Life coach Barrie Davenport, in her blog Live Bold & Bloom, had a recent post about how emotions can sabotage our happiness.  She had some excellent insight into the myriad of reasons why this can happen, but I was surprised to see two of the pieces of advice that I use on days like that, but didn’t realize anyone else knew about.

The first was to take some Advil to help reduce inflammation and pain.  Some days when I’m out of sorts, I run a physical check on myself and ask if I’m just achy and uncomfortable.  If within 30 minutes I’m feeling much better, I know it was the thing I needed.  I tend to debate whether to take the Advil or not, but it does often help.

The second surprising piece of advice is that sometimes nothing helps but the passage of time.  Frequently, I have one really bad day a week and it’s usually on Tuesday, which is coincidentally today.  That is the day I am most likely to be exceessively tired and out of sorts, in despair for everything and feeling that it will never get better.  When my mornings start out that badly, the first thing I ask “Is Today Tuesday?”

Sometimes “Tuesday” comes on Monday, sometimes on Wednesday.  Here’s a post where this happened on a Wednesday.  I’ve had some success improving it.  Besides Advil, my tools eating a small amount of chocolate (seriously, it helps a lot some days) and taking a walk during lunch whether I feel like it or not.  I’ve also paid particular attention to not punishing everyone around me when I feel so bad.  It’s not their fault I’m having a crummy day for no good reason.

Other advice from Barrie includes having a change in scenery.  We used that a lot when our daughter was young and we lived in a house and town that we truly disliked.  By Saturday, we were often ready to fight with each other over stupid things.  I can’t tell you how many times my favorite boy toy packed us up for a forced march walk in the woods.  If nothing else, we came back too tired to fight anymore.  A good night sleep usually recharged all of us for dealing with the stress of our living situation.  When times got better, we moved.

It’s worth going through Barrie’s list and identifying your own hot spots.  Even if your improvement is limited, understanding when emotions are sabotaging you can help in containing a situation.

I do have a box for subscribing to this blog, but for some reason it is appearing at the bottom instead of  in the side bar.  Please scroll down to the bottom if you would like to subscribe.  If you are interested in how others interpret today’s word, check out KittyHere or There, or Anywhere and A New Day Dawns.

Today’s picture is straight from the camera – it was that nasty the day I took it and is how I feel on some Tuesdays.

Word for tomorrow – DROWSY.  If you prefer to work ahead, see the list for the week under “A Word A Day”.

Life Lessons Barrie Davenport emotions postaday2011 sabotaging happiness walking