How To Handle A Challenging Day

(Complete transparency here - I may have just finished up a good cry before writing this article.)

Challenging days happen to all of us. Even when you feel like you are finally getting your shit together and on the right pathway. They sneak up on us. Especially when you have kids.

I was sick and am taking a med this week that has me feeling very fatigued and downright in a fog. The dishes never got done today. The floor needs desperately vacuumed. The laundry is towering over. Dinner may not get cooked tonight (takeout, anyone?). My 11 month old is fiercely teething and not sleeping well. And I am about to go crazy if my 4 year old doesn't stop bouncing off the walls and getting into trouble soon. Nothing I wanted to accomplish for my business was touched. In fact, I cannot seem to recall one thing on "my list" that I DID complete today. Can anyone else relate sometimes?

Days like this are ROUGH. The feelings of guilt, failure, and the infamous "I am not cut out for this" or "I cannot do this" can quickly take over. But ONLY if you let them.  

You see, days like today are reminders to me of the progress that I've made in handling them over the years. In the past, I used to let a bad day send me into a spiral of panic attacks, depression, and anxiety. I used to focus only on the bad, and let the bad quickly multiply in my mind until the bad turned into the worst case scenarios. And, I would continue to guilt myself subconsciously for not getting everything done that I had planned. My perfectionism had completely taken me over at one point. 

But not anymore. Even though I have worked on so much personal development and completely overcoming my panic and anxiety over the last few years, the bad days are still going to rear their ugly heads sometimes - regardless of how positively transformed one's life may be. It's all about how you handle them when they DO happen. 

But the major difference NOW, is that I cut myself a break. If I am not feeling well, or things just don't seem to be coming together like I would like, I acknowledge it, and then relieve myself of everything extra that I had planned that day. I take a mental health day and ONLY the priority items get done, nothing else.

And, a quick good cry to let it all out sometimes doesn't hurt either ;). As long as after you get it out, you cut yourself some slack, acknowledge how amazing you still are, and realize tomorrow is a brand new day.