Having A Bad Day? It Happens, and These Things Really Help (and cost nothing)

stress

I’m going to share a little secret with you; I have a temper. All right, all right; it’s not that big of a secret to those who know me. Don’t get all crazy or anything, though. I’m not violent when I’m angry. I’m passionate, perhaps a little bit loud, I might use the “F” word once or twice and I definitely, definitely have this amazing skill of getting my way when I’m upset. Now, let’s also point out that I’m a pretty fair person. I have an innate ability to see things from everyone’s perspective, and it’s a gift that people appreciate about me. Do not mistake, however, the fact that I will blow up if I (or anyone I love) is wronged. I like justice and fairness – and common sense.

I have a bit of a temper with those who are rude, wrong and unwilling to take responsibility for their actions. I also have a bit of a temper with myself as I have very high expectations of myself. I have high expectations of myself because I feel that I do have common sense, and I do feel that I’m pretty good at life. Today, I had a massive temper with me. I was on my last nerve today. It was all stupid stuff, and I was not happy with myself. I think it stems a lot from the fact that we usually spend Sundays lounging in bed sipping coffee while the kids come find us one by one, we go to church, we grocery shop, cook a big dinner on the deck and mostly just prep for the week ahead.

Yesterday, we had a sitter, we took the boat out and we spent 6 hours in the hot, hot sun. I’m fried despite lathering myself with SPF 50 every 45 minutes all day long. My skin hurts, I’m exhausted from the heat (and probably the beer) and I’m not feeling so good since I basically survived on crappy food such as salt and vinegar chips and a burger when we docked the boat for lunch at a favorite restaurant. I think that bothered me a lot this morning when things were undone. Laundry was backed up a bit (2 loads since we didn’t do one yesterday), my shower hurt, the dishes were still in the dishwasher and we hadn’t gotten anything prepped.

I turned on my computer at 5:15 am as I do every morning following my shower and I promptly dumped my entire mug of steaming hot coffee all over it. Thankfully, the damage was minimal and my very tech-savvy husband was able to save it. I was very happy. That was followed by the realization that I had only 40 miles to empty, so I had to adjust my morning to go get gas, run to the grocery store, and I missed my morning workout. I don’t like that. I was grumpy.

Fast forward to the twins going down for their nap and I was just in a mood. My husband had conference calls all morning and the twins were being very giggly and loud and I had to keep them quiet for him, and I was annoyed. Then I made myself another cup of coffee, promptly spilled it all over my laptop and my iPad pro and my new Lilly Pulitzer agenda, my desk, my chair and my white carpet in my office. This time – I killed my computer. I was unhappy. I was calling myself all kinds of bad names in my head, I was so mad at myself, and I was just in a mood.

I sat down, I cried, and I was more than a little frustrated. I didn’t want my husband to comfort me because I was mad at him – irrationally, of course – for “allowing” me to drink a cup of coffee at my desk after what happened this morning (because I’ve only been doing that every single day for the past 8 years without incident, you know; and because he would never, ever “allow” me or “disallow” me to do anything.

I cried, I killed a package of premade chocolate chip cookie dough, and then I was even more upset with myself. At that point, I decided I had two options; allow myself to continue my sad, pathetic pity party or get my butt up and make it right. So, I took my husband’s advice and went the gym, pounded out five miles on the treadmill, lifted some weights (like 5-pounds because I don’t want to be a body builder or anything) worked some machines and handled it. I’ll also mention I put on some hardcore “Gangsta” rap in my car, rolled down the windows, opened the sunroof and made quite the spectacle of myself at red lights and stop signs – and loved every second of it.

And now that I’ve wasted pretty much all my word count telling you the harrowing tale of my day, I will share with you a very valuable lesson I learned today; sometimes you have to suck it up buttercup. I did – and it felt good. I have a few ways to right a wrong, make a bad day better and get over it in an instant. Trust me and please take my advice – this is some of the best advice you will ever receive, like, ever.

  • Get the gym and sweat out the anger
  • Roll down the windows and let the sun hit your face and the wind hit your hair
  • Get on the road and just drive
  • Put on some gangsta rap (because Tupac and Biggie and Diddy in his Puff Daddy days can really cure a bad mood)
  • Dance it out to said gangsta rap
  • Put on some red lipstick – you’ll feel totally bad*ss and you’ll rock it
  • Cry it out – you always feel better after
  • Laugh; find a great friend, get coffee or cocktails or lunch or whatever and just laugh
  • Remember that sometimes we all suck, we all have bad days and we all get over it eventually
  • Marry a tech genius who can fix all your stuff when you demolish it and save your life and your day and everything that was ever important to you – twice in one day

Photo by Getty Images

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