Our worst days are the ones we don’t expect.
That long-feared exam or dentist appointment you booked a month ago has given us plenty of time to freak out and deal with our emotions. The real tooth-pullers hit us in the face before we’ve even gotten out of bed. The worst days have us wondering how we’ll get through it without jumping of a bridge and 24 hours is a long time when we’re dreading every minute of the day.
We could concede the fact that we are destined for a whole day of misery, but the truth is we have more control than we realize. Here are 3 ways to give your bad day the finger.
1. Change Your Mind
Although it doesn’t feel like it, how good or bad our day is can be determined by ourselves. If we miss the bus in the morning and have to trudge to school or work in the rain, the whole day feels written off. While that’s how it feels, that’s not how it is. Time is a human construct and bad luck doesn’t adhere to it. Confine that sense of dread to one hour, maybe two and revitalise your optimism. Accept this hour was rubbish, and look forward to the next one.
2. Prioritize Self-Care
Some bad days happen no matter what we do. Your car has been totaled by a driver checking their texts. Your hamster died. A beehive is under construction in your shower and the bee guy can’t make it for two weeks.
On those terrible days that are beyond our control, changing our mind-set might not be enough. Those days are the days to really take care of yourself. To let yourself cry, get a massage or cuddle up in a blanket burrito and watch a Harry Potter marathon with pizza.
3. Knuckle Down
If our day is bad enough that we are pumped so full of adrenaline and would just love to punch someone, we have an advantage. This adrenaline overstimulates us and the best way to make sure we don’t implode is to channel it. Go to a boxing class and beat the stuffing out of a dummy or sit down and do your homework for the next three months just to distract yourself while you have the energy.
Anger and adrenaline won’t give you a chance to relax, so get it out of your system by doing something productive (or destructive.) It’ll leave you with a sense of accomplishment instead of wasting a day stewing.
4. Breathe
The power of a few deep breaths is consistently underestimated. Five minutes of breathing in and out might be the calmest part of your day, but it will give you the mind-set to deal with the rest of it. During a stressful day, make time to sit down and concentrate on breathing. It will keep you calm and help you get through your difficulties with a clearer head. With any luck, a few breathing sessions might set you up for a good day tomorrow.
Bad days are the bane of our lives, but they are more inevitable than toast landing butter-side down. Knowing how to handle them is a superpower we need to exercise throughout our lives, so that we might live as stress-free as we can. Take comfort in the fact that everyone has them and on your next terrible day make sure to give all that bad luck the finger by taking care of yourself.
Feature image via Unsplash
