So you’ve had a bad day?
You’re in a funk, stressed, and the world is just working against you.
The kids are screaming, the laundry’s piled up, you want to disappear.
As you load the dishwasher for the hundredth time today, you notice that it’s quiet…too quiet. That can’t be good.
You head into the bathroom and see your precious cherub completely covered in baby powder. Really!?
This post is sponsored by Rare.us and contains affiliate links
As you’re wiping down the walls, the song “Bad Day”
It’s days like this when you wish you could go back in time and enjoy the freedom of not having kids. But the second you think that the guilt smacks you in the chest.
Arg!! It’s so hard to live with kids, but you can’t imagine life without them. This is motherhood…
Instead of wallowing in the misery of a bad day, here’s 5 really simple and kind of ridiculous ways to turn it around.
Dance Parties
It’s no secret that I love dance parties. I have them all the time with my two boys. We turn on some loud music and start shaking our thing.
It’s fun….but more than that, it’s a natural mood lifter.
Anytime we move our bodies and get our heart rate up, our body releases endorphins that make us happy. Plus, we’re spending fun, quality time with our kids.
An Austrailian study has shown that dancing was actually more effective on stress and anxiety than practicing meditation.
So when you’re feeling funky and down in the dumps, turn on the tunes and start dancing.
I also like to turn on the tunes, grab a rag, and clean while I dance. Here’s a fun playlist full of rockin songs to get you going!
Get Tapping
Ready for a brain game?
When we get stressed and overwhelmed by emotions, our brain immediately starts activating our limbic system. This is the part of our nervous system that controls our emotions.
The problem is that when our brain is highly active in our limbic system, our frontal lobe can’t be activated. And our frontal lobe is the critical thinking part of our brain. So basically, you get so emotional that you literally can’t think straight.
We can’t make good decisions because our brains are flooded with emotion.
One of the best ways to calm down is to force your brain functioning out of the limbic system. This is the only way to start thinking clearly again.
One quick way to do this is tapping. This trick forces your brain to work and pull it’s current functioning out of the limbic system.
Here’s how it’s done
- Tap back and forth with either your hands or feet. You want to make sure that you tap back and forth, right to left, right to left, over and over again. This makes your brain work in both hemispheres so it can’t function in the limbic system anymore.
- As you tap, focus on the back and forth touch. You might even softly whisper to yourself “right, left, right, left” or “back and forth, back and forth”.
- You can hang your arms down and tap the sides of your legs, cross your arms and tap the insides of your arms, or even just walk back and forth while concentrating on your footsteps.
It’s wacky, but it works!
Go For a Drive
There are times throughout my day when I feel completely assaulted by my to-do list. Everywhere I turn, there’s something that’s calling my name.
Laundry on the couch screams “fold me!” Dishes in the sink need to be washed. Don’t even get me started on the rings in my toilet. Then there’s all these emails and messages dinging my phone every 5 freakin minutes.
I NEED TO GET OUT!!
These moments are when I pack up the kids and roll out! We grab a few Hot Wheels
I have a specific route through a really nice wooded part of town without a lot of traffic. I turn on some tunes, roll down the windows, and just enjoy the ride.
Talk about a mood lifter!
Tickle Fight
Once again, when we get our bodies moving we release feel-good endorphins into our system.
What better way to feel great and connect with our kids, than with a good tickle fight?
Sneak up on your kids surprise them with a tickle. Wrestle with them and get your heart rate up.
Your kids will have a blast, and you will too!
Internet Videos
When I don’t feel like moving or can’t get out of the house, I like to head to my computer and search for inspiring videos.
I love how some videos can restore my faith in humanity and show me how awesome life can be.
I’m usually a blubbering mess after a few good ones, like this story of a Mama and her conjoined twins. Talk about tear-jerker!
And seeing awesome parenting moments like this one, just makes my heart swell.
Sometimes getting lost on the internet can do wonders for a bad mood.
Just don’t get stuck there. Too much internet viewing can cause a bad case of the Mom Funk. Stay off the time-suck that is Facebook and instead, head to a site like Rare.us. They have a huge archive of great, feel-good videos. It’s good place to find uplifting content without getting distracted by all the other junk on the internet.
More Posts In This Series
How To Survive a Bad Day When You’re Feeling Funky
How to Survive a Bad Day When Everything’s Going Wrong
How to Survive a Bad Day When You’re Stressed
This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Rare.us. The opinions and text are all mine.
Great tips – I love the tip about tapping! I thought the picture was awesome – I wasn’t sure whether it was part of the bad day (like it was) or whether maybe you went into the kitchen for some wacky baking and giggles to shake off the bad day! Great tips as always – thanks!