by Kayte of Mermaid Eyes

Darling, if you’re anything like me, you probably have some beautiful days and a whole lot of days where you end up with a mild headache and a sense of emotional fatigue. If that’s true, our goals regarding health and happiness should mirror the actions we take on the beautiful days, right? I feel best when I eat certain things, fall asleep and wake up in a certain manner, and treat myself in certain ways. My goal with this article is to list and define the 15 best-best-best things you can do for yourself (in my humble opinion, of course!) and have you start there for your joy journey. Blessings, beauties — let’s tackle this universe!

(P.S. Taking on absolutely everything on this list at this very moment will not help you feel better in the slightest. My recommendation is to pick three and work on them for a reasonable amount of time. Of course, you define reasonable, dependent on your usual time frame and how in-depth you want to go with the task!)

1. Drink a spinach smoothie. YUM!  They might sound totally disgusting, but spinach smoothies are actually quite fabulous. I make mine with a cup or so of frozen mixed berries, a handful of spinach leaves, and then almond milk. How much almond milk I add depends on how thick I want the smoothie to be, so I recommend experimenting. You can hardly see the spinach bits, and you definitely don’t taste them, but they make the smoothie superbly nutritious and energy-boosting.  In secret, I call these smoothies my goddess rocket-fuel!

2. Be positive.  Crack the world with your smile.  Positivity is not the answer to everything, but it can pull you out of a slump when you need it to. Don’t know how to bring the light? Just smile! The action works on a physical level to make you happier. Right here, right now, give your computer a big goofy grin. Giggle a little bit (even if it’s forced.) Then stretch your shoulders, and repeat after me: I am brilliantly excited to be alive today!

3. Take deep breaths and remind yourself to let it be.  You can’t fix everything in a day’s time, and most often you can’t fix even one thing entirely in 24 hours. Also, it’s only fair to mention that sometimes things that appear broken don’t really need to be fixed. Give things time, and give yourself a break. The world will not stop spinning if you take an afternoon or evening off, and that’s a promise.

4. Color rainbows with crayons.  There’s something about the tactile sensation of drawing with crayons that brings us eons back in time to our childhood – and what’s more of a blessing to doodle than a rainbow? Let’s put into practice what we learned in steps two and three, and smile vivaciously while we take time off to be kids again.

5. Hydrate yourself with lemon water.  I’ll admit it, I have an addiction to lemon water. It tastes SO good I can’t stop drinking it! I have a challenge for you: fill a bottle with ice and water before you leave for work or school, and then put a teaspoon or so of lemon juice in it. Shake it up and then drink it up. It makes me forget I’m drinking water, which is wonderful because I’ve never been a huge fan of it to start with – too flavorless! For once, I’m super duper hydrated. Lime, peppermint, cranberry concentrate, or cucumber slices also add flavor if lemon isn’t your gig.

6. Wear really good socks, bunny ears, a pretty dress — anything that makes you feel like you could own the world.  Playing dress-up does wonders for self-esteem and the feeling of empowerment. In the words of my darling best friend & favorite bliss diva: “I dare you to be extravagant! I dare you to look like royalty! I dare you to scare yourself with how beautiful you are! I dare you to break out of your norms and your silly taboos and your insecurities! I dare you to show everybody how amazing you are!”

7. Go cosmetic free, but wash and exfoliate your face first.  In my humble opinion, people look fine without makeup. While I’m not anti-makeup in the slightest, I believe that makeup isn’t the crux for beauty. You know what the crux for beauty is, though? Clean skin! Anyone can look beautiful with a cosmetic-free face if they take care of their face first. Furthermore, ditching the makeup can feel totally empowering if you feel like you look good without it – and that tends to hinge on how healthy your face looks!  Bottom line: wash, exfoliate, and skip the mascara. So worth it!

8. Put up a status on Facebook that exchanges compliments for “likes”. When people “like”, compliment them!  My story: once I was having a terrible-no-good-utterly-bad-completely-awful day. In a last-ditch effort to find the path to peace, I got on facebook and spontaneously posted the following status:

“Like this status and I will write on your wall to tell you three things I like about you. I feel like being a confidence booster, plus, I realized there’s so many people who I absolutely adore that just don’t know it! So maybe some of them will like this status and I will be able to share the love? ”

AND IT WORKED! By the end of the day, I had typed over twenty complimenting posts and I was mind-blowingly happy and completely grateful for everyone in my life. The moral of the story is that you get what you give, and when you give love you’ll feel love.

9. Eat meals that really nourish you.  Food is important. What we eat plays a direct role in how we feel. Write a list of what food works for you and makes you feel energized, and make a point to eat mostly foods on that list. Hint: overly processed foods almost across the board will make you feel yucky, so ditch those in favor of fresh foods.

10. Exfoliate using a combination of sugar and olive oil.  Mix one part sugar to one part olive oil and exfoliate in a bubble bath. Play some soothing music on the radio if you can – I like playing the chanting or drums, personally – and soak up the soothing combination. Trust you, your skin will feel so soft and new afterwards!

11. Journal wildly, with a wide-open heart.  My art journal is my hiding-hole, the fairy nest I curl into when things get rough and I need to rejuvenate. Yours can be too! Get kooky with the hole punch, with candy-colored markers and pens with glittery ink, with cut paper and Elmer’s glue – whatever you can find is fair game! Write your heart onto the paper and then watercolor over it. Dance a little when you complete your new favorite page, and then start over on the next sheet.

12. Do something with your hands.  Dorky confession? I like to wash dishes when I’m stressed. It centers me. Making tea on the stove is the same way. I challenge you to find your equivalent and employ it as a coping skill next time the world seems too huge and frightening.

13. PLAY!  When I’m feeling exhausted, depressed, or just plain stressed, my impulse is to get down on my floor and worship the art child goddess inside of me for a few hours. When I was little, what I liked to do most was get messy and commune with nature, so one of the most freeing things I can do is get dripping wet playing in the snowdrifts with my dog! (He loves it too.) Of course, that activity is specific to winter, and even then to colder climates. Some things you can do anywhere, at any time, include finger-painting, making sugar cookies with frosting, and drinking Kool-Aid out of a silly straw.

14. Participate in something, anything, spiritual. Feel connected.  Here’s my favorite recipe for a spiritual encounter: Take a candlelight bath. Focus on the flame through the shower curtain. Make bubble armor and then shed it in a scrubbing dance ritual. I find that baths like this are primordial in a sense, and help me achieve connection with the Divine as well as my own human form.

If sacred baths aren’t your thing, then perhaps you might like candle-lighting ceremonies or glitter baptisms. What do those mean to you? What would make them special? Do it!

15. Put more effort into your daily makeup.  Mascara and lip gloss may be easy, and nothing at all is easier yet, but if you spend an extra ten or fifteen minutes each day figuring out what works and what doesn’t, you’re going to feel camera-ready glamorous and look quirky and fab. My first forays into crazy fashion were makeup based — in seventh grade, I was trying out red glosses, which were predecessors to my semi-Gothic phase, which tuned into my bright-colors phase, which turned into the pink-loving diva I am today!

Kayte:  I’m a pretty spirit of an Alaskan girl, and I blog at mermaideyes.com. I write about fashion, art, and optimism, with a dash of social activism and an overtone of spirituality. Other topics may include blogging, productivity, and cups of incredibly good coffee/tea! If you ever meet me, you’ll notice that I like rainbow colors and the heavy use of sequins. I’m secretly a mermaid, and my favorite color is deep teal.