5 Ways to make a bad day better

Sometimes we can have a bad day where things may not always go to plan. When we have a ‘bad day’ it can be unsettling and if we allow ourselves to dwell in these thoughts it can lead to feelings of frustration or sadness.

If you want to break out of a bad day and turn things around, below are 5 ways to make a bad day better:

1. Look for the lesson

Sometimes we can beat ourselves up if we’ve made a mistake or something hasn’t worked out the way we wanted it to which can send our minds into a spiral of negative thoughts. The next time you find your thoughts shifting to the negative stop and remember to be kind to yourself by asking yourself questions such as:

• ‘What have I learnt from this situation?’
• ‘What would I do differently next time?’
• ‘What’s the silver lining from this situation?'

When we choose to direct our minds towards empowering questions we transform the negatives into positives which allows us to embrace our mistakes and keep things moving.

2. Go for a walk

Going for a walk and breathing in fresh air can help reduce any tension or anxiety you may have and allow you to re centre yourself. When you go for a walk and remove yourself from a situation often having that time out can help you to clear your mind and look at things with a fresh perspective which often helps you to relax and approach the situation with a renewed sense of hope.

3.  Accept the day is challenging

Sometimes days can be challenging, maybe your work has piled up or you have a number of people demanding your time. Get some perspective on the situation and remind yourself that you’ve had days like this before and you got through them, knowing that it’s a temporary situation and that it’s a bad day not a bad life helps you to dissociate from any unhelpful inner dialogue and cope with whatever may be going on.

4. Spend time with friends

Sometimes the only thing we need to take our troubles away is to have a good conversation with a friend. Reach out to one of your friends and set the intention to make them feel good about themselves, often when we make others feel better, it can make us feel better about ourselves too.  Maybe you could have a good catch up on the phone or meet up for a coffee and spend some time letting your hair down and having some fun. Sometimes all it takes to turn your day around is spending time around people who love you.

5. Do something nice for yourself

Doing something nice for yourself helps you to get out of your head and have something to look forward to. Maybe you can plan to watch a funny film that you have wanted to watch or cook yourself your favourite meal? Maybe you could book yourself in for a pamper session or spend time quality time around your children or pets. When you do something nice for yourself it helps your troubles to fade away and helps you to wake up seeing things with a more optimistic perspective.
Remember a bad day doesn’t always equal a bad life, keeping things in perspective and remembering that things could be worse can help you to snap out of it, in no time.

I’d love to know how you turn a bad day around. Let me know in the comments below.