Many people in this world look for peace and happiness, thinking that they have to wait to attain happiness. But this could not be further from the truth. Yes, you can aim high and try to achieve your goals which may give you happiness, but no one said that you can’t be happy from now on.

How can you be happy right now, you may ask? It is not as hard as you think. You need to find yourself and find what makes you happy.

Spending time with loved ones, being productive and remembering that emotions and feelings are temporary can all play a role in your happiness.

Happiness is something that needs to be achieved and you may not feel happy all the time but that is okay.

Be Happy.

Please share this short, motivational reminder to anyone and everyone. 

What does happiness mean to you? Comment down below.

Please check out my other articles relating to Islamic content, My Experiences, Teenage Advice, Book Reviews and Poetry.

Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day!

“One in four British girls are hit by depression at 14.”  How does that make you feel? As a teenager myself, it makes me feel scared, worried and makes me ask ‘why?’ How can I prevent it?

Well, you know what. I want you to smile right now. How does that make you feel right now? It makes me feel good to see myself and others smile. I think teenagers sometimes just need a boost of motivation, happiness and confidence. In today’s article, I will give you some advice and tips according to my own experience and research about how to keep positive, increase confidence and just be happy. Before I get started, remember that these tips can be hard to follow in the beginning but through practice and initiative, you can get there. You can be the happiest person alive.

Smile – Smiling and laughter is the medicine for any pain. It gives you instant recovery and relief. Even a fake smile can make your day.

Don’t compare yourself to anyone – Everyday, teenagers compare themselves to the photoshopped celebrities, friends, models, cousins or even siblings to the point that it makes them break down. Look in the mirror and embrace yourself because you are beautiful.

Meditate/reflect upon yourself – Set aside some time each day to pray to God, meditate or just say positive affirmations to yourself such as ‘I am amazing’.

Do things that you love – This could be cooking, singing, dancing, walking in the park, cuddling up to your pet, anything that makes you happy.

Spend time with people you love and support you – There’s no point of spending your precious time with people who will discourage and bring you down. Try to spend more time with people who will make you laugh like your parents, siblings or your best friends.

Eliminate toxic people – According to studies shown, we spend 80% of the time thinking about 20% of the people we stay with. If you are thinking about people who will belittle you and make you feel insecure about what you are thinking, it is time to leave those friends for good. This may be tough but it will be for your good.

Don’t care about what other people think of you – It is hard to do this when we are surrounded by people all the time. An important step to take and think about is if you yourself are judging others.

Ignore popularity  – You don’t become popular by swearing or backbiting, you become popular by being kind and having a sweet personality. If you do see popularity that is by swearing and acting rudely towards others, that is only short-term.

Don’t bottle up your feelings – It may be hard to confess or speak out your emotions but it is important to share your feelings with a trusted adult or person. Tell your parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles about anything that you are concerned about. I’m sure they are there to help you.

Ask yourself ‘does it really matter?’ – Whatever you are thinking about right now that is causing you to become upset, just stop and ask yourself if it really matters. Half of the time we worry about things we can’t control or actually doesn’t matter to us.

Understand that you can have low days – It is fine to have low days. You can’t always be happy and you have to understand that. Sometimes, we are sad because we are tired.

Did this article make you smile or at least make you feel 1% better? I hope so. Just remember that there is always hope and if you need any professional medical help, don’t feel afraid to get it. You have support, trust me.

Please check out my other articles:

http://surobiscribbles.com/how-to-prepare-for-eid-ul-fitr-my-ramadan-series/

http://surobiscribbles.com/the-7-habits-of-highly-effective-teenagers-by-sean-covey-honest-book-review/

Thank you for reading and have a lovely day!

What this book is about:

This book is a step-by-step guide that is practical in order to help any teenager to help improve self-confidence, build friendships, resist peer pressure, achieve goals and so on. It goes into detail about 7 habits that will allow you to kickstart into being a happy, healthy teenager. Personally, I think that even adults can read this book because it applies to everyone.

What it has taught me:

To summarise the 7 habits, they are:

Habit 1: Be proactive

Habit 2: Begin with the end in mind

Habit 3: Put first things first

Habit 4: Think win-win

Habit 5: Seek first to understand, then to be understood

Habit 6: Synergize

Habit 7: Sharpen the saw

What I liked about this book:

1. I liked that it was very friendly and direct instead of having long boring paragraphs. This kept me reading and I couldn’t keep the book down.
2. It really explained each the habits in detail. For instance, in Habit 3, it explained that you must do important and not-urgent things by planning in rocks and then fitting the pebbles (smaller tasks) in your planner.
3. I liked that it was relatable to teenagers which meant that it gave me the solution to problems that I didn’t know how to solve.
4. It made my life more balanced than before.
5. It allowed me to find advice for every aspect of my life such as making friends, doing well in school and even understanding others.

What I didn’t like about this book:

It could have been a bit shorter for those who just want to know the tips and not want to beat around the bush. I did take some time to read this book due to schoolwork.

My rating: 5/5

To conclude, I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to self-develop themselves and just wants to reflect on their teenage life in 10 years time and just be happy for all the experiences they had. Just read this book if you are older than 11-12 years old. It involved a lot of useful advice that a simple Youtube video or a Ted Talk could provide. I hope you read this book and like it as much as me.

Where to buy the book from:

I hope you have enjoyed reading this article. This link is not sponsored. Comment down below whether you have read the book too. If you enjoyed this article, check out my other articles too:

Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day!

In today’s article, I will be sharing with you 10 fun and productive ideas about what to do when you are bored. These can even be applied on a sunny day. I am sure that these ideas will spice up the rest of your day!

Organize your room.

Clean and organize everything in your room to instantly feel productive and give you a fresh state of mind.

Have a relaxation/self-care day.

We all get caught up in our busy lives and some me-time is always necessary! Put on a face mask, play some soothing music in the background and wear a smile on your face.

Do some coloring.

Colouring has been a method to de-stress and escape into another world. So grab some coloring pens, take your old coloring book and start coloring.

Create some art.

Whether you love doodling, putting on a full face of makeup, applying henna to your hands or painting, they are all amazing ways to spend your time.

Play/learn an instrument that you know.

If you know how to play an instrument, play some songs and entertain yourself. If not, try learning an instrument and accomplish a new skill.

Have a coffee/hot chocolate date with a family member.

If you haven’t had the time to talk to one of your family members, then this is the perfect time to do so! Make a mug of warm coffee, sit down and bring back your old memories.

Catch up with one of your friends.

I am pretty sure that everyone has that one friend in their phone who they haven’t talked to for the past couple of weeks. If so, catch up with them and start a long conversation.

Watch a movie.

Everyone loves watching a movie or two. During these hours, you can finally watch that movie which all your friends have been talking about. Trust me, it’s worth it.

 Invite someone home.

During a rainy day, you may not want to get out of the house but someone else might. Call one of your friends home and have a nice chat with them.

Cook something new.

Everyone in this world has one recipe that they have not tried before. Get researching on the Internet for that recipe, grab your ingredients and start cooking! You even get your yummy food in the end.

These are just 10 of the fun ideas I came up with. These definitely cheers me up on any rainy day. If you enjoyed this article, and if it helps you, please share it with your family and friends. Also, check out my other articles:

How To Prioritise Your Tasks: The 5-step Method

9 Tips For Everlasting Motivation

Thank you for reading, and have a lovely day!

Pain is an emotion we have all experienced before, and it’s an emotion that none of us want. However, it is something that teaches us to be stronger. It also teaches us how to deal with unexpected failures and events throughout our lives. I hope you can enjoy and relate after reading this poem mixed with the love of poetry from myself, Surobi. Check out my other poem too down below:

http://surobiscribbles.com/index.php/2018/08/12/freedom/

Today’s article is going to be about how to increase your motivation levels. Motivation is a skill that only a few people conquer but it’s a skill that you will need to be successful in the future. This is why I’m going to be telling you guys some tips that I’ve implemented in my life to get motivated and be self-disciplined. Remember that after reading these tips, the only person who can actually implement this is you. I hope these work for you but if not, comment down below if you know any other tips for motivation that has helped you.

1. Think about your goals

One of the things that successful people do is that they actually think about what they want in the future from doing this particular task. If you want to study Maths because you want to be an accountant, make sure you have that in mind. If you want to learn how to play the piano, you have to make sure that you know why you’re doing it – is it to earn money from being a musician or is it because you want to impress your friends? The bottom line is that you must ensure that you know your destination so that you know your purpose for doing this and you feel accomplished.

2. Don’t compare yourself to anyone

Comparing has been a way of pressurizing people and it increases stress levels. If you want to be stress-free and actually be able to achieve all of your goals, you have to ensure you don’t compare yourself to anyone because it means that you are insecure and you want to be someone else. We are all different and we have to believe in ourselves. Find out who you truly are and know your strengths and weaknesses. Don’t get influenced by others, get inspired. Therefore, step up your game trying to find out who you are as a person and do not compare yourself to anyone else. Remember that it is okay if it takes your friend 5 minutes to become a millionaire but for you to become a millionaire after 50 years.

3. Give yourself rewards

We all know the quote that small steps lead to big accomplishments. Therefore if you really want to succeed, you have to start off by doing everything small. Accomplish a small task and make sure that you give yourself a reward every single time you complete it. For example, if you are trying to learn algebra and you’re trying to revise for your end of year exam, make sure to eat a small piece of chocolate bar or go for a walk outside after every topic. This will definitely motivate you and will help you to look forward to a reward. This will eventually create a repetitive method where you keep doing this until you reach your big exam and you would know all your content for the exam.

4. Create a motivation board

A motivation board is a board or a collage that you create with motivational quotes and pictures of things that you enjoy and your goals. This motivation board is usually kept private but I know that sometimes people like to stick it up on their walls. Every single time you feel like to procrastinate, the motivation board can allow you to visualize your goals and keep you motivated.

5. Starting is the hardest part

Before starting homework, we feel very tempted to just go and watch a Netflix show instead of actually doing the homework. However, if you give yourself a 2-minute timer to actually start doing the homework (just 2 minutes not more than that) you can start doing the homework. After that, you will get the hang of it so you can give yourself a 5-minute timer. If you feel like you’ve done 5 minutes of work and you think you’re still motivated to carry on, you can go for 10 minutes. As you keep doing this, you feel that drive because starting is the hardest part. Eventually, you are going to get the homework done. This is an amazing technique because if you start with just a 2-minute timer, you will eventually see that you have done a one-hour quality revision.

6. Think about what you’re going to lose or regret

One technique that most successful people use is to actually think about what you’re going to lose by not doing this task. Imagine if you are not able to become a lawyer in the future just because you didn’t study English. Imagine having to live off junk food just because you didn’t learn the important life lesson of cooking. Thinking about what you are going to lose or regret really helps to motivate some people since you would not want to cry over something big because you didn’t do something small.

7. Don’t complain – keep a positive mindset

One of the reasons why people don’t get motivated is because they have an indirect and constant perception in their head saying that they won’t be able to complete what they want to do, it’s boring and difficult or not be able to pursue that dream job. Keep a positive mindset. I challenge you to wake up every single morning and say to yourself that you will accomplish every single goal no matter what and nothing can stop you.

8. Don’t stress – plan

Stress is the enemy of getting your work done. if you think too much you won’t have the time to actually complete the task. Consequently, if you actually plan out everything you have to do in that day that has to be completed in detail for about 5 to 10 minutes, you’ll know exactly what you’ll have to do and this will allow you to be stress-free. This will also allow you to know what you exactly have to do and you won’t be confused when you’re actually doing the task. This will also allow your mind to be nice and clean.

9. Fake it till you make it

This means that pretend as if you already have reached the dream destination you wanted to go to. How does it feel? For example, if you are trying to get a job and you’re not motivated because you think you won’t be able to get that job, you have to fake it till you make it. Pretend as if you already got the money in your hands and think about how you will feel when you complete all your tasks. Fake it till you make it so that you feel good about yourself and you are stimulated to complete that task so that you will finally feel happy, fulfilled and successful.

I hope this article has helped you to be a bit more motivated. Remember that you are the only one who can implement these tips into your own life. If you enjoyed this article, make sure to check out my other articles like this. If you’re also new here, you can follow my Instagram @valuable.seconds for amazing poetry and photography content.

• It gives you a moment to reflect on what you did on a day.

Sometimes stress can be overloaded, when we think that we have not done enough in a day or if we are not grateful enough for what we have done. Therefore, taking the time to reflect on all the amazing people we have met, things that we have accomplished and experiences that we have experienced can help us to feel grateful for all that we have and realise our own purposes in life. It has also been proven to help people with depression, anxiety and stress.

• It helps you to be consistent.

One of the habits that many people lack is consistency. Whether it’s packing your backpack the night before or making a to-do list, we all slack off sometimes or are not bothered to do it. Therefore, we fail to be consistent at that particular task. Journaling can teach you to be consistent because it compels you to spend at least 5 minutes everyday to open up that journal and write down your thoughts and key events of that day. Therefore, it teaches you the fundamental skill of consistency and can help you to be consistent at other aspects of your life.

• It teaches you the skill of summarisation.

In some days, you may not have enough time to write down all your thoughts. On those specific days, you would have to summarise. It can be in a few lines and you can use this skill in many other places such as writing or telling your thoughts in a recent movie or book that you have watched in a few sentences. This is because journaling is your choice and you can write as much as you want.

• It compels you to accomplish many tasks in a day.

We all feel good when we accomplish many tasks and writing it down or telling someone makes us feel even better. When we make to-do lists, we tick off every task we complete and it makes us feel happy and fulfilled. Consequently, you want to accomplish more when you start journaling so you have more to write down, more to reflect on and more to feel proud on.

• It will help to bring back old memories.

If you keep this journal for the next few years, you will one day find it and start reading it. It will bring back old memories just like it did to me when I was 8 years old. Whether it’s happy, sad or embarrasing moments back then, you will be able to laugh and relive those moments again.

I hope this article has inspired or motivated you to start journaling. If this article has helped you, please share it with your family and friends. If you are also new here, follow my Instagram account valuable.seconds for amazing poetry and photography content. Stay tuned for more articles.