Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in Motivation.
What Do Your Scars Mean?
It was 2013, I was in my happy place, a Pearl Jam concert. This show was at the Barclays center in Brooklyn. The second night of back to back shows. I was happy. Right before “Betterman,” Eddie Vedder started to talk. What he said that night struck cord in me, and I’ve remembered it to this day.
By Vincent Graziano7 years ago in Motivation
Journalling: The Simplistic Power of Scribbling Your Troubles Away
For many years, I have struggled to materialise vague and mostly unrealistic New Years Resolutions I make year-to-year. Like many of you reading this, I have set unattainable, yet super common, yearly goals such as losing a ridiculous amount of weight for a self-confidence boost, or getting up every morning at 5AM to do yoga and meditation, and another previous one I am not proud to admit: finding someone so I don't have to have the painful annual Christmas talk with extended family who never fail to ask if I have found a partner or significant other yet (evidently Tinder proved ineffective over the years).
By Sophie Webb7 years ago in Motivation
Phoenix Rising
I have left the wolf of darkness, at least just for today, inside my heart back in the dusky hollows of my soul space. Today, if only just for today—I am the phoenix. I said 'falcon' aloud but it feels right, I am at least halfway certain, that my fiery wings have grown back. Like Lucifer, I took a hard fall from grace and was bathed in blackness; like Icarus, my wings melted when I flew too close to the sun and I caught fire. The wings that crease my shoulder blades are small, still spreading, testing plyometrics, pliability, buoyancy, air flow. Colorless, invisible to the naked eye. In the spirit realm I stretch one out, feeling the ache of disuse for far, far too long. The other swings out as I flex my latissimus dorsi, feeling the dual wingspan of the bat-wing, the angel-wing—both of my wings. Both sides of the same soul, returned to me. The muscles are ready to work on finding an updraft, playing with the pitch and yaw of how high I soar—and yet, it is not time for the flames to fully find my ignited spirit, Apache Mama and the other fire deities waiting anxiously for the coals to smolder, smolder to kindling catch, kindling catch to a slow controlled burn of past consequence, breathing my air, my oxygen, clean and mostly pure. Until finally, eventually, any day now—whoosh—I am engulfed in the fires that have cleansed my spirit, that have burnt away the oil-black sludge of the Dark Passenger's hold on me. My skin scorched by the desert sun but not yet burned. My eyes enlightened by the last light, the lusted-after stare into the sun that took my sight once, twice, thrice, before it made me blind to the truth. But now. But now I can see clearly, or at least in the light of the 'Real.' The phoenix is a burning cycle, as understood through mythology and the ancients. I have reached the end of my cycle, dove feet first into the inevitable crash, and now—and now, it is time to pick myself up and rise.
By Andy Reed7 years ago in Motivation
Just Do It
"If you can't beat fear, do it scared." Lately I have been forcing myself to do the little ideas I get in my head that I usually shy away from; the things that are not hard to do; the things that just seem pointless or silly because no one else is doing it. When in reality I could be the leader in the situation and truly encourage human beings to step out of their shells and go ahead and do what makes them so them. I can imagine you’re wondering, “what in the hell is she talking about?” So I’m going to give some examples.
By - Karaedan -7 years ago in Motivation
Pondering Existence
Recently, I have faced death. Not only in my family with the death of my beloved Nanna and then Aunt two weeks later, but also within friends’ lives as well—not necessarily being human; family can also be your pets or those close to you that you consider family. I have witnessed the death of two of my friends’ very loved and faithful companions this week. It appears death has begun to rampage our world. The pain I have felt in the last month, and the pain that I have seen in my friends’ lives has left me pondering how fleeting life really is. How short our life is in the span of the age of time itself. When a loved one passes, in our pain we begin to question life itself. What are we here for? What is the point of our existence if life itself is so very fleeting? As someone who suffers with PTSD and depression, these questions, and many similar, flow through my mind consistently. I remember quite recently toward the beginning of this year, I penned the following paragraph. I was in a dark place, having recently had a medical scare.
By River Garman7 years ago in Motivation
// BEING (Almost) 18 //
Wow. It's almost here. I'm 2 days away from being 18 and I don't know how to feel. I know that more opportunities are going to come my way in life and I know that more things are going to open up for me—my world is my oyster at this point. But still. More responsibilities. More time to manage.
By Lauren Day7 years ago in Motivation
The Dust of Our Bones: Pt. 2
All of life was held within the stretching breath of a moment and there was no room for questions. It was all settled inside like sun rising every morning. This was life and all was as it should be. Childhood unraveled in the rhythm of long summer days and wondrous winter nights and abundance was found simply in what was before you.
By L M Anderson7 years ago in Motivation
How To: Go Back to School at Your Very Best
As someone who attends a highly competitive school with less than 500 students total, I get my fair share of depressive emotions that make me want to dwindle into another world as the beginning of the year inches closer and closer and my summer of doing nothing slips away.
By L7 years ago in Motivation
