9 Ways To Set Up Your Day To Be An Amazing One

I have found that many of my awesome days have many common characteristics: shared in good company, allowing the day to unfold without rushing anything, getting excited by a community project, or simply being happy with the abundance that is in my life.

Though we can't predict what will happen in the course of a day, there are many things we can do to make our mind, body and spirit CONDUCIVE to having a great day. We can get a good night's sleep so we are mentally alert enough to appreciate the good things in life and physically rested enough to jump onto a fun, spontaneous activity after a day of work. We can get in the habit of meditating, or even creating one new intention every morning.

1. Get 7-9 hours of sleep. It's hard to have an awesome day when you are sleep-deprived, cranky, and annoyed with life.


2. That being said, some of the best days ever (an all-nighter painting session, a crazy early morning road trip drive, a rocking concert four hours away, one of those life-changing conversations that go on until three in the morning) involve having ridiculously inadequate amounts of sleep. Be open for those.

3. Meditate. Meditation makes everything better. It trains your monkey brain to slow down, go with the flow and truly appreciate the present.


4. Say "I love you" to someone: your spouse, your parents, your best friend, your dog. Anyone.

5. Expand your mind with what's going on with the world for free online! I love listening to TED talks and podcasts of Radiolab. Most recently, I'm addicted to checking out documentary episodes of Vanguard on Hulu.com.

6. Donate money online to a cause you truly care about. For me, donating money on a regular basis never fails to uplift my mood.

7. Have a weekly or monthly group gathering to look forward to. In addition to regularly volunteering for a free public art series in downtown Los Angeles which gives me the chance to connect with inspiring and creative people, I have also started meeting with a small creative collective where we help each other finish our respective creative projects. Both group meetings lead to some pretty amazing days.

8. Keep your space clutter-free. Whether you believe in feng shui or not, I really believe that regularly de-cluttering your living space opens your life to new energy and new flow.

9. Be impassioned about a cause for the greater good. You will never run out of work to do, or ideas for making the world a better place.