When You’re Having A Bad Day, Remind Yourself Of These 20 Things

We all have bad days. No matter how perfect your life might look on paper, and even if, on the outside, it looks like you have it all, things go wrong.

Sometimes it will be a bad day, sometimes it will be a bad week, and sometimes it can even feel like your whole year isn’t going particularly swimmingly.

If today’s been a particularly bad day and you need something to cheer you up or help get you out of a funk, you’ve come to the right place.

Read on for a few reminders that might help turn your day, or at least your perception of your day, around.

1. You’re not alone.

Chances are, however alone you feel, there are people in this world that care about you and are willing to listen to your problems or lend you a hand when things get tough.

Always remember, too, that the wonderful thing about this social media world is that even if you were to find yourself completely alone in the world and have no one to turn to, there are all kinds of support groups online.

If you find the right group for your situation and reach out to the members, you’re sure to receive messages of support.

Reading other people’s stories might also help to inspire you and sometimes the perspective of a stranger can be surprisingly insightful.

2. Someone else is always having a worse day.

And not just one person. If you’re on this page, I’m assuming that you live in a relatively developed country with good access to the internet and you have the ability to read. That in itself means that your day is going far better than that of millions of other people on the planet.

As annoying as the phrase ‘there are people dying in Africa’ is when you’re having a bad time of it, it’s also true. And not just in Africa.

That might not be a comforting thought at times, but it might help you to gain a little perspective and realize that, however badly things are going for you right now, you’re still pretty fortunate in a lot of ways.

3. There’s always a blue sky overhead.

When you board an airplane on a cloudy, rainy day, it sometimes comes as a huge shock to burst through the layer of cloud cover and find that the sun is burning brightly above it, with endless blue skies stretching up above you.

If that’s not a wonderful metaphor, I don’t know what is. When your head is clouded with sadness, anger, doubt, or frustration, it’s easy to feel like the sun will never come out again.

Just remind yourself that no matter how bad the weather looks and how thick the layer of cloud might seem, that blue sky is always up there. It never goes away, and the storm clouds will pass.

4. “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.” – John Lennon

We sometimes tend to think of our lives as film scripts, expecting that at some point we’ll get our happy ending and then we’ll walk off into the sunset and never be unhappy again.

That’s just not true. Life has continual ups and downs, and we always have another chance to set things right.

5. You’ve got this.

You’re a strong person. You’ve had low patches before and you’ve got through them, learned from them, and thrived. Whatever challenge you’re facing, you’re more than capable of overcoming it. Never question that.

6. It’s all a matter of perception.

Okay, so I admit that some particularly big storm clouds don’t have silver linings, and I don’t want to trivialize any major traumas, but the majority of situations can be looked at from different angles.

You have the power to decide whether you’re going to let circumstances affect you and get you down, or if you’re going to do as the Monty Python boys instructed and always look on the bright side of life.

7. Self-care is incredibly important.

Looking after yourself and making sure you’re eating well, getting enough rest, and respecting your mental health should be your number one priority, especially when you’ve been feeling low. If you don’t look after yourself, you won’t be in a position to help anyone else.

8. You’re having a bad day, you’re not a bad person.

It’s easy to get the two mixed up. The fact that things aren’t going amazingly for you right now is no reflection on who you are as a person.

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9. Being kind to others is being kind to yourself.

If you’re struggling to treat yourself well, start with other people. You’d be amazed at how doing something selfless for someone else can actually be incredibly selfish as it gives you that warm glow.

10. Perfection is the enemy.

Perfection doesn’t exist, so stop striving for it. Simple as that.

11. Success takes time.

Slow and steady really does win the race. If you’re expecting to become successful overnight, you’re going to have a lot of bad days to do battle with. If, however, you accept that there will be ups and downs and it’s going to be a long hard road, things won’t seem quite as disastrous.

12. Without the lows, there would be no highs.

Think about it like a summer’s day. If every day was sun-kissed with a gentle summer breeze playing in the trees and you got to spend it walking in a wildflower meadow, would you appreciate it?

Of course not. It’s the cold, dark days of the winter that make us savor the summer when it comes. Without the low patches, you wouldn’t be able to savor the highs.

13. You can’t control everything.

Much as you might not like the idea, some things are just beyond your control. The sooner you accept that, the happier you’ll be.

14. Everyone has days like these.

Whilst there are some definite upsides to social media, one of the downsides is that you’re essentially looking at everyone else’s highlights reel under the impression that their life really is as perfect as their Instagram feed might suggest.

Trust me, it’s not. Absolutely everyone has problems and everyone has down days, they just don’t share those bits on social media, just like you wouldn’t.

15. You can’t please everyone.

Some of us are cursed with a burning desire to be liked and make absolutely everyone happy. It’s just not possible. No matter what you do, there’s always going to be someone out there who doesn’t like it and is happy to tell you so.

16. Failure is part of life.

No one ever got anywhere worth being without a few major hiccups along the way.

17. Small changes can make big differences.

When you’re feeling down it can seem like you need to completely revamp your life in order to turn things around. You don’t.

The smallest things, like 10 minutes of exercise or meditation in the morning, an extra couple of portions of fruit and vegetables a day, or just consciously trying to smile more, can have a huge impact.

18. Laughter is the best medicine.

There’s nothing better for the blues than a good giggle. Whether you watch something that tickles you or get together with the friend that always cracks you up, it’ll always help.

19. You’re unique.

No one else can offer the world what you can. You have a special set of abilities that are just yours, and you owe it to the universe to use them to their full potential.