You wake up in the morning and you find out that you’ve run out of coffee. You go to the bathroom and you can’t find the toothpaste. The traffic is so bad, your hair is a mess and now you’re late for work. It’s early in the morning and you already feel terrible about the entire day that you don’t see it changing anytime soon. It’s a bad morning turned into a bad day and now you feel your entire life sucks, you’re hopeless, and you actually consider the end of the world as a good thing.
Surely, you’re not the only one. Thanks to the complexities of modern life, it’s now easy to ruin our mood and our entire day with just the littlest things. But it doesn’t need to be that way, at least not all the time. Because it’s now commonly known that what goes on in your mind affects your physical health, it becomes more crucial to try to deal with negativities not just to be happier but to be healthier as well.
Often, we encounter small things that affect us in a bad way and before we know it, it’s already affected the rest of our day. We allow little things to control our emotions and take rein of our peace and happiness that it becomes hard to manage stress and feel content in our daily life.
While it is understandable that people just tend to react to things around them, feeling upset when things don’t go well, it becomes detrimental if you constantly allow negativity to control your happiness and your life in general. For one, chronic stress eventually leads to health problems. So, not only will you be constantly unhappy, you’ll also eventually struggle with health issues.
The negative thought cycle that you always find yourself in can easily become a long-lasting pattern if you’re not cautious and it can be tough to break it once it’s there. If you left it unaddressed, it can end up with your feeling depressed and devastatingly miserable for days, weeks, or even months.
But, what can you do to get through it? Better yet, how to get over a bad day?
1. Acknowledge the negativity
Things can become so hectic and intense that even though you feel terrible, you can’t even pause to acknowledge what you’re feeling. Hence, it’s hard to change your flow of thoughts if you’re not even consciously aware that you’re being negative.
It’s not easy but whenever you’re experiencing a rollercoaster of bad emotions, you have to try in making a conscious effort to identify the nature of your thoughts. Are you thinking negatively?
There are also physical manifestations from which you can recognize if you’re thinking negatively. So, take the time to observe what your body is doing. Typically, you know you’re dealing with some negative emotions when you have tight shoulders and clenched jaws.
If you can distinguish these physical indications that negativity typically generates, try to stop yourself and force your tense muscles to relax. Doing so will make you feel better.
2. Recognize your emotions
It’s only fitting that negative thoughts lead to negative emotions. That’s just how it is. Once you start thinking negatively, it just doesn’t stop to a certain upsetting matter. It brings out other negativities in your life, spawning other ugliness that aggravates your already wounded feelings.
You feel intense resentment, madness, and loneliness. You suffer from these whirlwinds of negativities that you even forget what you’re actually upset about. This makes it harder to recognize what you’re feeling and why you’re feeling that way.
And your inability to determine your emotion makes it unlikely to improve the situation. Recognizing your emotions is crucial because it gives your control over them rather than the opposite. When you’re in control, you can manage your feelings and find solutions.
3. Be conscious of your behavior
Having a bad day breeds negativity, dramatically changing your behavior. Often, you feel very negative that you don’t see how you’re being rude with other people. That’s why we easily determine when someone is not in a good mood because they’re usually hostile, defensive, and easily annoyed.
These people, however, don’t see that their negative emotions are conveyed through their actions. So, if you notice that your co-workers are avoiding you because you’re petulant the whole day, make the conscious effort to stop behaving aggressively.
Take a deep breath and acknowledge your thoughts and feelings. Make an effort to change them. Try to smile even if you don’t feel like it and say something nice to a colleague or even a stranger. That’ll create a spark of positivity that can make you feel less miserable.
When you feel better in your thoughts and emotions, your behavior will naturally be set right. Intentionally changing your approach to the people around you, meaning you try to be nice despite your problems, it’s easier to undo the negative pattern that you’ve already put yourself into.
4. Restart your mood
Give yourself the chance to pause and reset. Have a cup of tea and focus on the great things you can see and hear. Listen to music and savor the feel-good lyrics and melody. Remind yourself that a few crappy moments don’t make up your whole day and they shouldn’t.
5. Talk to someone
If you’re stuck in your negative cycle of thoughts, it’s time to talk with someone. Sometimes a massive venting of emotions is all we need to feel better. Talk to someone you trust, it can be a family member or a friend who can understand what you’re going through. Find comfort in the fact that you’re not alone and that someone cares about you.
