You are allowed to have a bad day, but...
I know I’m not alone when I say that sometimes I just don’t feel at my best, I can’t even put my finger on why but I’m just “off”. I’m not talking about being sick, of course, that could also be true, but I’m just talking about “having a bad day”. That day where it seems like everything you touch goes wrong or you are just in a “funk”.
There are various factors that play a role in feeling like that and I’m here to let you know it’s ok to have a bad day. You need to be cautious and not let that bad day spill into the next and the next, making it a bad week. I am dating myself here but there was a song by The Osmonds called One Bad Apple, the chorus goes like this; “One bad apple don’t spoil the whole bunch, girl”, that’s what I want you to keep in mind when a bad day comes along. Find something to do that you enjoy and can help you improve the state of mind you are currently in. Here are some things you can try.
Pamper yourself
Whether it’s a trip to the spa for a mani/pedi, reading a good book, or a nice soaking bath with some bath salts, you need to take care of yourself. Make you your number one priority. We often find ourselves doing for others, and we forget to take care of ourselves. If our health deteriorates we will not be able to do anything for others so take a pause once and a while, even if it’s just for a few minutes! Meditation is also a great way to take a few minutes for yourself each day, there are studies that show that it increases your “gray matter”, that’s your brain.
Exercise can help
Exercise can be an important part of improving your mood. There are several different forms of exercise that can help and it’s important to find activities that you enjoy doing. You want this to be something that makes you feel accomplished and maybe even energized. You don’t want it to feel like just another thing you HAVE to do. Remember that exercising is something you GET to do. If the weather is nice, a hike along a wooded trail can be very uplifting, seeing and hearing nature can be very uplifting. This is an interesting article that dives a bit deeper into how exercise can help improve your mood. https://www.
Find joy in the things around you
Sometimes something as simple as cleaning out a drawer or rearranging your closet can be so satisfying. Seeing things out of place or disorganized can cause stress which compounds that bad day, or makes one turn into two. I read a book called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Maria Kondo. She uses a method of touching each item you are organizing, clothing, photos, decorations, whatever it is. When you hold the item, if it does not “spark joy”, it’s time to say good-bye to that item. It is an amazingly freeing feeling when you realize it’s ok to let go of things that no longer bring you joy. Work in an area that has been bringing you stress and see how good it feels to declutter, it may just turn your bad day into a good one.
Avoid the negative
We live in a stressful world, there is so much negativity that is around us each and every day that we sometimes feel we can’t get away from it. Personally, I do not watch the news, I do not read the newspaper, and I do not listen to the news on the radio. While some may feel that makes me uninformed, I look at it differently, I am not filling my day with negative images, sounds, and thoughts. Most of what is going on outside of my four walls is out of my control, so why bring it into my four walls to cause stress, or worse, a bad day!
We are all entitled to a bad day, we just need to take the necessary steps to keep them to a minimum and do things that spark joy. Your mood is an important part of being healthy BEFORE you NEED to be healthy.
In writing this I understand that here are people who suffer from depression. I am not trying to make light of that very serious situation or by any means saying “snap out of it”. I just want to let those of you who have a “bad day” now and then know that we should not focus on the bad but take steps to do things that make us happy.