1. Empathy. This one is an easy one, but it’s important to try and understand others and what we are all going through. As we get older, we become so consumed with our own lives and our own personal drama that we forget that someone is dealing with drama similar to ours, or even worse. It’s nice to feel understood and for others to have some genuine interest in what we’re going through.
2. Guidance. Not everyone needs to be a hero. But someone can be a helping hand to anyone who feels lost or confused. A little help goes a long way. Life is a cycle of emotions. How we are treated is how we will treat others. A little help will make people feel good and will help others open up to anyone that needs help in any situation.
3. Honesty. This includes being honest to yourself, to others, and being brutally honest. If you make enemies because you let people know how you really think or feel, then let it be. It’s good to be around people that can handle your true and authentic feelings and emotions. Those are the people you want to surround yourself with. Those are the people that will stay with you through hard times. It’s always good to take a step back and evaluate your feelings and emotions. Being honest with yourself and with others will help you in life more than it will hurt you. The right people will accept your honesty even if it is uncomfortable to hear.
4. Forgiveness towards ourselves. We all make mistakes. So many mistakes. There’s no way to prevent that. Maybe we escalated something and made it worse. Maybe we allowed our anxious self to envision something that was never there and that allowed us to make things worse. I think this world would be so much kinder if we forgave ourselves for every decision or mistake that we have made in life.
5. To be more spontaneous. Going out to a place you’re not familiar with. Randomly contacting a friend who you haven’t seen in a while. Having a night full of self-care when you’re normally a workaholic. Being spontaneous spices up life and can bring new energy. It helps you feel young. There is anxiety in being spontaneous, but you can choose to look at it as a challenge. To step outside your comfort zone is healthy even though we have the ability to believe it’s unhealthy. We just have to change that mindset because being spontaneous every once in a while invigorates us and gets us out of a rut that we might feel trapped in.
6. Intimacy. This doesn’t have to mean sex. There are different ways to be intimate. You can share experiences with someone who understands you or wants to help you. You can surround yourself with people who genuinely enjoy your presence and you feel like you don’t have to put on an act or a mask. Being intimate means being vulnerable and giving yourself up. Trusting another person to surrender yourself to. Finding someone to be intimate with does a lot of healing. No matter what form of intimacy it is.
7. Encouragement. Like I said earlier, we all make mistakes. It’s nice for others to have our backs when we do feel down on ourselves. Sometimes we need a hand to help us up. It’s important to build inner confidence in order to not be dependent on the words of others, but it’s also a great feeling when someone encourages you to continue to be yourself and continue to keep trying your best and being the best version of yourself. And that it’s okay if you have days where you can’t be the best version of yourself.
8. Conversations. Passive-aggressive comments and shade-throwing on social media or to texts with close friends do more harm than good. The truth eventually comes out at some point. Conversations are tough, but that doesn’t mean we should avoid them or “wait for the right moment” to talk about tough topics. If something lingers in your mind, then you should speak up about it. The hardest conversations are also the most impactful ones.
9. Hope. This isn’t the most peaceful time. There’s a lot of real world issues and they are only getting escalated due to people wanting it to escalate and people’s stubbornness to see the world the way they want to see it. But, I don’t think being hopeless that these problems won’t be solved will do any good. It’s important to keep hope. The idea that things will get better is what will keep us going. It’s also going to provide change in the world. Everything starts with an idea, and an idea comes from hope.
10. For people to rest. You can’t be strong all the time. You can’t be productive all the time. You can’t be at your best all the time. We need to be easier on ourselves and rest. The days we feel weak, we should rest. During holidays or celebrations, we should allow ourselves to relax. I know we live in a world where everyone seems flawless because they post or list highlight reels of themselves, but you don’t have to overwork yourself to feel like you’re on their “level.” If you know you’re doing the best you can, then you shouldn’t feel any shame in resting your body and your mind. Even if you’re not doing your best, it’s unhealthy to punish yourself. Just rest up and believe that you can be at your best the next day. Sometimes the best thing you can do is rest your mind not just for yourself, but for others. A well-rested version of yourself is a better version than a tired version of yourself. 
