Welcome back to "Be Kind to Your Mind"! In today's post, I will be talking about ways to combat bad days. Let's be honest here, this is a safe place. We have all experienced a bad day or two or 50 or even more! Bad days are inevitable and are just a natural part of life. You can't always be at your very best or feel 100% all day everyday. That's just the reality we all face. Somedays you can get ready with a pep in your step and attack the day and others you can struggle getting out of bed. Trust me, I've been there sister. More than a few times unfortunately. Bad days always have a way of sneaking up on us and arriving as a surprise, so it is important to learn some easy tips to deal with them when you feel those negative emotions beginning to manifest themselves.
One of the most valuable tips that I have found for changing your bad day into a good one is to pinpoint the reason for the certain emotions you are feeling that day. Sometimes our days can spiral off certain thoughts we might have had, interactions with others in our lives, and/or our overall mental well being. The key to identifying the trigger for your emotions and feelings is to really place your self in a vulnerable state and examine your feelings and think about if anything has cause you to feel that way. A certain event or action can often be the turning point to a bad day coming. I can be very hard to be blatantly honest with yourself, but is a necessary step in finding what's causing the negative emotions to arise. Once you get real with yourself and understand the cause you can then directly combat it. For example, let's say you got in a fight with a friend the day before and it caused you to be restless and unable to sleep the night before so you wake up unrested and still upset. This trigger is pretty obvious in this scenario. You're still upset with your friend and now you add no sleep to the mix (that sounds like a mess if you ask me). I would immediately get on the phone with that friend and try to work things out if they can be and if not, then I would do some deep breathing in order to try to get a hold of my emotions as the day begins so I don't let my day spiral in a negative direction because of the fight.
Now sometimes bad days happen and there are no good reasons for them to be happening, but yet there you are. Again, COMPLETELY NORMAL. But if you are experiencing them consistently and very often, I would suggest you to reach out to a healthcare professional in order to get to the root of it. This is why it is important to get real with yourself and see if you can find an explainable reason for why you are feeling this way and if you can't, that's okay too! When I go through some of my bad days that I can't explain, the #1 thing I do is show myself self love. Whether it's getting outside for walk, setting aside a part of my day simply for me, taking a nice long bath or shower, going to therapy, taking a nap, or working out. It is so important to take care of yourself on those bad days especially.
Bad days happen to the best of us. They can strike at anytime and that's why it is so important to know how to get over them and practice ways to fight them. My number one piece of advice when going through a bad day is to tell someone. Whether it's a close friend, a loved one, or even a therapist. I find it so helpful to let someone know when I am struggling so I am reminded that I am not alone in my emotions or feelings. If you don't think you have anyone to call or text, email me! I am here for you all, 24/7.
Below are a list of resources you can call if you are in crisis:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255
Crisis Text line: Text HOME to 741741
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 800-799-7233
