Do you know you want to make changes in your life but have difficulty getting yourself moving toward change? Or, maybe you’re able to get started, only to quickly become discouraged by all the seemingly big steps in front of you and then start settling back into your old, unproductive ways.

You’re not alone. We often have great enthusiasm at the start of any new project or goal, but staying motivated is one of the biggest challenges we face on the road to making changes in our lives.

What can you do to stay motivated on your journey toward living your best life?

What is a mantra? It’s a short phrase or set of sounds repeated over and over to help settle the mind and focus. A good mantra promotes feelings of calm and healing.

Traditional mantra meditation practices use sounds in repetition to help induce a deep meditative state. Its roots come from the ancient Vedic tradition in India and traditional mantras are in Sanskrit. A very simple example of mantra is the word/sound Om (Ohm) which is the easiest to remember and repeat and acknowledges the connection between all living beings. If you practice yoga, you’ve likely repeated this mantra many times. It creates a feeling of peacefulness and is often used at the beginning and end of a practice to set and close the container.

It’s really hard to make changes in your life, particularly if they’re big ones. Your brain will give you all kinds of excuses why it’s not a good idea. Here are a few of the most common ones:

It’s too hard

I’m too old

I don’t know how

I’m not ready

Maybe someday……

Don’t listen to any of those. It may not be easy, but it’s definitely not too hard. You are never too old to follow your dreams. You DO know how (or you can figure it out). You’ll never be ready and you’ll run out of somedays.

So many people have told me lately that they’re feeling anxious. Everyone feels anxious sometimes and we all feel it at times to varying degrees.

Whenever I feel anxious, I turn to mindful practices (meditation, movement and/or mindful writing) and they rarely let me down.

First, though, what are the symptoms of anxiety? Here are some examples of feelings and experiences you may relate to when you’re feeling anxious. They can be both psychological and physical.

One thing I’ve struggled with my whole life is feeling like I belong. As a young, very shy and overweight child, I didn’t feel like I fit in with kids my age or my popular, very social parents. As a teenager, I definitely didn’t feel like I fit in with the “cool crowd” (or any crowd, for that matter) at high school. Things improved a little at university, but I still craved belonging. As I get older (and wiser maybe?) I’m beginning to understand why belonging has always been difficult for me and why I always choose the word belong as one of the top values in my life.

We’re not supposed to feel happy all the time. In fact, in order to experience true happiness, you have to experience sadness.

To be clear, I’m not talking about the loss of a loved one and the intense grief that follows. I’m also not talking about clinical depression. I’m talking about that occasional nagging feeling of melancholy that you have trouble explaining; that general feeling of joylessness that hits us every once in a while.

Do you often find that you’re feeling overwhelmed about your day even before you get out of bed? You can ditch that feeling of overwhelm and start your day with clarity and purpose with just 5-10 minutes of mindfulness, even before you get out of bed.

What’s your first thought when you wake up in the morning? Is it “oh no, I slept in again!” or is it one of ease and gratitude?

I love spring. I look forward to hearing the birds on our morning walk (and taking much less time to get ready with coats, hats, boots, etc.!!), opening the windows, and having light long after dinner in the evening. There’s a new energy all around as people emerge from their winter cocoons and generally look happier.

For me, more so than any of the other seasons, spring brings back fond childhood memories that I think about over and over, year after year, even to this day…

“Perfectly imperfect”, “progress not perfection” and “done is better than perfect” are all mantras I repeat often to myself.

It’s time for all of us to embrace, “I AM good enough”.

Repeat it again and again and again until you mean it!

I don’t mean we shouldn’t all strive to be really good at what we’re doing and have high standards but the truth is nobody’s perfect. And that really does include you!

I don’t know about you, but I’ve often had a difficult time making decisions. What I’ve learned is that most of our inability to be decisive is due to fear. We are really afraid of making the wrong choice. In our constant need for approval and worry about what others think, we often put off making decisions or, even worse, let someone else decide for us.

This is another place where mindful practices will make your life a whole lot easier. Mindful practices are all about connecting and observing yourself and your thoughts, without judgment, in the present moment. It’s a space where we accept what is.