What's the story with 'Monday motivation'?

Mondays.

The day has a way of dragging, and then, suddenly the hours seem to be slipping away amid a list of mounting to-dos.

Last Monday, Bahar Anooshahr looked at the time and sighed.

"The morning just kind of got away from me," she says.

She wondered if it was even still worth it to post a message on social media.

Some months back, Bahar had taken to logging in to her Twitter account, where she goes by @banooshahr, and posting a message each Monday. Bahar's a writer. She's posted quotes, photos and links to her writing. She hopes the message reaches others who need a lift.

But this was a classic harried Monday morning. She wasn't feeling it.

Then, she recalled why she first joined the thousands of other social-media users who use the hashtag #MondayMotivation to send happy or uplifting messages.

A while back, she had come across a stranger's #MondayMotivation post.

"I remember I was having a very bad day," she recalls.

Family life was stressful, she says. The post she happened upon included a short meditation video on how to put your problems in perspective.

At first, she scoffed. Bahar had been practicing yoga for a long time. She doubted an online video could be a good substitute for physical meditation.

"I thought, 'Meditation doesn't happen on the Internet,'" she says.

Against her better judgement, she clicked.

The message was about imagining your problem fading into the cosmos.

"It gets small and smaller," she says, "And it became a dot and it became a star in the universe."

It was a simple message: Your single problem is so small in the grand scheme of life and the stars, she says.

The mantra resonated. In a moment of Monday blues, Bahar says she found the pick-me-up she needed—even if it was from a post on the Internet from a stranger she would never meet.

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Monday motivation posts have become so popular that they trend on social media each week in Phoenix and cities across the country.

Some posts stick with positive messages. Some people prefer a smile-inducing photo of an adorable animal. Others use the occasion to encourage health and fitness goals. Businesses and nonprofits have started using the hashtag to reach social-media users.

Lately, a worker for Maggie's Place, a nonprofit that helps pregnant women in need get back on their feet and teaches them parenting skills, has been crafting #MondayMotivation posts on Facebook and Twitter.

Christi Boujikian says she hopes to empower women and spotlight Maggie's Place mothers.

"I try to do a quote from one of our moms, just to kind of show the hope, and how they've inspired others," she says.

Sometimes Christi adds a second hashtag, #loverocks.

"We welcome these women who might be alone or might have nowhere else to go and we are loving them through that," she says. "Love is a constant topic around here."

This past Monday, Bahar wasn't going to post. Then, she remembered that her message might reach someone who needs a virtual hug, she says.

So Bahar flipped through some old photos. She found the perfect message. It's one she once saw written on the wall of a yoga studio years ago. The message meant something to her, so she took a photo as a keepsake.

"All that matters, when you're a human being, is if you can just say something that will affect even one person, and make a change in their life, at least that's how I see it," she says.

On Monday, she shared the photo. Just six words, all in black ink. All capital letters. And one heart.

"Impossible is nothing. Nothing is impossible."

What's your #MondayMotivation message? Tweet me @diannananez, and I'll add it to this story.

Dianna M. Náñez writes about stories in Arizona and the rest of the world that make us believe in humanity, faith, hope and love. Drop her a line about your community's superheroes. You know the ones — kind, resilient, empathetic people making small miracles happen. Follow her on Twitter: @diannananez.