. With joy and good humor.

Remember, there’s no rush. You simply have to live your joy every moment of the day.

3 – Start afresh: establish good daily habits

After a bout of the blues, there’s nothing like setting up good habits to get you back on the right foot.

Habits are things we do day after day. They become the pillars on which our happiness, well-being and joy are built.

But to do that, we need habits we like! Not habits we do because we think we have to.

That’s why answer this question:

If I had 20 minutes every day to do something that made me happy, what would it be?
Find that daily habit that contributes to your happiness.

If you don’t know, test it. Start with one habit, test it for 7 days, then take stock.

And change it if you need to.

4 – Be and stay motivated

To get back on track after a bout of the blues, it’s essential to boost your motivation.

That’s what you’re doing right now. In fact, if you’re reading this article, it’s because you want to bounce back and move on. So, bravo! And I sincerely hope this article boosts your motivation!

So, how do you get and stay motivated?

Keep reading articles and maybe even books that make you feel good.

Watch videos and documentaries. Surround yourself with inspirational quotes.

And talk to positive, motivating people.

In other words, don’t stop.

5 – Putting things into perspective

Sometimes what prevents us from getting off on the right foot is that we can’t accept the blues.

We feel guilty, or we ask ourselves: why me, why now, and what does this mean for my life?

In fact, the blues happen to everyone, every day.

That’s why it doesn’t mean you’re at fault or that your life sucks.

It just means that you’ve forgotten to take care of your happiness and joy along the way.

And, it happens every day.

That’s why I invite you to put your blues into perspective. To get off to a good start, understand that it’s no big deal – in fact, it’s a great opportunity! It’s an opportunity to put your happiness and joy back at the heart of your daily life, with goals, good habits and motivation…

In fact, you can change the way you look at your depression by transforming it into a powerful reminder to be happy.

6 – A fresh start: laughter

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when we’re going through or just coming out of a bout of the blues, we stop ourselves from laughing. It’s as if we don’t want to disturb the blues too much. As if we had no right to.

But what if it’s just the opposite?

In fact, laughter is the best therapy for a fresh start.

So, what is laughter?

It’s laughing at your depression, laughing at yourself and laughing at everything.

In other words, try to laugh. To do this, watch funny videos, read funny things, talk to funny people.

Shake off your depression. Shake off all that sadness and fatigue with laughter! Yes, that’s what a fresh start is all about.

7 – Taking care of yourself

A fresh start also means remembering to take care of yourself.

Because a bout of the blues never comes by chance in our lives. It tells us that we’ve forgotten to take care of our happiness and joy, and therefore of ourselves.

That’s why there’s no question here of bouncing back and pretending that nothing happened.

In fact, when the blues hit, we need to make a good resolution: to stop forgetting to take care of ourselves.

Taking care of yourself means giving yourself time to yourself. Time to slow down, to ask yourself the right questions:

How have I been feeling lately?
What do I need? What do I want?
Am I taking enough care of myself and my joy? What more or less can I do?
Because, all too often, we confuse starting off on the right foot with starting off at full speed, all the while making the same mistakes.

That’s why I wholeheartedly invite you to learn a valuable lesson from your blues: take care of yourself regularly. Think about yourself. Ask yourself questions. Always!

Find out more:

I invite you to read these 2 complementary articles:

Discover How to help a depressed person: 7 powerful tips
Discover Nervous breakdown: 6 powerful exercises to get over it

I recommend this inspiring book:

Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence by Rick Hanson

Rick Hanson’s book offers a roadmap for getting back on track after a bout of the blues. Drawing on insights from neuroscience, he presents practical methods for reshaping the brain’s neural pathways to increase contentment, calm and self-confidence. It offers concrete steps for cultivating positive mental states and building resilience, making it a valuable resource for people seeking to overcome the difficulties associated with a low mood and regain a sense of well-being.

Excellent. Based on science, but very easy to read and inspiring. Rick Hanson’s methods really work. He has a long and impressive track record in brain research. Even after a short time, I noticed a marked increase in my sense of well-being. If you are willing to do the brief daily meditations, you will feel the benefits gradually increase. I highly recommend this work. I like the idea that we can actually change and re-train the negative tracks in our brain and convert them into positive ones. This is an important and exciting breakthrough that will help many people.

Thank you very much for reading this article.

If you liked it, let me know in the comments.

Take care of yourself