How To Recharge and Turn Around a Lousy Day...
I don't know if it's the aftereffects of the eclipse, Hurricane Harvey, or the back to school frenzy of the Labor Day Holiday, but life has been crazy.
Have you felt it?
Work this week (my day job) was frenetic. The pace of it - extremely demanding.
People were frazzled, frustrated, on edge, and I have to admit it...
I was too.
I found myself almost at the breaking point.
In fact, all last week I was so frenzied that I even forgot to go on my quick lunch time walks - a time that I usually savored - since it allowed me to get away from the hustle and bustle, even for 10 minutes.
By Friday lunchtime, I sat back, and that realization dawned on me.
It was time for ME to control my day, rather than letting the "craziness of the day" control me.
So I walked out the back door, even though dozens of "undone things" were calling my name and went on my walk.
And on that walk, I realized that I had also forgotten what I call "my gratitude practice".
Virtually everyone in personal development expounds on the benefits of a gratitude practice.
Here, at a time that I needed it MOST, I had forgotten.
So right then and there, I started practicing...GRATITUDE.
Simple things at first:
Gratitude for being outside in the sun, taking deep breaths, to be exactly where I was at that very moment...
Gratitude for the people that I worked with closely...
Gratitude for the car that allowed me drive the 50 minute commute...
Gratitude for a commute that allowed me to listen to podcasts I would never have gotten to listen to...
Gratitude for my friends, my family, my home...
Gratitude for life's paths that allowed me to be here...
Gratitude for having this platform and for having topics (such as this) to blog about...
What If It Isn't You?...
Then I thought to myself...
What if it wasn't necessarily ME that was grumpy/crabby/moody/tired/stressed?
What if I was reflecting somebody else's thoughts/emotions/moods?
AH HAH.
I was reflecting all the chaos that was ricocheting around me.
I do that all the time, without knowing it.
If my someone close to me is having a bad day, unwittingly sometimes I also become irritable, or feel as if I'm having a bad day too..
Unless...I remember to ask myself, "is this mine? Or someone else's?"
If it isn't mine...I acknowledge it, and gently let it slide right through me.
I recognize that keeping it as mine will not necessarily unburden the other person.
Those who like to help, oftentimes assume burdens onto their shoulders.
Other people's burdens.
Until they start to fall under the weight of it...
This is something that I counsel other people on, but this time I didn't realize that the same thing was happening to me.
Has that ever happened to you?
What's Positive About this that I'm Not Getting?
I had only been concentrating on the NEGATIVE THINGS that were happening - the chaos, the frustration, the pace...
I had forgotten to see "what was POSITIVE about this situation that I wasn't seeing at the moment".
It was the key to turning this around...
Everyone was banding together to get everything done...
Really, it would make for funny stories in the future...
Honestly, I started to giggle.
Which made other people giggle...
The work flow started to become easier, and more achievable..
Remember...
Start your own daily gratitude practice...
It takes but minutes, and honestly, it increases the rush of endorphins through your system.
Laughter (or even a smile) not only helps to ease stress, but has been shown to improve health.
Ask yourself, "are those emotions really mine, or are they someone else's?"
Yes. It really "can get better than this".
You just have to be able to open up your perspective and see it.
Thanks again for reading!
I'd love to know...
How do you practice gratitude?
How have you been able to turn around a tough day?
Also be sure to check my last article by clicking the image below :)
