My Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Day — and How I Got Over It

A couple weeks ago, I had one of those days (weeks, actually). In addition to setting my dishwasher on fire (you can read about that little incident here), my leaky faucet couldn’t be ignored any longer, the microwave went kaput and a client I was looking forward to working with backed out at the last minute. Plus there’s that pesky mortgage payment due.

I was bummed.

Well, and then there’s the coronavirus, the Dow being on a rollercoaster, and the world generally seems way out of control.

While “I should know better,” I still found myself in a downward spiral, and quite frankly, I wanted someone else to make it all go away. Needless to say, it wasn’t my finest week, and it spilled over into this week. That’s why I’m “late” getting out this newsletter. I didn’t feel like I had any funny, inspirational words to pass along and was just going to opt-out of sending it.

But… I made a commitment to myself at the beginning of the year that I would write a newsletter a week. I was ready to give up because I hadn’t hit the deadline of Tuesday, but then I started thinking: What’s more important? Connecting with my people or burying my head in the sand?

So here I am. This morning I realized that I’m not the only person to feel like things are cray-cray, so here’s how I started pulling myself out of the downward spiral.

First, I reached out to people who I knew would understand and admitted I was struggling. They gave me good recommendations of practical things to try. More than anything, instead of keeping to myself and sinking further into discouragement, I opened up.

Second, everyone I spoke to reminded me that nothing stays the same and that in the present moment, I’m ok. I always think that whatever I’m experiencing will last forever, so I had to make a conscious effort to remember that things will look different in a week. In order to allow this shift to occur, I also had to get very uncomfortably present to how things actually are/were.

This is not a fun process but it seems necessary. Pollyanna peptalks don’t work for me. But when I breathe, am present and say, “yep, here are the facts” I start to settle down and accept where I am instead of thrashing around like a shark in a net.

Below are a couple more exercises or resources for you when you have a day or a week that just isn’t going your way.

1. Deep Breathing and/or meditating. I’ve used the free Headspace app and liked it a lot, but you can also find all kinds of free meditations on YouTube or by googling.

2. EFT Tapping (the emotional freedom technique). The 5 minute instructional video is easy to follow. You can also go to https://www.thetappingsolution.com/

3. Who can you help? This is a surefire way to get you out of your own head and allows your unconscious to start solving your problems without your being aware of it. Brilliant!

4. Writing. A friend of mine, Tiffany Marlink is starting a journaling program. Check her out!

5. Help 100 Free Coaching Session. Of course, if you haven't had a "Help 100" free coaching session with me, that just might be the thing you need to get over the hump. Learn more and register here.