When you have a bad day

Everyone has bad days. Some days are definitely worse than others, but even just little issues can bubble up and bring up feelings of stress and frustration. Despite having unfortunate problems popping up during the day, there is still a way to salvage the rest of it. Here are some things that you can do to help make a bad day an okay one:

Radical Acceptance: Sometimes things just happen, there is no rhyme or reason for it. One way to look at these random occurrences is to ‘radically accept’ that they happened and to just go with it. Radical acceptance is acknowledging that life is going to happen and we cannot resist what we cannot control or change. It is basically allowing yourself to accept life just as it is, with the good and the bad. It can be very hard to accept upsetting and frustrating things that happen to you, but holding on to ‘not accepting’ leads to more pain and more suffering. Refusing to accept that something bad has happened will not change your situation. It will only add to your stress and frustrating.

Work on changing your thoughts into accepting ones. You could say “ I don’t like what has happened to me, it had caused me hurt and pain. It is not okay. However, I am going to accept that this is how things are right now because I cannot change what happened”. It is recommended that you come up with an “acceptance phrase” to use when you realize things are out of your control.

Listen to your favorite playlist: Have your favorite songs complied in a playlist. Anytime you are experiencing a stressful or frustrating day, listen to your favorite songs and take some deep breaths. Try and connect to the good feelings that you have when you listen to those songs. Allow yourself to be uplifted by them

Talk to someone: Empathy and validation go a long way. Find a good friend that you can talk to and let them know you are struggling that day. Let them validate your experience. It help to relieve stress when you connect with others.

Give yourself a little bit of time to be frustrated: Give yourself 30 minutes to feel upset about the situation. Notice your feelings, accept that they are there, and sit with them for a minute. You will find that you have a little bit more control over them once you accept them.

Using these tips requires practice. It doesn’t come instantly the first few times that you try it. Intentionally following through with these practices will lead to you developing better coping skills in the future. It takes time to change old habits that you have been using for years. Bad days are going to happen, but they no longer have to take over ample amounts of your time and energy.

Kylie Chaffin, Licensed Mental Health Counselor.

information from this blog is not intended to treat, diagnose, or substitute as therapy. If you have concerns regarding your mental health, please seek out treatment from a trained professional.

This post originally appears at Cor Counseling and Wellness by the same author.