Forgive my play on words, but have you ever noticed that sometimes bad days can lead you into a downward spiral of self-deprecation and self-pity leading to a “bad daze” of uncertainty?
I was there a couple of days ago.
I had a huge “I can’t do this” pity party meltdown, which not only affected and tainted all of the good things I had done that day, but also dragged into the next days and tainted that too.
Yet today, I’m again, feeling much better and have even had a couple of business meetings which might lead to joint ventures or partnerships in the future.
Well today I’m not going to talk about how my generally positive and happy attitude pulled me out of another relatively short “down” period, but instead about how awareness of your bad days and how they affect you can really help to get you back on track.
Throughout my whole day and a half of “what am I doing this all for” and “who really cares about happiness anyway” I was quite aware that this was something I was doing to myself and aware that the actions I was taking during this period were generally only going to make things worse.
I knew this, yet I did it anyway.
I also knew myself and that I have these types of days every now and then (though one this bad is pretty rare) and that I was going to get out of it one way or another fairly soon, because I always do (at least since I’ve discovered more about myself and happiness in these last few years).
I was also aware that I was letting my gremlins – my inner “limiting” beliefs, those voices that tell you “you can’t, or shouldn’t, or it’ll never work” and so on – have a free reign over my true self.
That whole time I knew somewhere deep down that I was just letting off some steam, venting some pent up frustrations.
And you say, “so, whys is that so important?”
Well because some people, when they get into a “daze” like that (and perhaps they live in a perpetual daze) believe that it is true, that the incredibly nasty things they are telling themselves are real.
If this is the case then your gremlins really have won. If you believe them over your true inner voice, if don’t have the awareness to say “this is just a phase and I’ll get through it and be fine”, then that’s when you start to let your fears and frustrations and doubts run your life.
The good news is your gremlins may with that battle, but the war is far from over. You can come up out of those “bad daze” and have some good days, and if you’re really lucky you might even have a “good daze” where you are lost in all of the wonderful and uplifting things you are telling yourself.
It’s all about increasing your awareness of yourself and your habits and “simply noticing” what is happening.
As Lao Tsu said: “I free myself not by trying to be free but by simply noticing how I am imprisoning myself in the very moment I am imprisoning myself”. Profound hunh?
So keep laughing and building awareness.