What do you do?

When life gets tough, frustrating, annoying, seemingly hopeless- what do you do to encourage yourself? Is there a certain Bible verse that encourages you? A place you visit, a memory you remember, a quote that has meaning to you? The other morning I was getting my coffee ready before work, in which I usually watch the news (catch some Matt Lauer in the morning:), but on this morning when I flipped in on, it was a commercial, so I turned it to another channel and Beth Moore was on with Betty & James Robinson. They were talking about how discouraged we can become as Christians, and how to deal with past mistakes and looking towards the future. It was as if the Lord chose that moment for me to turn it on, randomly to that station, and hear those specific words. This morning I turned it on, same time, same channel, but it was a commercial for an ab machine- Divine intervention.. I think so! I love that the Lord chooses the most mundane ways to impact our lives. Anyway, so this got me thinking about how we are encouraged and I came up with my list:

*Bible verses that touch me
*My family who are patient (or insane) and loving to each other
*I have the cutest little nephew
*Am in good health- and have the ability to become better
*Remember other's who have it a lot worse
* A beautiful morning
*A beautiful evening
*Flowers
*A saying my grandfather has "Trials and tribulations in life are nothing but speed bumps on the road of adversity."
* I remember that I'm not going to live forever, and I'll eventually be in Heaven
* God is here too
* Doing something nice for someone else- because it's NOT all about me (thank you Max Lucado-great book FYI)
*Dreaming about what I would like for things to be like, and making a plan to do my part to get there
*Diving into the Word
*Listening to fun encouraging music
*Being Creative
*Being around really optimistic (but realistic) people (pessimism- BOOOO:)
*Getting my surroundings cleaned up- the less stuff I have around me out of place, the most collected I feel
*Talking to my blessed, saintly, angelic grandmother.

What encourages you? What brings you back to feeling blessed and happy to be alive?