Some days are just born bad.
Sometimes we all need a little reminding of the good stuff to appreciate the here and now, to be grateful for all the amazing things we have, but… it is also okay to have a bad day. You may get out of bed on the wrong side, spill some milk when making your breakfast, trip out of your front door, have a bad hair day or miss your bus on the way to work… some days are just made of the bad stuff.
Of course, the aim of the game, is to have lots of lovely, perfect, happy days… so, what happens when you wake up and it feels like everything is working against you? When you arise to a big black cloud hanging over your head… Have we lost?
I want to remind everyone, it is okay to have a bad day. You haven’t lost anything, you aren’t a miserable or bad person, everything isn’t awful- but, do you know what?
Today, is just not your day- and that is alright.
One thing I am nearly certain of, is this day, this rubbish day- you won’t remember for long. This time next year this day will disappear and fall away from your memories and hopefully make room for one of your more fantastic days.
There is a lot of pressure surrounding us all to be grateful, happy, have successes, live in the now and enjoy the little things, so the idea of a bad day is uncomfortable. As soon as it has begun you are trying to dig yourself out of it, feeling guilty for putting your ‘negativity’ out there. I find we actually wear ourselves out more in trying to fight the bad day- we fret, and over analyse. How about we just accept it, and don’t try to change it? Simply ride that wave!
I have had a brilliant couple of months, I have had my share of good days and definitely my share of fantastic days. If life is held in some sort of cosmic balance- I knew a bad day was heading my way and fast. So today, my ‘good day’ winning streak came to an abrupt end when I woke up with a black cloud above my head for no good reason.
The fascinating thing about us humans is we really can make a bad day work for us, we can find so many logs to fuel that fire. Sometimes there is literally no stopping us – our brains longing to push all our negative and worrisome thoughts out to the forefront… finally time to air these nasty – inner-saboteur thoughts!
I spent the entire morning stressing about this bad day, and then feeling bad about it. And then, ever predictable – turning on myself. None other than Ru Paul introduced me to the concept of the ‘inner-saboteur’. The little voice in your head that encourages your fears, focusses on your failings and on a bad day (like today) is ever ready to feed it.
Sure, some days are just full of the bad stuff and the outside world may fuel it, but sometimes it’s that little voice in your head that is having the most fun with your ‘off day’ and the best thing you can do is, tell that little voice to go away.
I decided in the afternoon to just accept my day for what it was, to silence that voice inside making it worse. I acknowledged that yes, it was bad but in trying not to focus my energy on changing it, I found a lot of the stress of the day melted away and my black cloud got a little smaller. I realised the best way to deal with my bad day was to just accept the circumstances for what they were, and not give into the temptation of turning it all around on myself and letting my ‘inner saboteur’ tear me down further.
You can feel it: cry, feel upset, withdraw a little, yell at your glass of spilt milk and then get on with the day. I repeat, it is okay to have a bad day- if nothing else it helps us fully appreciate our good ones! And once you have survived the day, your black cloud has all-but shrunk- and you climb back into bed, I hope you think to yourself… today was a bad day but tomorrow is a new day and in that alone- there is so much potential.
Own today, whatever it brings. You got this.
