Some days are great. Everything goes swimmingly, we feel relaxed, happy, connected to all the goodness that life has to offer, and we’re openly smiling at random strangers on the street.
Some days are a little less great.
And other days completely suck.
It happens to us all. Maybe we got out of bed in a bad place mentally. Maybe someone said something that set us off, or something happened in the morning and we allow the mood that came from it to roll into the afternoon. Making the day suck even more as it goes on.
Sometimes we can even turn that bad day into a second bad day, maybe even a third.
That used to happen to me. When I didn’t know the tools to use. Once I learned them, everything changed.
1. Breathe
The first thing I do when I feel myself getting worked up, angry, stressed, or just disconnected from feeling good, is to breathe. Either sitting or standing in a relaxed way, I breathe in and out through my nose, focusing on nothing else but my inhales and exhales for one or two minutes.
Breathing brings me back to the present. (Instead of listening to the reel of negativity in my brain that goes hand in hand with a bad day). Try it. You’ll be surprised how much being aware of your breathing can calm you down.
2. Question
If breathing doesn’t completely bring me back to enjoying my day, I’ll ask myself this question. “Is what you’re thinking right now making you feel good?”
During a bad day, the answer is usually no. So the next logical step is to change what I’m thinking. Our thoughts are merely our imagination telling us stories, and if we don’t like the story, we can change it to another one. Kind of like we are holding the remote and we can change the channel anytime we like.
I know, I know, our mind is nothing like a TV, and it’s much easier said than done to take charge of it. But there is a trick that can change our thoughts within seconds. And it’s called … gratitude.
3. Gratitude
I’m a HUGE fan of practicing gratitude. Not only does it remind me that I have heaps to be thankful for it also helps to change what I’m thinking. Even if you feel like you can’t get past the pessimism for long enough to feel thankful for anything, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll get there by asking yourself these three questions:
· What 3 things am I grateful for right now? (These don’t need to be big things. It can be anything that comes to mind, like gratitude for nice weather, for the fact that your clothes smell clean, or that you read that blog one time and learned how to turn your bad day into a good one!)
· What 3 people am I grateful for right now? (And maybe even consider why)
· What 3 things am I grateful for about me? (Tough one when you’re feeling down, but you’ll find something, trust me)
4. Move
Hopefully, you’re full of gratitude right now and feeling much better. Next, you want to shake off any remaining niggly bits of that bad day. Just so it has no chance of sneaking back in later. And the best way to do that is to move your body.
It doesn’t have to be a 10-mile jog or a long gym session, but it can be if that’s what you feel like. Even 20 star jumps in the kitchen can work wonders.
For me, it’s usually a few minutes of yoga. Like this energizing 10-minute yoga practice from my YouTube channel. Sometimes a walk with the dogs can do trick too, other times I’ll go for a swim or a bike ride. Anything really, as long it involves moving your body physically, you’ll release any pent-up energy and feel a lot more focused and powerful.
5. Music
I’m a mosher at heart. (Pearl Jam, Nirvana, et al fan since my teens) And a good bop never fails to lift my spirits. Find the music you love, turn it up as loud as your neighbors can handle without complaining, and dance around your living room like no one’s watching.
It’s one of the most mentally freeing things we can do for ourselves.
6. Hugs
Now that you’ve let go, reward yourself. Go hug someone that loves you and feel the depth of support & love in their hug back. It’s always great to feel supported. And if the hug is to help with a bad day, I usually let out a good sigh too. Like I’m letting go of whatever was bothering me, and it’s being replaced by love, positivity, and optimism.
In saying all of that, sometimes a bad day is just gonna be a bad day. And no matter what we do, it might not turn into a good one. Because life is never perfect and happy all the time.
If it was, it would be very boring.
But we can always learn to make better choices and replace our old habits with more positive ones. Just as training our body makes it fitter, training our mind makes us consciously fit. And when we continue to make more mindful choices then our ability to deal with bad days improves too.
And that, my friends, is the sort of progress that makes us all live, love, and laugh better.
Namaste,
Karen