We have all had those days, haven’t we? Where on waking up with good intentions, something then upsets us or makes things difficult, and our mood and motivation plummets. When this happens, we can feel tempted to throw in the towel and resign ourselves to a bad day. However, you don’t need to write the day off, you can simply choose to restart a bad day. In this blog, I will share the four simple steps, to restart a bad say, at any time, and as many times as you need.
The Simplicity Of Restarting A Bad Day
I learned the simple trick of restarting my day in the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous. In my early recovery, this practical tool became my daily lifesaver. In fact, this tool is so simple that I often take its transformative power for granted.
Why Days Go Bad
Everyone has bad days, and they are an unfortunate part of life. Or perhaps they are fortunate because, without them, we wouldn’t know or appreciate the good, would we?
However, when the odds are stacked against you, it is easy for a day to go wrong. If you have mental health challenges, as I do, then it can be easy to be triggered by something that threatens to ruin the whole day.
A Bad Moment Does Not Have to Ruin A Whole Day
Perhaps you opened a letter to find a parking fine for £500. Maybe you were having a lovely morning, and then you argued with your partner. Whatever happened, the temptation can be to go over and over it. However, when we churn it over we then spiral into resentment and blame the event for ruining our entire day. Alternatively, you can choose to let it go and give yourself the gift of starting the day again.
It’s Never Too Late To Restart A Bad Day
A day can go sour ten minutes after waking or six hours after waking. The wonderful thing about the restart trick is that you can use it to restart the day at any point.
Even more useful, is the fact that you can restart your day as many times as you need. Therefore, even if a day continues to challenge your mood, you can choose to restart it over and over again, as many times as you need.
Restarting A bad Day Challenges Black and White Thinking
It can be all too easy when something bad happens, to throw your arms in the air and declare, “its all crap! I give up!”
Therefore, this trick of restarting the day is particularly helpful for challenging black and white thinking. Black and white thinking is when one thing goes wrong and then from that you then decide that everything is, therefore, all bad.
Being able to have another option in your power – restarting a day – helps you to challenge those “it’s all gone wrong and now it’s pointless” thoughts.Â
Put The Control Back In your Hands By Choosing To Restart a Bad Day
When a day goes wrong, we can feel powerless and in many ways, we are powerless because we cannot control the events that happen to us. However, we can control the way we respond to those events, for example by deciding to restart your day, rather than give up on it.
Therefore, by making the choice to restart rather than give up on a day, you can reclaim the power and put the control back into your hands.
4 Simple Steps To Restart A Bad Day
Restarting your days requires a few skills. The most important skill is the ability to let go of whatever happened and move on. We can restart a day, by following these four simple steps,
- Stand/sit still and take a deep breath
- Acknowledge the event – restarting a day isn’t about avoidance, it’s about accepting that you can’t change what happened but that you can instead choose to respond in positive ways
- Choose to either deal with the trigger if you can or to park it to deal with when you are able
- Take a deep breathe again and exhale with passion and then stand/step forward into your newly restarted day.
I hope you find this tool as helpful and transformative as I do. If you give it a try, please do let me know. Pop a comment below, it would be great to hear your experiences! And, if you are looking for more tools to help you improve your day, you can check out my Miracle Morning Routine.
Hello! My name is Finn and I have a passion for creating honest content, that inspires personal growth and promotes well-being.
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These are very helpful tips! I am sometimes triggered by things and then it is safe to say that my entire day is ruined. I will be making note of these and trying it. Thank you
Thank you so much Natasha, I really hope it helps, do let me know!
Need this today Finn! Thank you so much for writing this 💕
Im very glad it helped, thank you 🙂