1. Stop giving a fuck about what everyone thinks about you.  I know the night invites an ocean of voices to come flood your room and you must sacrifice sleep to tread on water and stay afloat.  I promise you that you are really in a bathtub.  Once you find the drain, tug on the chain with all your might and watch everyone else’s words swirl down into the sewer where they belong.
2. Eat healthy.  Not to lose weight.  Fill your body with good things.  Treat it right.  Give yourself the energy to stand up.  Give yourself the energy to fight back.  Give yourself the energy to keep on going.
3. Spend ten minutes a day doing what you love.  Then twenty minutes.  Then an hour.  Stuff your days with things to look forward to.  Let the joy spill over into every aspect of your life.
4. Keep a notebook on your nightstand.  Every night before you tuck yourself in, write down three things that you are thankful for.  Life is about perspective.
5. Let yourself grieve.  Don’t get mad when you can’t bounce back from a heart break in one day.  You are human.  You are fragile.  Take time to put the pieces of your heart back together exactly how you want to.  Just know you are capable of rising from the ashes.
6. Surround yourself with people who laugh at all your jokes.  Who, when you are looking out the window in the darkest moments of despair, will rip you away from your melancholy corner and shove you into the sun and let its rays heal you.
7. Do not let judgement pass your lips.  Malice poisons you more than who you are talking about.  Take your negative energy and cast it on barren ground.  Don’t let it grow and bear fruit.
8. Take a stand.  Stop biting your lips when you want to say something.  Stop thinking no one else cares.  Don’t bottle your ideas up and bury them with your corpse.  Inform the misinformed that feminism is not a synonym for misandry.  Hold picket signs during the Climate March.  Chain yourself to old buildings that you don’t want to be torn down.  You gain nothing in life from holding your tongue.
9.  Look in the mirror every day and call yourself beautiful.  You’ll be amazed how easy it is to hold your head high when the weight of self loathing isn’t sitting on your shoulders.

-Michelle Cherian