Thankfully, today, I am feeling much better! Still not on my 'A' game, but better none the less. I embraced my bad mood, ran with it and, just like everything else in our lives, it passed. Surprise, surprise.
Interestingly, I came across an article at the Library...hahaha, I am totally kidding. By "came across" I actually mean "Googled" and by "Library" I actually mean "the Internet". Lol. Anyway, the article is titled "The Science behind having a bad day (and how to solve it)". I've added the link below so you can read the article in full if you like but following is my interpretation of the article, along with my own thoughts and feelings on the topic of a "bad day".
The notion of a "bad day" does not actually exist in reality. All events are pretty well created equal and it is our interpretation of these events as either good or bad that has an impact on our mood. Take a classic example of your child spilling milk on themselves and all over the floor when you are running late for the day. You have to clean up the mess, change your child and race out the door. Option A is to interpret this as a "bad event" and consequently find yourself in a bad mood. A few little things throughout the day don't go exactly as you had planned, which frustrates you and causes you to perceive yourself as having a bad day. Option B is to not react negatively, get on with cleaning up the mess, head out the door and let go of the event that just occurred.
These two possibilities relate to my belief in the power of positive thinking and the idea that the energy that we exude is the energy that we attract. Essentially, we have the ability to make a bad day exist if we believe it to be so.
So, with this in mind, what can we do about being in a bad mood or if we find ourselves having a bad day?
The first tip given is to label the incident in just a few words, in order to separate the emotional response you have to it. For example, "bloody spilt milk!" Once labelled, push it aside and don't think about the negative feelings or event anymore. If it comes into your mind, refer to it using its label and then let it go.
The next idea is to re-evaluate the situation, thinking of a more positive outcome that could have occurred. The idea is not to make you feel guilty about the way you responded to the situation, but rather to help you grow and learn from the experience. The other idea is that, if this fails, think of how the situation could have been worse...another valuable self reflection tool :-)
The third tip is to "remember that the outcome of the previous minute is not indicative of the outcome of the next minute. Likewise, the last hour has no bearing on the next hour and this morning is no indication of what this afternoon will bring" Steve Schwartz, 2010
The final tip is one I am bringing to the table from my own thoughts and experiences...breath! Deep breathing can do wonders for calming you down and clearing your mind to help put things in perspective so give this a go:
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a woosh sound.
- Close your mouth and inhale quietly through you nose to a mental count of four
- Hold your breath for a count of seven
- Exhale completely through your mouth, making a woosh sound to the count of eight
- This is one breath. Repeat the cycle for a minimum of four breaths. Relax :-)
Full article can be found at http://lifehacker.com/5595104/the-science-behind-having-a-bad-day-and-how-to-solve-it
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