3 Steps to Stop a Bad Day in Its Tracks

bad day

We’ve all had a bad day. You know, the days when you wish you could just pull up the covers and stay home.

I had a lot of those days. Before I learned how to heal the cause behind the feeling of wanting to hide from the world. I still have a few of them, usually when I’m not taking care of myself; when I’m over extended and not really paying attention to me.

Why Do You Have a Bad Day?

Maybe you just wake up and feel like crap. Or blah. Or just plain down. And that sets the tone for the day. If you never have those days, lucky you.

Then there are the days when disappointing news catches you off guard. You feel your stomach drop and the day goes downhill from there.

Regardless of what triggers a bad day, the reason it continues to be bad is right in your mind. We focus on whatever caused us to feel down, or we simply focus on the feeling of being down.

We say or think negative things, perhaps going so far as to rest in the poor me mode. Life is hard, it’s not fair, I don’t have a chance.

As we do all of that, our minds follow our focus and thoughts. Our attention determines what we select as the reality for our day, where events match our focus.  And we have a bad day. Sometimes two or three or…

How to Shift From a Bad Day

I was having a really bad day recently.  I’d had an intense week and was tired. But I kept going.  I was more and more down the harder I worked. As I laid in bed I thought about the work I wasn’t getting done, everything that was broken around the ranch, the mess in my house and office, the laundry that needed to be done… all the things I couldn’t do because I was just plain down. Not exactly productive, right?

I knew better. I knew exactly what I was creating with the focus of my mind. It didn’t matter, I was on a slippery slope and it was not heading uphill.

I finally decided I’d had enough and used the same practice I teach my clients. By the next day, I was back up and ready to take on the world, at a pace that was healthy for me.

What did I do??

  • I got up out of bed and got my body moving.  The first thing I tell clients is to get up and get moving. Your body needs to counteract the brain chemicals that you’ve released as part of the “woe is me” thinking.  Talk a walk, go to the gym, run a fast mile, ride your bike, get on your horse, whatever you love. Just get up and do something that gets your heart pumping.
  • Make a list of things you’re grateful for.  No matter how bad your day, there are good things in your life.  You’re alive, you’re breathing, you have a home, food, water, you can see and hear. you can walk. You have clothing, air conditioning on a hot day,  heat on a cold night, your family and /or pets. You have a place to sit that’s safe from invaders, thieves, rapists and more. List every single blessing you can think of.  Get detailed. The act of focusing on your gratitude begins to shift your attention away from the Eyore imitation. That’s really important.
  • Remember the best time of your life. Leveraging a past memory to shift your mental and emotional state is a powerful tool. Find a time in your life when you were simply outstanding. Maybe it’s standing on a ski hill on a crystal blue morning with miles of untracked powder in front of you. Maybe it’s looking into your child’s eyes for the first time, or the day you were married to the love of your life. Find that moment that lifts your heart, fills you with pure positive emotions. Close your eyes and see that moment, that picture, in your mind. Notice every detail of the colors and sounds. Paint every corner carefully. Then, focus on the feelings of positive power and light. Love and joy. Passion and satisfaction. Allow those feelings to grow and grow until they overflow the picture and your heart, spilling out into the world around you. Keep focusing on those amazing feelings, pay attention to them.

Now, notice the change in how your feel, the thoughts you’re thinking, the shift from down to lifted in your heart.  Do not look for the negative feelings. Focus on the positive. If you don’t feel enough of a shift, find another time in your life and repeat the 3rd exercise again, and again.

The Bottom Line

The first exercise above helps to change the chemistry in your brain that is fueling your focus. By getting the adrenaline into your system, you begin to shift  from chemically stimulated fear and doubt to positive and more upbeat chemistry.

The 2nd two exercises will shift your attention focus and attention density… the amount of focus you’re giving to the negative in your life.  When you shift your attention in a dense (intense) way –  your unconscious mind shifts it’s filtering of your reality and following your focus.

Using the above steps will stop that bad day and help you shift into your positive power. Sometimes it takes a bit of time, and more than one use of the steps. The more you use the techniques, the faster your attention will begin to respond…  As you learn to control your attention, you can and will have the ability to lose the gloom whenever you want!

 

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