How to Feel Better When You’re Having a Bad Day
From my observation, there is no such thing as a bad day.
Instead, it’s bad days.
Have you ever had that one moment where you kept getting green light after green light?
You thought you were going to get to your destination faster than ever!
Just when you thought you were lucky, things changed. Now you get hit with red light after red light!
It’s annoying too.
Right when you’re on the brink of a yellow, you’re about to make it…
It turns red.
Abruptly, you slam the brakes.
No need to take the risk.
What happened?
Where did the luck go?
When it Rains, it Pours
Bad days often have a spillover effect.
Where one bad day leads to the next day.
I’ve had that happen recently…
When I woke up a few days ago in the morning, I had to go to the vet.
The vet was far away.
When I went to the vet, there was this old lady with an unpleasant voice who kept talking to me.
She was trying to sell me on a bunch of things that I didn’t need.
I told her that I wasn’t going to buy most of the things she had listed and to give me the price she quoted on the phone call.
Reluctantly, she gave me the initial price.
Our tussle was in the beginning of the transaction too.
So, now there was awkward energy in the air as I sat there waiting for her to perform the operations.
That ruined my mood from the beginning of the day.
After that, the day just got worse.
I kept getting stuck in traffic.
There were tons of traffic jams.
The internet was slow.
To end the bad streak, I decided to order some Chinese food at night.
I have a go-to order that never fails.
Unfortunately, that food was awful!!
I thought the day was over, but no.
The next morning, I woke up at 4 in the morning with stomach pains.
A new bad day had begun…
You’re In Luck Though
Bad days often come in series because the prior day has lingering effects on the next day.
This may not be the case all the time…
But you’ll be shocked by how many people can relate.
When we have a series of good days, it’s followed by a series of bad days.
This looks like a life law to me.
My easiest fix for having a bad day is to deal with it.
It’s going to happen every now and then.
Problems are wired into our reality.
Even if you decide to become a recluse and not interact with anyone, problems will still find you.
Your sink will stop working out the blue moon.
The bright side is that for every series of bad days, good days are on the horizon.
Look forward to the light when you are going through the dark.
This makes it easier to deal with the dark.
What is Detachment?
Detachment is learning to coexist with the waves of life.
When we go to an ocean, we don’t expect the waters to stop moving for us.
That would be an unrealistic expectation.
Instead, we walk from the sand to the water.
Then we let the waves wash over our legs.
We understand that it’s the nature of the water to move.
Likewise, it’ll be an unrealistic expectation to always have good days.
Unrealistic as making the water in the ocean still.
Accept duality.
With the good comes the bad.
When you are capable of coexisting with the good and the bad, that’s when you build your detachment muscle.
Here’s a little exercise to build your detachment muscle…
The Oxymoron Exercise
The oxymoron exercise is spotting the unusual:
- For every bad day, find one good thing about it.
- For every good day, find one bad thing about it.
This exercise allows you to see the bigger picture.
Rather than seeing days as good and bad, you just begin to see days.
Recently when I was having a bad day, there was one saving grace.
Sunny D.
You heard that right.
I bought one of my childhood favorite drinks that I hadn’t drank in 7 years.
For some reason, I was just craving it.
Drinking it felt amazing.
Despite the day being bad, that tangy taste was a silver lining.
A few days ago, I went to Philly to visit the fam.
The overall trip was great.
I would say it was a series of great days.
The one bad thing was that I didn’t get to eat Halal Guys.
One of my favorite restaurants.
That was the one bad experience I had on the trip.
This exercise seems silly at first, but it works.
You’ll find yourself being more composed the next time you’re having a bad day.
Your mind begins to look for that 1 good thing.
See the good in the bad and the bad in the good.
Soon, the days begin blending with one another.
Set Realistic Expectations
A lot of distress is born from setting the wrong expectations.
When we set the wrong expectations, we get mad for not accomplishing the impossible.
Set the right expectations.
- There will be good days.
- There will be bad days.
If you expect every day to be good, then you’re going to be living a very troubling life.
Don’t let other people’s smiles fool you.
They feel angst inside too.
When you get caught with a bad day, don’t be surprised if the next day is worse.
Soon, you have a bad week.
It happens to the best of us.
Luckily, after bad days are good days.
Let’s deal with each day like it’s our last.
We do that by grounding ourselves.
Play the oxymoron exercise:
- Find the good in a bad day & find the bad in a good day.
The more grounded you are, the easier it is to handle the waves.
For more mindset tips, check out the Level Up Mentality:
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