“The best laid plans of mice and men aft gang aglay”, as my compatriot once wrote.
Yesterday was a difficult day. And that’s OK.
Today’s thought: Yesterday I was in a funk, and I’m not quite out of it yet. My partner tried to get me out of it by encouraging me to wiggle, just like I do with my daughter. I even tried channeling Angry Ginge from I’m a Celeb motivating himself by shouting “Manchester”… It didn’t work, but it’s still funny!
I used to think that when I had a bad day I had to fix it. That I must have done something wrong. That I should do better. Exercise it away. Journal through it. Positive affirmations. Action, action, action. And that can definitely help.
But sometimes that just makes it worse. Sometimes you just need to sit with that feeling. Get to know it. Name it. Befriend it. Take the power out of it.
Today’s nudge: How good are you at acknowledging and naming your feelings? If you’re neurodivergent, that might be particularly difficult – there’s even a name for it: alexithymia.
Try the How We Feel app. It’s free, produced by a scientific non-profit, and has a really satisfying interface. A couple of check-ins a day over this festive period might reveal some patterns. Even just browsing the feelings can help.
Calm doesn’t mean making everything okay. Calm is in not needing everything to be okay right this second.
Today’s Prompt: Think about a recent bad day. What did you do? Did you fix it? Could you fix it? Or did you just want it to go away as quickly as possible?
What would it be like to just let the bad day be bad, without any judgement?