I had a rough morning. It started off when I woke up at 4 in the morning to use the restroom. I just got back into bed and was falling back asleep when I was woken by the sound of my cat throwing up next to my bed. I decided to deal with that after my alarm went off. I had trouble getting comfortable again. I kept waking up every few minutes because my arms were falling asleep, all the while I was having very strange stress dreams.
I’ve been having trouble getting to work on time lately so I made sure to get up 10 minutes earlier. As I was packing up the food I prepared the night before, I managed to drop my big beautiful Ambrosia apple off the counter and onto the floor where it proceeded to bounce multiple times. I’d only bought enough apples for the work week so if I wanted an apple, my bruised one was the only choice. And despite waking up early and all my prep work the night before I was still late to work.
As I drove to work, I knew I needed to change my attitude around or it was going to be a long and bitter day. These are the things that I found helpful to change my bad day into a better one. How to get out of a bad mood.
1. Change of Scenery
The biggest thing that I think helped was having a change of scenery. I was forced into a change of scenery because I had to go to work, but getting out of the house and having to interact with other people forced me to reexamine my attitude. I had to make a conscious decision to change it.
2. Surround Yourself with Positive People
My boss is one of the happiest people I know. I knew that she would be understanding, but I didn’t want to be a drag. So, while I made an initial complaint to her about my frustration at still being late despite waking up early, I opted not to regale her with everything that has gone wrong that morning.
3. Get Busy
The other benefit of having to go to work was that it forced me to get busy. When you’re busy you have less time to focus on everything that’s gone wrong. It’s a good distraction.
4. Give Yourself 5 Minutes
This is a technique I learned from Hal Elrod, the author of The Miracle Morning. I have yet to start actually doing the miracle morning but I did recently read the book. if you don’t know Hal’s story, he was in a serious car accident when he was 19 that should have left him crippled and brain-damaged. To get through this trial he used a technique that he is learned while being a Cutco knives salesman.
The technique is this: if there’s nothing you can do to change the situation then give yourself five minutes to be angry, sad, mad, pout about it and then move on. There’s no point in dwelling on what you can’t change. So give yourself 5 minutes to have a pity party and then move on.
That’s essentially what I did this morning. I let myself have a pity party on my drive to work, continued it for another couple of minutes after I arrive to work, and then decided to let it go and move on with my day.
5. Do What Uplifts You
I didn’t have the opportunity to try this this morning but another great way to get over a hard time do something that uplifts you.
That could be rocking out to one of your favorite songs.
Or reading something that inspires you.
Or talking to a friend who always makes you feel better.
Or one of the best ways to get over your own troubles is to find a way to help somebody else. When you help somebody else it helps you to take your focus off yourself and forget about your own troubles. Plus there’s a happiness that comes into your life when you do something nice for others.
Conclusion
The way your day starts doesn’t have to dictate the way your day ends. You have the power to change it. Don’t let a bad morning derail your whole day.
If you’re able to, change up your scenery. Just getting out of the environment where your bad day started can help you distance yourself from it.
Surround yourself with positive people. Not only will they help to lift you up but you’ll probably end up making a conscious decision to be happier because you don’t want to bring down their positivity.
Get busy. Find some way to engage yourself so you stop dwelling on it.
Give yourself a five-minute pity party and then move on.
Do something that uplifts you. Listen to your favorite song, read your favorite book or get outside yourself and find somebody else to help.
We got this! Now go rock it!