What day is today?
Does your mood depend on what day today is? Or does your day depend on your mood? Is it a “TGIF” or “hump” day? Is it delightful or dismal?
How about telling yourself each morning as you get up that this is a:
- Marvelous (or miserable?) Monday,
- Terrific (or terrible?)Tuesday,
- Wonderful (or weary?) Wednesday,
- Tremendous (or tired?) Thursday,
- Fabulous (or frustrating?) Friday,
- Super (or sad?) Saturday, or
- Serene (or snappish?) Sunday.
Then when someone asks you how you feel, you can laugh and ask,
“What day is today?” before giving your preferred answer.
So, how do you make your days so good that you are indeed speaking the truth of your experience?
One smart idea is to start by anticipating a great week. The practice of anticipation stimulates zest and zestful folks always have energy going for them.
Then if our energy starts to sag the next day, we can pull our thoughts up to the enthusiasm level and hold them there. Acting as if we were already enthusiastic will encourage us to actually be so.
We really all know that we choose our
attitudes, our beliefs, and thus our perception of our experiences. That should be motivation enough!
But if worry and frustration seep in, we can cancel them out by replacing those negative thoughts with positive ones.
Do you have some days that “just seem” to be bad or boring or exhausting?
Please share what you do about them!
7 Comments
Perfect timing for this blog Pat! With some of the events of the last few weeks being very stressful I have been really seeing and feeling the “wonderful” things around me to help me daily. It IS about how we make our day. Even when life that smacks us in the face every once in awhile we have to stop, look at the sky, a flower, a favorite pet, or something and say “well, I am going to focus on the good!”.
Tish, I can certainly identify with the stress of these last few weeks and know how much taking those few moments of refocusing can and did help!
I am really trying not to live by the clock or calendar, but just in the moment. This requires paying attention to my body and my feelings. I guess this is possible because I don’t have a job to go to but it is not easy. It seems the habits of society are so ingrained in me that they keep intruding in my thoughts. I feel choosing my mood is easy compared to choosing my habits. For example, I am still learning to eat when I’m hungry rather than look at the clock to tell me it’s lunch time. Or if I feel awake at 4 AM, it’s okay to get up rather than lie there until 5. But I will keep working on it and I do agree, I get to choose whether the day will be good or bad.
Mary Kay, being retired makes paying attention to some things easier, but the habits of a lifetime are difficult to change. Keep up the good work!
Sometimes one has an event in their life that could mean there will be no tomorrow (example: stroke). When there is a recovery and some thought about it – every day you wake up is one more day.
Actually, its the same for everyone – you never know when the end may come. So, every day, its easy to see positive things with no time for the negative. When you wake up there is time for one more day to enjoy. It becomes easier to just look around to see what is around you and find something to see, to hear, or someone who may need your help. There are still hard days but its easier to still enjoy still being around.
Earl, you certainly exemplify your message! I admire your enthusiasm for life and how you even use photography to document it!
I learned, some years back, to think my “gratitudes” before I even open my eyes in the morning. That starts the positive train of thought. Then I make a point all day of redirecting those errant thoughts that arise out of my interaction with the world or out of my own mind. It’s still an ongoing chore but worth it.