Turning a Bad Day into a Good Day

This is not referring to a depressive day. This post is about when you wake up and everything feels like a “no thank you”. When you’re a bit tired, bored, and just plain over it. If the things I am going to suggest make you feel worse, absolutely stop and examine if you are at the beginning of a depressive episode, and, if you are, please reach out for mental health support. There are loads of free resources, and, if you are in Japan, the TELL Tokyo Lifeline is a great resource and completely free. For most bad days, these recommendations help a bit, and turning a bad day into a not so bad day is about the little things. It is also about taking back control of your thought processes.

The human brain loves to be right, and once it has decided to be on a particular path, it does not like to deviate from that path. This is the case with bad days and bad moods. The brain will flood us with thoughts and images that support and reinforce the negative mood, and our work is to outsmart ourselves and reclaim our mental space. This is best accomplished with little things that the brain won’t feel is too much of a threat to the negative space. That’s why I start with doing a task that you have been putting off that will take 5 minutes or less. It can by preparing the recycling to go out, putting in a load of laundry, doing some simple stretches, or sending an overdue email. Ticking something off the overdue list helps defeat the narrative that nothing good will happen today. As will doing one small thing for yourself that you will enjoy.

This can be making your favorite meal or playing your favorite song. Something small that serves no purpose but pleasing yourself. After that, plan your evening. Plan 5 minutes of interests. Do something with intention that builds on your joy for 5 minutes that is not scrolling mindlessly. Set yourself to conquer your boredom by doing something other that what you normally do. This is vitally important as it will help tomorrow be a better day than today. Bad moods are usually caused by ruts or boredom. Don’t let it fester. If this post didn’t help, read another one until you strike on something that does. If nothing seems to help, reach out and talk it through. You deserve more good days than bad. I promise you!