Yesterday was a bad day, and so was the day before. I think even the day before that was a bad day too. I like college but I miss my home, my family, and having the freedom of driving wherever I want. This is not about my problems or feelings though. If you clicked on this piece, it probably means you feel this way too and that is completely okay. Bad days aren’t the best and right now, I feel pretty down. But I know that better days are coming.
This is what helped me today:
Hope
I know that this will pass. By the time I read this on the website, it will be something so small and maybe I’ll even laugh about it come a week from now. I call my mom and tell her about how I feel, I told her what’s wrong in between sniffling from the tears rolling down my cheek. She reassures me that things will get better and she apologizes for the pain I’m feeling. I’m sorry you feel this way at the moment too. There’s one thing that my mom is a star at: inspiring me to have hope that this is just another bad day amongst amazing ones throughout the week.
Distraction
Although I’m not home so I can’t go out on the golf course to get my mind off of things like I would love to do(also there’s like 3 feet of snow covering the ground in Upstate NY at the moment), I have my own space in my dorm. I have my art supplies which my parents so kindly shipped to me and my journal which is where I write all of my most pressing thoughts. I’ve found that distracting myself by doing something like writing or painting keeps me from thinking about everything that kept me down earlier today.
Moving Along
I found myself asking why the things that made today bad happened, and furthermore if they impact me in four different ways: socially (will my friends remain my friends after this?), mentally (how do I see myself after this?), physically (does this make me feel sick or a certain type of way), and professionally (does this affect my academics or future career?) I like to evaluate the situation in a way that keeps me remembering that this bad day is just one day and the little things that made it bad aren’t permanent.
Affirmation
In a way similar to moving along, affirmations, for me, are ways that help me really believe that what happened seriously is not that big of a deal and the bad day isn’t forever. I’m a big overthinker so this one is really important for me when I let the little things that hurt me throughout the day get into my head. Here are my affirmations: “Once today is over, I never have to live it again.” “I have learned from what happened today and it made me a stronger person.” “I love myself and even if I made mistakes, I am amazing in my own way.” Little things like that make a big difference and they help me to have some closure about my surroundings.