How to Get Through a Bad Day
When you get home, aside from the tons of homework or work you have to finish, you also have to do chores around the house so your mom yells at you for being so lazy and inconsiderate. On top of that, you find out your girlfriend/boyfriend is cheating on you. What a tough day! All you want to do at the end of it all is to take a break or just escape from the mess you entered.
The first thing I want to tell you is I understand what you are going or have gone through. You just want to burst out on a rampage to relieve yourself of the stress you had to deal with. It is normal for us to experience chaos or disastrous days when nothing happens in our favor. But I acknowledge that we are merely human and we also have limits on how much bad things we can tolerate in our lives. Sometimes we do need to take a rest from everything to recharge and take on the world once again. However, when you are facing a bad day, you either let it get to you or you take charge over it and get yourself together. Remember: We cannot control all the things that happen to us, but we can control how we respond to those circumstances.
So here are some things I have done to get through a bad day:
1. Share to someone I deeply trust about the things that have happened. It helps if you would get someone to give you moral support or advice when you experience bad days because often when we keep our pain or suffering to ourselves, we would find it more difficult to cope up and deal with it. Sharing the load with someone can ease the heaviness you feel. Talking to them can help you divert your attention to better things. The more we think about our mishaps and beat ourselves up, the more we get depressed and frustrated. Therefore, if our minds can find something good to ponder on, then we can alleviate the effect of bad circumstances on us. Try to find an accountability buddy or someone whom you can immediately go to when you are having problems or when you are feeling bad about your circumstances. More often than not, you will find yourself being uplifted when you talk to someone about your situation.
2. Eat your favorite food with someone. Yes! Eating is one way for us to relieve our stress. There are some types of food that can release brain chemicals that would make you feel happy again despite your circumstances. Ice cream, bananas, chocolates are some foods that you may want to try whenever you go through a downer. Moreover, you can share these with someone and spend time with them talking about stuff you like to talk about. You can do this in conjunction with the first suggestion, it makes it all the more soothing. Although, maybe you might want to slow down or you might get a brain freeze or an upset stomach. Just take it slow and enjoy your time with your friend or accountability partner. Take someone on a food trip to get your mind off of your bad day and enjoy the simple things in life - food.
3. Thank God in prayer and praise Him knowing that your bad circumstances can be used for His good purpose. As a Christian, I believe that not all bad things that happen to us are because of our own doing. They are not because we sinned against God and that is His way of venting anger on us. Rather, there really are moments when God tests us and allows us to experience struggles and face challenges in life because He wants to refine us like silver (Psalm 66:10) or He wants to develop in us a character that would make us stronger and better than before (Hebrews 12:5-13). Knowing this, we can thank God and set our hearts and minds to praise Him and persevere in love and obedience to Him. Singing songs to God is actually a good stress reliever; not only are you able to lay your situation before Him but you are also reminded of who God is, how mighty and powerful He is through every storm, and how deep and endless is His love for you. Remember that God loves you and He has great things in store for you as you continue to be faithful to Him and trust in His unfailing love. He will never leave you nor forsake you and He will take care of you throughout every circumstance.
4. Read a good book, watch a nice movie, or just do whatever is fun for you. When I feel stressed or when I have so many problems on my shoulders already, sometimes I get some of my friends to go to the arcade or I browse through the book store alone. These are things I find enjoyable to do and I am able to expend my energy in something positive and meaningful in order to release the stress I feel in my body, mind, and heart. If we work ourselves up too much and focus on the small, petty problems, we would really get lonely and pity ourselves which can lead to worse situations like depression. Gather a group of your friends who may be going through a bad day as you are or those people who can really cheer you up and go out and have a blast. You can also do an activity that would help you reflect on the good things in life and draw inspiration from those.
5. Sleep it off. You heard me, sometimes there are things that you just have to sleep off because there is no other way for you to find rest and peace if you keep thinking about it. Maybe you just need to have a good night's rest so that your mind will be refreshed and be strengthened to face your problems head on. You can either take a power nap or a full-on rest as long as your mind gets relaxed and your body rejuvenated. Sometimes our problem could be that we are putting too much stress on ourselves that we lose sight of the essential things and in those times, sleeping can refresh our minds and bodies so that when we wake up we can focus and get our lives back on track.
These are just a few ways on how I get through my bad days. You may have your own and you might even discover something that you can do to get yourself through. If you have any suggestions, please share them too by commenting here! Thanks for reading!
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