I had an awful day on Wednesday, hump day. First, I woke up with a migraine that slowly and greatly persisted throughout the day. The way a sadistic fly taunts you and flies all over you all day long, laughing, and squealing in a high pitch voice. No amount of pain medication in the world would solve this bug-a-boo. Lol Ok this sounds a little over the top but it made my appointments difficult to get through. Towards the afternoon, I had to cancel the last appointment, and rush to the house before my head would explode. To add to the overwhelming bright lights that stung my head, laser beaming the back of my skull, I trotted to the bedroom, all the while thinking here was still so much work to do. (Like to tend to the TLC for this blog) The rest of the evening I had dinner, graciously done by fiancée in my belly and I was showered, ready for bed.
The following day was slightly better but nauseating. I had my two cups of lemon water, some cereal, and packed my lentils for lunch. After my last appointment, I headed to the office to finish the afternoon. The fly was gone, but the resonating nausea lingered even pass the afternoon. Whoever said “fake it till you make it” was wrong. I, certainly, did not make it through faking it. However, I did find a few 4 useful ways to rise above the horrific blur.
1) Go to bed, go to bed, go to bed. Eat your dinner, take a hot shower, grab a water (aspirin if needed), and regardless if you are sick or mentally out of it, rest and recover is the best option. If you power through, you’ll only harm yourself in the end. Even in my long list of to-dos, it went out the door to #takecare of myself first. Sleep not only recovers the mind but also clarifies your decision-making the following day.
According to APA “In the August 2004 issue of the journal Sleep, Dr. Timothy Roehrs, the Director of research at the Sleep Disorders and Research Center published one of the first studies to measure the effect of sleepiness on decision making and risk taking. He found that sleepiness does take a toll on effective decision making.
Dr. Roehrs found that the alert people were very sensitive to the amount of work they needed to do to finish the tasks and understood the risk of losing their money if they didn't. But the sleepy subjects chose to quit the tasks prematurely or they risked losing everything by trying to finish the task for more money even when it was 100 percent likely that they would be unable to finish, said Dr. Roehrs. (http://www.apa.org/topics/sleep/why.aspx)
Lesson learned: if you don’t get your rest, you’ll make unclear decisions that could ultimately cost you.
2) Leave a bad day, take a good day. Ok I was trying to go for the leave a penny, take a penny motto. I always stare at the penny tray, confused at the cashiers of the grocery market. Who leaves pennies and who takes pennies? Then one day, when something was $14.01, that’s when the grocery lady took it. I was like “AH.” In this case, find something good in your day to look forward to. If it means looking forward to making a meal, walking your dog, jamming to music in your jammies, make that the one thing in your day the most exciting part.
Why? “When we have something to look forward to, it makes it easier to get through rough, frustrating, and annoying times. But even more than that, “anticipation” can often be a stepping stone to “hope.” (http://www.theemotionmachine.com/power-anticipation-need-something-look-forward) Positive anticipation provides the day’s outlook and perspective to move forward and see light in things we do.
3) 1 minute to Humility. If you have a journal, this is the time to bring it out. If you don’t do journals, use a notes app and try this quick exercise. Write a few “good things about today, what I hope for tomorrow, what I’m grateful for, whom I’m grateful for.” You’ll have one minute to go through these. If you want a FREE app, you can download *The Happiness Planner App which allows you to input your reflections daily. Here’s a screen shot of what it looks like.
You can get it here. Incidentally, you can order #journal books at this site as well. What’s with the journaling? It turns out that journaling improves a person’s health in this study: “A groundbreaking study of writing's physical effects appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Vol. 281, No. 14) three years ago.
In the study, led by Smyth, 107 asthma and rheumatoid arthritis patients wrote for 20 minutes on each of three consecutive days--71 of them about the most stressful event of their lives and the rest about the emotionally neutral subject of their daily plans.
"So writing helped patients get better, and also kept them from getting worse," says Smyth.”
4) Sankofa It. Some people like to leave the past in the past. For others, reflection can be powerful tool to gain strength from the bad day. The African term “Sankofa” means “we must go back to our roots in order to move forward. That is, we should reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us, so that we can achieve our full potential as we move forward.” https://www.uis.edu/africanamericanstudies/students/sankofa/)
So maybe not our roots, but we can look at the past day to find out what to improve upon. Did you learn anything from it to make you stronger? In my case, perhaps I should have cancelled the day of appointments, called in sick and fully rested.
In the past, I’ve been able to manage my headaches really well and catch them before they turn full fledge Mad Max on me. In this case, I ignored the signs, consequently harming myself in the end. Consider this as your journal prompt: Sankofa the Bad day: What have I learned to rise above and make myself stronger the next time around?
Life is like an #ocean. Not that you won’t get a chocolate you won’t like but you will certainly get something unexpected. Hence, the ship in my blog, if anyone has ever noticed.
We set sail for #destinations and life is like the ocean that loves us at times, tosses into deep storms, and pushes us to our goals. Just like we have bad days and good days, some things maybe out of our control, but as we have read and learn, it’s really how we handle it that becomes the true character of a person.
Take care,
Ian
Like what you read, and want more? Or have a comment, sign up below and become a member. Or get the new article when it comes out here.
References:
*Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will add value to my readers.
Ian Aman is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, and Affiliately, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to www.amazon.com and www.thehappinessplanner.com.
Comentarios