How to Stay Positive During Troubling Times

I hope you're having a cozy, peaceful morning. Before I begin with my usual Sunday thoughts, I wanted to acknowledge how difficult this week has been.

On Friday, I was feeling so overwhelmed by the news - I felt sad, angry and frustrated. Most of all, I felt helpless. But that morning I had a coffee meeting on my schedule. My mastermind group was meeting for the first time in person after several months.

When I walked in the door, I was immediately welcomed into a room full of open-hearted humans whose individual missions all point to making this world a better place. For the next two hours we sat around a table talking about our vision for the future and the people we wanted to help.

I left that meeting with a lightness of spirit that I hadn't felt in a long time. The thing is, if you're someone who cares about making change in the world, it's important to feel as good and positive as possible in order to stay focused on that mission.

Your family, community and even the world needs you to step up and lead the way.

Whatever you do today, let it be something that makes you feel good.

"Millions of mind guerrillas, raising the spirit of peace and love, not war."
- John Lennon

More on feeling good...

A few months ago I offered to hold an abbreviated version of my Rediscover Your Inner Spark workshop to Rotman Alumni (The University of Toronto's Business School). I was so surprised to find out last week that 288 people had signed up! Clearly more people than I realized feel that they've lost some spark.

Before the workshop, I sent out a survey. One of the questions I asked was, "How would you rate your current spark level on a scale of 1-10?"

The average answer was five. FIVE.

Here is what is seriously wrong with that - you're not just waking up in the morning feeling like a five. You're also bringing that five with you when you interact with your family, your team or clients at work and even with your friends. You're solving problems from that five. You're making decisions from that five.

Now imagine how you would show up for your family, work, friends if you were at an 8, 9 or even 10?

Your family and friends need your spark. The world needs your spark!

There are many ways to elevate your spirit and your spark. I developed a workshop focused on specifically that and I'm working on a longer program with the aim of creating more lasting change. But for now, I have a short self-guided worksheet I've created to help you remember your spark in less than an hour.

If you'd like me to send it to you, just respond to this email with the word "SPARK".


With love,

Kena xo

Kena Paranjape, Founder, All You Are