Do you ever feel lost, not yourself or depressed after a losing something that you cared for, invested your time in, and loved? This could be losing your job, losing someone that you really cared for, failure, or stress. I’ve been there; my life this past couple of weeks has been challenging. But I am pushing through. I noticed that when going through obstacles, I lack self-love. By devoting myself to people, jobs, etc., I tend to lose myself in devoting all my attention to these things.

This post is for all of the people who are suffering hardships that life brings. I will be giving advice how I personally get through life's struggles, and I hope these tips can help you as well.

Take time out for yourself. This is a very important step to trying to find yourself. Don’t get involved with things or people that take a lot of your time and energy while you are healing. It just leads to an open door of the destruction of yourself and your relationships. My roommate, Hallie Stribly, said: “taking for yourself leads to learning how to depend on yourself, so you can learn how to get yourself out of a situation and go through obstacles on your own.”

Understand that there is more to come. You must know that what you are going through right now will pass and that there are greater things out there for you than what you have right now. Also, know that this feeling shall pass with time. Become patient with time and know you will not feel how you feel right now later in time. It does get easier.

Motivate yourself. Use whatever negative situation you're in as motivation to get better. Use this situation to push yourself to become the best person you can be. If someone did you wrong, prove them wrong. If you lost your job, make them realize that they lost an amazing employee. If someone is telling you that you constantly won’t be good at something, prove them wrong. Let life's hardships motivate you.

Know the power of your words. In dealing with relationships that weren’t for me, I was very insecure. So to counter that, I speak things into existence. I look in the mirror multiple times a day and say “I am loved, I am beautiful, I am enough, I am powerful and I have to joy of the Lord”. This has been really helping me day-to-day. If I think my day will be bad, my day will turn out bad. So, by speaking positivity into the universe, I will receive positivity by training

Spend more time on your hobbies. Try to learn new things or restart activities that you were once passionate about. For me, I started writing. I tend to write everything down: how I feel, dreams, goals and whatever else comes to mind. If you want to learn self-defense, get involved in self-defense classes. If you enjoy reading, join a book club. Try to get involved with things you are passionate about. Studies say it takes six weeks to form a habit, and continually doing something positive for six weeks can develop a newfound positive aspect in your life.

Get physically active. One thing that has helped me ward off overthinking, stress and anxiety is working out. I know working out seems like a drag, but getting someone to push you to go the gym is SO worth it. I recently joined boot camp classes at Savoy Fitness. I have been so angry and hurt lately, but these classes have calmed me down in ways I cannot explain. In addition to losing seven pounds, my stress and anxiety panics have stopped since I began working out.

Getting your groove back starts with the right mindset, and these are just a few of the ways to get you on the right track!