Life sucks. I’m going to say it as it is, sometimes life just S-U-C-K-S sucks. The world can and will beat you up from time to time. It will leave you in a wallowing pit of despair and take away any drive you hold, if you let it. I know how you feel right now, things are not going your way, all you wanna do is curl up and never do anything ever again. You’ve gone from feeling like 10 million bucks, to feeling like a penny someone dropped on the street and was too lazy to pick up. You want to stay positive, you want to be motivated; but the sadness and the stress seems to have taken your willpower hostage. Regardless, you can fight it. You can stay motivated and you can keep going. No matter how bad it is hear me when I say this : you can and you must keep going.

It all starts with not allowing stress to keep you from participating in life. Get up, get dressed in an outfit that makes you feel good, do your hair, do your makeup, eat breakfast, and get out the door; even if it’s the last thing you want to do. Once your out, all you’re going to want to is mentally mope about everything awful that’s ever happened ever. Don’t. Don’t let yourself to do that, keep your mind occupied, focus on what you need to do and what you want to do. In other words, mentally stay in the present.

You also need to start tackling the things that have been piling up. If you’ve been feeling unmotivated, odds are you’ve been letting your assignments and responsibilities sit and sit. The first thing you need to do is invest your time into getting all that done and out of the way; make a list of all that you have to do and actually do it. You’re honestly going to feel a lot better as soon as you accomplish the first thing. Productivity is good, productivity is your friend. Once you start being productive you want to be more productive. A pro tip is to channel all those negative feelings into being productive. You’ll be surprised what you can get done with all that pent up energy.

Since you’re feeling down in the dumps, you should take time to do things that make you happy. I know this one is really obvious, but seriously go out with your friends, maybe splurge and treat yourself to that really pretty Sephora eyeshadow you’ve been eyeing. You have to focus on you, because once you feel good, you do good. You need to do what you got to do in order to feel better physically and mentally. You can talk to someone about what’s been going on, write about it, get your nails done, change your hair. Do what you have to do so that when you look in the mirror and you think about your life, you say OK instead of ugh. You feeling better about yourself and your life should be your top priority. You are always your own top priority.

That being said, feeling better isn’t going to happen overnight, especially if the cause of you current sad state is big. It really does start with baby steps, going out on a Friday night and having fun with your friends is great; but I know it may not stop the negative thought processes. That part you have to do for yourself. The best advice I can give you ,is to make your life as positive as possible. You should surround yourself with positive people and constantly engage in activities you enjoy. You should try and form new relationships with others and learn new things. You should focus on yourself and personal improvement. It won’t happen overnight, but one day you’re going to look around, and you’re going to be happy with what you see. I can’t stress that enough, you are going to be happy again. You are going to fall in love again. You are going to make friends. You are going to make it. It’ll be an uphill battle, you can’t control what happens to you but you can control how you respond and grow from it.