today my fab work pal and fellow blogger amy of the inspirational blog little mind seeds is here to use her words of wonder to coax you out of your Friday slump... take it away amz!
Turn Your Bad Day Around
You are having a bad day for a variety of reasons. You're in a crappy job, you’re not a super star DJ yet or you haven’t won an Oscar. However this is reality, so why waste your breath being miserable?
Your mind is your own. Believe it or not, you are in charge of it. How empowering to believe that you can flip your mood if you really want too. Right? Meditation is an awesome way of choosing your thoughts and cut out the negative repetition that goes on in the mind when you are in a bad mood. When I talk about meditation I sometimes get a weird look, like I'm preaching about God. But its just a tool for exercising your mind, like a muscle.
Meditation for Mere Mortals: Give your mind a rest.
• Start with focusing on your breath, breathing in for 5 seconds and then slowly out for 5 seconds.
• Clear your mind of all pictures and thoughts. I tend to focus on the colour black or white. Every time a thought or picture pops into your mind, just imagine it dissolving away.
The more you do this the easier it becomes. The benefits are awesome. Taking a few moments like this enables you to stop your mind, for just a second and give it the rest that it needs to collate its thoughts logically and clearly. I often find doing this helps me gain some perspective and helps me connect with myself, rather than being lost in my bad mood, thus lost in my thoughts. Which of course means I’m not living in the present moment!! Which brings me on nicely to....
Live in the Present.
You have a choice to find something good about the moment you’re in now. The concept of living presently means that in this moment, there is nothing wrong in this minute or the next minute.Whatever is in the past, you can leave there and what’s to come hasn’t happened yet! However, if at this point someone, in this very moment, is shouting in your face or your arm is stuck between some rocks and you haven’t been seen for days you need to make a change. You can leave he conversation, or saw off your arm and write a book about it, that will later become a film and earn big bucks- but either way remove yourself from the situation.
In the more simpler of situations, say a mundane unimportant "bad day" find an object to focus your attention on. For example a picture, the sky or even your hand(sounds ridiculous). Focus all your attention on it and be curious about it. How it got there and how it’s formed. This kind of thing gets me really living in the present, as basic as it is, it's just what you need to divert your attention and stop your mind sinking deeper and deeper into a bad mood.
Think Positive Things!(Fake it until you make it)
Our minds are so powerful that our thoughts have a physical effect on our bodies. We wear our bad thoughts like clothes and people are perceptive without realising it. They can often misinterpret the vibe you are giving off, as you being a bit of a bitch…which is only going to add to your crap day. When you play out happy thoughts in your mind and visualise great moments from your past or your future, you start to radiate good energy. Fake it until you make it. You can affect the people around you and yourself, physically and mentally, when you choose to think positive thoughts. Choose to think of positive things and you will find, that even if you feel utterly rubbish it will have physical effect on your body/your posture.
Your imagination is a powerful thing. If you don’t believe me try imagining you are eating a lemon, suck on the lemon and feel the juices in your mouth, imagine squeezing the juice and drinking it. You immediately get the same feeling as when you are eating a lemon!! The very thought of imagining it creates the same physical reaction as when you are actually eating a lemon. Your saliva glands start going mental!! So imagine what being in a negative mood and thinking negative thoughts has on your mind, your body, your posture, the people around you, and I haven’t even bothered going in to how detrimental it is to your health.
Be Pretty Impressed With Your Lot!!
We always want something better, we never have enough, we aren’t achieving enough and we don’t have enough money. This mentality makes us blind to what we do have, the positive things in our lives and the people that are in them. If we aren’t winning the lottery, then we are assuming that things aren’t going very well (or is that just me?). The most powerful tool I can use to fix my bad day/bad mood is to count all my chickens!!!
My heart is working.
I have a cosy bed to sleep in.
I have great friends and family.
I have an education.
I have a roof over my head.
I have food to eat.
If I am ill a doctor will fix me for free.
These are basic, but really important. We simply take these ones for granted. If you think of all the other amazing things in your life, like your job, higher education, your holidays, your clothes, your achievements, your car or the other day when you went and spent 50 quid on a night out because you can, then life is pretty amazing and you should be pretty impressed.
I'm not suggesting that any of these things are a magic wand over your life or that as soon as do them everything will become glossy and perfect like a Disney film. I do think that they key is to actively seek out ways to help your self and take control over what your mind does day to day. This is what changes your life over time and your perception of the world around you!
*all pics are from we heart it *all words are amy's* please don't steal* do go visit her blog though*
