Traditionally, Tuesday Tips is a collection of ideas that make living life easier and more fun. But that makes a pretty silly assumption—that we need to think or work at all to make life easy and fun. Let’s go straight to the truth: life already is easy and fun. Now what? What do Tuesday Tips look like when we’re already enjoying our lives to the hilt? We celebrate them!

1. Celebrate yourself.
You’re already perfect. You’re already doing everything right. You’re right on time. You’re so loved. You are connected to everyone and you have infinite power. You’re a glorious individual perspective who won the lottery the day you were born. Put that shit online! Take pictures of yourself! Go hard! Express yourself! Let it all out! Be loud and be proud! Start a lifestream! Write a book! Make some art! Show the world your perfection. It flows out of you effortlessly!

2. Give yourself positive feedback.
Write yourself a love letter. Give yourself the positive feedback you crave. Once you do, it will start pouring from everywhere.

3. Pay yourself.
Don’t feel like thinking? Make money in your head. Practice silently counting as high as you can go, and then imagine you just effortlessly made that much money. How does that change your day? Do you approach your job and errands the same way, knowing you made that much money so easily? It really can come that easily with a little practice. Be it, see it!

4. Feel the way you want to feel.
Danielle Laporte’s post on “how do you want it all to feel?” really made an impact on me last week. It’s the most effective way I’ve found to attract experiences that make me feel the way I want to feel. I want today to feel like a sunny camping trip in southern Illinois with all my best friends!

5. Breathe.
If you ever get caught up in thoughts and forget about your inherent perfection, you can instantly tether yourself back into the Now by breathing consciously. (Try practicing with Pranayama.) Observe the flow of your breath and allow yourself to return to the present moment. Life really is easy. Let go of everything and let life love you. We all love you! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Tuesday Tips is a weekly strategy guide to the game of life. Strengthen your character by doing things that make you feel good, gain manifestation powers by directing your thoughts, attract the experiences you want by projecting the emotions you want to feel, and level up by just being you. Let’s play!

1. Support art and your art will support you.
If you want people to patronize your work, patronize theirs. Look for the value in what everyone’s creating around you. When you invest in someone else’s work, you encourage them to make more and do better, which in turn will inspire you to do the same.

2. Lifestream.
Documenting my experiences as often as I can has become the easiest access point to the Now that I’ve found this week. I release my thoughts and experiences as they come and don’t think about them much, because I’m always in the Now looking for new things to stream. It’s like literally streaming my head off—my mind is something I continually shed. Weird, and awesome.

3. Get what you want in real time.
Think about what you want, then stop thinking until you get it or forget it. Try it. It works. 100% guaranteed.

4. Win an argument.
If you want to win an argument, stop talking and stop thinking until you either win or forget. Also 100% guaranteed.

5. Stop reminiscing.
Even if memories of an experience make you feel good, they’re still pulling you outside of the Now. If you make a decision to stop thinking about the past, when you’re in the moment you’ll make a lot more effort to enjoy it because you know you won’t be thinking about it later.

6. Feel inspired.
When you can’t feel inspiration, meet it halfway. Take any sort of deliberate action to shake things up. Go for a walk, buy a book, or start a new hobby. As soon as you get caught up in the moment long enough to forget you’re not inspired, you’ll be inspired.

7. Go to bed feeling good.
You’ll have good dreams and you’ll wake up feeling as good as you did when you went to sleep. It makes it so much easier to get in an increasingly better mood every day, instead of having to start over every morning.

8. Trust your gut.
It’s always right. If you can’t make a decision, quiet your mind by counting or breathing and ask for the answer. You’ll hear it every time.

9. Feel the way you want to feel.
Danielle Laporte wrote this amazing article about choosing how you want your experiences to feel. Take the time to think about each segment of your day, then set an emotional intention. It WORKS! Here are some of her examples:

I want my money-making to feel like walking though a vineyard, surveying ripeness, a production of sun and earth for craft and pleasure.
I want my word to feel like gold bullion.
I want my laughter to feel like electric pineapple children.
I want the end of the day to feel like a happy quiet baby.

10. Effortlessly lift your mood.
Combine this mantra with deep breathing: “Breathe in and raise your vibration. Breathe out and release your resistance.”

11. Look pretty and be pretty.
Get a photo-timer app for your phone (I use this one) and photograph yourself doing mundane tasks. Smile while you do it. You’ll be instantly transported to the Now, where you’ll enjoy your task and create lifestream content while you’re at it.

12. Let life take the driver’s seat.
The more you let go, the more it flows. Make feeling good your only job and let life take care of the rest! It’s easy if you allow it to be.

Tuesday Tips is a weekly roundup of ideas that feel good. Each week, it gets a little easier to work with the flow of life instead of struggling against it. Give yourself a push downstream by realigning your actions, thoughts, feelings and being with the person you know you are.

1. If you don’t want to do it right now, don’t do it.
Listen to your Self. When you feel a strong aversion to doing things, it’s ok to not do them. Take the time to ponder what you would rather be doing instead, and if at all possible, do that!

2. When the option is to pay-what-you-can, genuinely PAY WHAT YOU CAN.
You will only receive the value you invest. If you think something is worth $1, you’ll get $1 of quality. If you think it’s worth $100, you’ll get that much quality. It’s whatever you want to perceive. So give big and receive big!

3. If you feel bad, exercise.
If you’re bored, exercise. If you want to get high, exercise. If you don’t know how to feel good, exercise. Often we simply have stagnant energy trapped in our bodies that a little movement can shake right out. For an easy but intense at-home workout, try jump rope. It’s just like a flow toy—you can see it illustrate your thoughts. When you stop thinking, the flow will do the jumping for you and it will seem effortless.

4. Set your universal alarm clock.
Set your alarm for the latest you can wake up, but then ask the universe to wake you early, feeling rested. Then you aren’t forcing yourself awake before you’re ready with an alarm, and the perfect timing of life gets a chance to wake you when you’re ready. Or, you’ll get up at the last possible moment, getting plenty of sleep.

5. The flow will lead you to the substance, don’t look to the substance for the flow.
Learn how to feel good without external help. Then when you’re feeling really good and you have the opportunity to partake, you’ll know it’s the right time. You’ll be doing it for fun, not to make yourself feel better.

6. When writing for an audience, write as little as possible.
Condense, distill and clarify your ideas. People want to hear what you have to say, but they simply don’t have time to read five pages of text in one blog post. Good design is what you take away, not what you add.

7. That being said, rewrite your About page!
Crafting an About page for the person you want to be is one of the best ways to become that person. You don’t have to be certain what you want there, you just have to start. Write anything. It will help you know what you want better. Write things the best you can imagine them and then keep going deeper. It can be a total lie in terms of your current reality. Just write it for fun, as if you had what you wanted. “I’m a famous Hollywood actress and I spend my time traveling the world to promote contact juggling” or whatever comes to you. See this article or this one for more details and examples.

8. Say yes.
When you say yes to the things bothering you, you allow them to pass by in the flow. For example: feeling like you ate too much. You can say “No, I ate too much,” essentially focusing on the food in you, making a big deal of it, keeping it in one place, holding onto it like a tree branch while you’re in a raft on a raging river. When you say “Yes, I love food. Yes, I wanted that. Yes, I’m happy to be fed and nourished,” the food can move along in the flow, and say “Well, my job here is done.” It doesn’t bother you, it doesn’t stagnate in your body, it isn’t trapped by your resistant “no.” Just say yes. To everything. It’s all a gift. All of it.

9. Practice the feeling of being recognized.
If you want to be recognized for your work, recognize yourself. Recognize all that you do every day. Recognize the miracle of your life. Recognize the miracle of breath. Recognize all you’ve done so far, how far you’ve come. Recognize what you know: that you are already perfect and you don’t have to do anything to become more whole.

10. Tell yourself “I love you” in the mirror, over and over until you cry.
It’ll feel so good, I promise.

11. Appreciate your job.
If you didn’t have someone else telling you what to do and when to do it, you would have no desire to do anything else. The value of someone else giving you a timeline and schedule is that it forces you to experience contrast, which causes you to have new desires. Use the pressure of time to keep your creative focus.

12. Focus on your breathing.
Like Astrojax, your breath is a flow toy. It is an active illustration of your thoughts. When you focus on your breathing, you are stopping thought, and your breath will make you feel good. When you focus on negativity, your breath will illustrate this by becoming short, rapid, or uncomfortable. You can either change your thoughts (difficult to do!) and watch your breath follow, or you can change your breath (easy to do!) and your thoughts will follow.

13. Let go of your expectations.
Your expectations are what you think is going to happen. But when you let go of your expectations and allow the universe to surprise you, much bigger things than you could ever imagine will occur. Give up the need to know the outcome, and enjoy the Now. Danielle Laporte has a useful prayer for expectation addicts, and a later post wherein she confirms the strategy with “This ‘giving up expectations’ shit really works.” She’s 100% right. Success will come when you least expect it, because it means you’ve released the thought pattern of “I am not successful.”

14. When you are in pain, or overwhelmed with negative thoughts, ask your Self for guidance.
If you are attempting to make a decision to try to feel better (“Will coffee make me feel better? A drink? A smoke? A nap?”), just ask your Self. If you can actually listen to the answer (you will hear it), just say yes. Do whatever your Self says. Your Self always knows what you should do. Just listen and you’ll be on the ride to feeling good again. Whatever your Self tells you to do, your mind will resist. Say yes anyway. Keep saying yes.

15. You can have whatever you want, just listen.
What you project into the world (thoughts, feelings, words and actions) is your vibration, and what you experience as your reality is a physical interpretation of your vibration. When you change the vibration you project, your reality will change to reflect that. Listen to what your reality is telling you. Your reality is reflecting the signal you are projecting, and when you pay attention, you can access the clues life is giving you. Once you learn to read your own vibration by observing your thoughts, emotions and physical world, you can change your vibration, and change your reality. Eventually you’ll be able to play your vibration like a musical instrument, creating your reality in flow just like playing a solo on the guitar.

Tuesday Tips is a weekly compilation of new perspectives in conscious living. The “Thinking” section explores methods for thinking about what you want, the “Feeling” section provides suggestions for practicing the feeling of having what you want, and the “Being” section is about stopping thought altogether and allowing yourself to embrace the Now.

1. Define your morning ritual.
Flow through your day by deciding what you want first thing in the morning. Check out this thread in the School of Life Design Facebook group for ideas.

2. Tell a silly story
Life Story is a one page PDF that helps you write the story of your life. Figure out what you want, then create new thought patterns that affirm your desire. First you write what you want in past tense, so you can start talking as if you already have it. Then you write three milestones that occur on the way to your manifestation, to help make it believable that you’ll reach your goal. The sillier, more surreal or absurd the milestones are, the less resistance you may have to reaching them. Try writing a story about how you manifested a bunch of money, and use milestones like “the first sign the trick was working was when I saw a money tree.” You may have less resistance to such a whimsical indicator.

3. Set intentions as often as you can
Often I’ll consume something and wonder how it will affect me. My new method is to decide how I want it to affect me first. For example, I used to make coffee and think “I wonder if this will feel good.” Now as I make coffee I set an intention: “I want this to give me a smooth burst of energy.” Think about what you want before doing anything and you’ll be much more likely to get it.

4. Practice the feeling of abundance by supporting local artists
If you’re an artist or designer of any kind, you probably have things you want to sell. Give what you want to receive by patronizing artists you love, and the universe will return the favor down the road. Looking for work to support? My brother and his girlfriend just launched the greeting card company Balena Prints, which makes exquisite linoleum-stamped art. They gave us two gorgeous sets of cards for Christmas, pictured at the top.

5. Practice feeling good about your body
If the holidays have you feeling a little critical of your body, check out this thread in the School of Life Design Facebook group. Practice loving your body and it will show you more things to love.

6. Practice being transparent to irritations
When something annoying is occurring, like a dog barking, imagine that you are transparent and the sound passes right through you. Use this visualization with minor annoyances and when bigger things happen you’ll be much better at rolling with the punches.

7. Be kind no matter what
Your kindness will always be reflected back to you, even if it seems like people aren’t being receptive. Be kind to the driver who cuts you off. Be kind to your partner who is being mean. Be kind to the impatient person in line at the store. All of these people want the same thing you do—to be loved. Even though it may drive you crazy to be kind to someone who isn’t, that kindness will make the recipient want to be kind. Be the leader and the one to show kindness first.

8. Pretend you’re at a lock-in
If you have trouble staying put in the Now, pretend that you’re stuck wherever you are for the night, like at a lock-in. It’s like being trapped in a snow storm or tornado warning—there isn’t much you can do other than make the best of it. Make believe you’re trapped wherever you are and then look for ways to enjoy it.

9. Play Sorry!
I’ve been practicing my silent counting, which is pretty much the most effective method for pivoting away from negative thoughts I’ve found. The other day Kelly and I played the board game Sorry! with my sister and her boyfriend, which involves a lot of counting and little else. It was super relaxing and a way to enjoy counting with other people.

10. Get in a board game flow
That game of Sorry! was the first board game I’ve played since discovering the concept of flow. I realized that board games are an easy, low-pressure way to get in the flow with other people. Board games are actually fun when you decide to be in the moment and feel the rhythm of life behind the play.

11. Make peace with what is
If you find yourself impatient to leave where you are, try to stop resisting and enjoy it. Smokers often joke that the only way to get a bus to come is to light a cigarette, because when you light that cigarette you’re deciding to enjoy where you are instead of anxiously looking for ways to escape. Wherever you are, look for things to enjoy about it, and then what you really want can come.

12. Realize everything in your reality is there just for you
Everything around you is a gift. Every status update your crush makes, every song you hear on the radio, every word in a conversation that you hear is crafted specifically for you. When you see a performance, that moment was created for you. When you watch a tv show, know that it was made just for you. You won the lottery when you born, and every minute detail in your experience is part of your prize. Say thank you and accept what the universe is trying to give you. Enjoy the show!

Life design is the practice of conscious thinking, feeling and being. Tuesday Tips is a weekly collection of ideas to help you direct your thoughts, project the vibration you want to receive and ultimately be present in the Now.

1. Remind yourself, “isn’t this fun?!”
Our stickers from zazzle.com arrived! They are a delicious reminder to stay focused in the present moment, where there are no problems or pain. Life is supposed to be an exciting adventure—let’s do it up right!

2. Get cute, free favicons for your site
Favicon.cc is an amazing resource for creating a favicon (that little icon next to the title of a website in your browser address bar or tab), and they also have a huge wealth of stock icons that anyone can use. Browse their top rated favicons to add a professional touch to your site. If you don’t know how to install your favicon, read this.

3. Make your requests in your head
How often do you ask someone to do something, only to be met with resistance? Asking someone to do a chore almost always introduces resistant thoughts, because by using verbal language, the mind has to get involved. And all the mind does is resist. So instead of asking someone to do something with your voice, try asking them “in the air”, or in your mind. Think of it as practicing telepathy. Thoughts are vibrations that can be perceived just like sound or light, and I guarantee the person can hear what you’re thinking, though maybe not consciously. Communicate your request and let it go, and watch as the chores get done without you ever asking aloud.

4. Share your synchronicities on Twitter!
My friend and fellow life designer Betty had the great idea of using the hashtag #synchronicities on Twitter to mark manifestations and moments in flow. It’s always awesome to see things working out for other people, because it makes the idea that “life really is good!” all that much more believable.

5. Make a banner for your website
On my site I usually only advertise for my own products, so I get to make a lot of banner ads. A couple years ago, Kelly did professional banner ad design for a company called Spiceworks, where she learned exactly how to get people to click! Here are the top two things to keep in mind when designing a banner ad:

• Begin designing the banner as if you were a first time visitor to the site and you have no idea what the banner advertisement is for. Make sure it’s extremely clear what you are advertising.
• Have a “call to action” be the last thing on the banner. The “call to action” is the thing the user is supposed to do–click the ad, call a phone number, etc. Basically, make an actual button for people to click on that says “BUY NOW” or another specific command. People don’t always know what to do, so you have to tell them!

6. Get a free Square credit card reader
If you sell physical objects in person (for example, crafts at a fair), the Square is the most amazing way to take credit cards and get the money in your bank account quickly. Square will send you the card reader for free, which plugs into your iPhone or iPad. Swipe a credit card or manually input the numbers, have the customer sign the screen (they can even tip!), and then you can email or text a receipt. It’s amazing, try it!

7. Do a “99 Things to Love” worksheet about yourself
All of your reality is a reflection of you. When you notice displeasing aspects of life, know that those are actually parts of yourself that you don’t like. When you focus on the parts of yourself you love, you will begin to find those qualities reflected in your daily experiences, because whatever you focus on expands.

8. Get high on running!
On Sunday Kelly and I did the first 5 mile run of our half marathon training season. I had almost forgotten how good it feels to run longer distances! I can’t even begin to explain the feeling of well being that comes with long distance running, you’re just going to have to try it out for yourself! Running is an incredible tool for projecting the vibration you want to receive, because all that time spent feeling good while in the flow running or basking in your power afterwards is time spent projecting a vibration of ease and power. You will see those feelings reflected back to you in every other area of your life.

9. Practice the feeling of abundance by arranging your favorite objects
When I was a kid, I was obsessed with piling my favorite belongings in my bed (which was covered in a Sesame Street tent btw) and then arranging them and looking at them. I had some jewelry boxes, a piggy bank, some stationery and various toys and dolls. Of course I didn’t realize it at the time, but collecting all my favorite things was a way to practice the feeling of abundance. Kelly and I totally did this a couple weeks ago after an amazing week—we put all our newly completed projects, paychecks, favorite toys and a freshly delivered pizza in one place and just straight basked in that shit. It gave me an exquisite feeling of relief, like “see?! My life really is abundant in every way!”

10. Remember that there is no pain in the Now
If you are experiencing physical pain, try to focus your entire attention on the sensation. As you bring your attention fully to the Now, you will find that your pain subsides. No pain can survive the light of your consciousness, and the light of your consciousness is just your focused attention. Finally, all those angsty teenage years of razor blades and safety pin piercings are explained! Pain is actually just a tool to bring you to the Now. I always knew I was onto something ;]

11. Look for visions in meditation
One way to quiet your mind is to unfocus your eyes and look for visions in the patterns of light. It’s a way to begin seeing without your eyes. Once you enter a comfortable meditative state of blissful staring, try asking for a solution to a creative problem. Then look for a vision to answer the question. Keep an open mind—the vision may be wildly different from what you expect.

12. Try silent counting
Kelly started a new practice that has completely blown me away. Instead of finding mantras to counter negative thoughts, she started silently counting. Within two days, her entire demeanor changed. She’s much more relaxed, present, and easy going. With such incredible results, I had to try it myself. I’ve started counting pretty much any time I’m not actively using my brain in writing, speaking, or navigating physical reality. Sometimes I count from 1-8 over and over, sometimes I count to 100. All that matters is that when I’m counting, I’m not thinking resistant thoughts. It is THE most effective method for dropping negative thoughts I’ve ever tried!