Reset a Bad Day

Categories: Blog Jun 26, 2016

What do you do when you have a bad day? Do you angrily brood over your circumstances? Do you hunker down on social media and tell the world how wrong it is? Do you spit venom?

Once in a while, we may experience a not-so-good, not-the-best, day. Life happens. We may have a disagreement with our spouse, our boss (yes, that could be the same person!), we may get bad news from a friend, we may find an unexpected expense we weren't planning on, or whatever. Sometimes, things just come up that increase our stress levels and distract us from all the other good things we do have in life.

Don't you wish you could reset a bad day? Have you tried? The next time someone makes you angry, try pressing reset. Seriously. If you get in a fight with a friend, don't run to Facebook and type something you shouldn't. Go take a walk and breathe. Walking, especially using your arms as you should, can help calm your brain, allow you to think better and maybe even give you a better perspective on how to handle your disagreement. It may also keep you from stewing over a situation and prevent you from making an even bigger deal out of something that should be nothing.

The next time you get an unexpected expense, like fixing the transmission of your car, try rocking. I know, this seems ridiculous. But really, you can let a bad situation consume you, or you can move in ways that soothe your brain and body and maybe even open creative channels in your thought process to see your situation in a different perspective.

Your thoughts and emotions are tied to your movements and your movements are tied to your thoughts and emotions. If you could press reset through rocking, rolling, or cross-crawling and in doing so, soothe your mind, or allow for better focus, you may find your situation is not so bad, or you may find your ability to effectively react to your situation does not actually make the situation worse or seem bigger than it is. In other words, pressing reset may actually afford you clarity in thought and peace in your emotions when it would otherwise be hard to think and remain calm.

I'm not saying pressing reset will magically make your circumstances disappear or get better. I am saying it may be able to help you approach your circumstances more effectively. We can often change what other people do, or how they act and we can't often prevent negative things from happening around us, but what we can do - what we always have a choice in - is control how we react. Our response to life's chaos is the one thing we can control.

A long walk can prevent you from making a bad decision. Taking time to unplug from the world and focus on your breathing can give you the opportunity for wisdom to seep in to your thoughts. Rocking back and forth can soothe your anger and silence or dampen the alarms going off in your head.

I know it is crazy. But, it is crazy enough to work.

 

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