If you are waking up in the morning and finding it increasingly hard to get your day started, something is not right.

At the very CORE of your being, you are UNHAPPY:

It may be that you and your current life are INCOMPATIBLE!

If this is the case, you need to return to your authentic self — the person that you are meant to be — and lead the life that you were meant to live.

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash

For those of you who are living with mental illness, your mental illness could be the culmination of the protests of your authentic self gone unheeded for years until you experience your mood disorder.

Your being is trying to send you an important message:

It’s time for a LIFE MAKEOVER, from the inside out and outside in!

Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash

And for those of you who just want to lead a more fulfilling life that is true to your spirit, don’t wait till depression strikes before you make a change! Watch this video:

The following Self-Discovery Activities will:

Photo by Yan L on Unsplash

In your foray into the past, you will reconnect with your authentic self and rediscover the things that once brought you tremendous joy, which you might have forgotten.

To warm you up, try out some of these fun and creative activities over the next few weeks.

Activity 1

For this fun free-association exercise, don’t overthink it. Just complete the rest of these sentences as they apply to you.


Activity 2

Here is another fun exercise to do without overthinking. Write down the first things that leap into your mind.


Activity 3

List 20 creative things you enjoy doing at any point throughout your life (eg. travelling, learning a foreign language, etc.). Try to recall when you last did them.

From this list, pick 2 that you would like to do again. Recall your previous experience of these activities and explain why you would like to do them.

Put together a list of things that you can do to move towards doing these creative activities again.

Activity 4

  1. Let’s take a leap of imagination: If you had five other lives to lead, what careers would you pursue? Jot down 5 careers that leap into your mind.
  2. Look over the five lives. Pick 1 that you can learn more about.
  3. Write down the steps that you would have to take in order to pursue such a life.

To help you with this exercise, you can do some research on the Internet, flip through magazines, or go to the library to learn more about it.

We hope that you have been trying out the four mentioned activities. They are meant to help you to rediscover yourself and reconnect with your dreams and aspirations. Now that you have a new perspective of yourself and your life, you could be ready to take a look at the big picture of your life.

Before we can start revamping your life, let’s start a look at the different areas of your current life:

Life Makeover

Now think about your ‘new’ self. You can choose to work on this exercise and complete it at a go in one sitting.

OR you can percolate on it over several days or even weeks. As you go about your daily life, some ideas may drift into your mind. Jot them down in your mobile devices, a journal, or even a big blank paper you have pasted on the wall.

It may also help to think of your ‘new’ self as someone else, a character you would create for a book or a movie, but someone whom you would admire and aspire to be. Here are some guiding questions:

Work

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Relationships

Interests/Passions

Aspirations

Spirituality

If you have most of the answers to these questions, insert them in a table like the following and print it out.

Now that you have mapped out your vision of your future life, it’s time to get into action. Check out Life Coping Skills.