So, you are having a bad day. It started first thing in the morning when you overslept and were late getting out the door and you HAD to be in the office by 8am. You spilled your coffee and had to change. You got in the car and started driving…straight into a traffic jam. You were TRYING to be calm and patient, but it seemed that the Universe was throwing everything it had at you. And then…you spilled your coffee AGAIN! You thought you may as well turn around, go back home, and write this day off as a loss. But you were stuck in that traffic jam with nowhere to go but straight to the office. You couldn’t help but wonder if you were being punished for something.
You FINALLY made it to the office, 20 minutes late for your meeting and frazzled by the morning’s events. You are just settling in, and the meeting ends, earlier than anticipated, so you missed the entire thing! You make it to your desk, open your email and find that your boss had emailed you several times with items that you made errors on and they need to be fixed ASAP. (Why is he constantly picking on me?) Your phone rings, more problems. (Why is this happening today?) Your office manager comes to chat, more problems. (Can’t someone else handle this?) And then you realize, you forgot your lunch. UGH!!!!
I am sure everyone can identify with some version of a bad day. But what makes a day “bad”? Well, for one, your mindset. It’s easy when things don’t go as planned and to play the victim. It’s difficult to look at the situation and say, “what have I done to cause this?” or “what is the universe (insert your version of divine energy) trying to tell me?”
With this example, the very first instance of oversleeping was just the beginning. Our first reaction is to fly out of bed and run around trying to get ready quickly. The reality is, you are just causing yourself more anxiety about being late and causing other things to unfold. Here is a thought: acknowledge the time, and then tell yourself I am good! I have plenty of time to get where I need to be. And if I am a few minutes late, no big deal! You make the appropriate calls/texts to alert others that you are running behind and then carry on with getting ready…in a calm manner. I bet the remaining events happen very differently or don’t happen at all. Maybe, they push the meeting by half an hour. Maybe, you are walking out of the door calmly and the traffic jam is only a 2 minute slow down to get around a stalled vehicle. Maybe you are in the car listening to your favorites songs and you just don’t care. You are grateful be where you are.
Your mindset has everything to do with what happens to you. You can’t control anything, but you can control how you react. You may still have the bad day, but you can dictate how bad it really is by changing your energy and thoughts around it. It may seem far-fetched for those who are not as versed in this mindful thought process, but I recommend you try it. Then, throw a little gratitude in there and see what happens!
