The Perfect Reminder: The Gift of a Good Day
We all have a goal in mind that fuels our wellness journeys. The images of what a good day is dancing around our heads and swirling in our psyche giving us hope to cling to. Unfortunately for me, and I would wager for others who may stumble upon this post, that we often feel like we never reach that goal and get disheartened. Each consistent “bad day” leaves us aching feeling like we get further and further away from the feelings that call from the other side. It took me years to learn, but one day I realized that I was not as far away as I thought. I was so focused on the stents of bad days that I did not see a good day right in front of me. These days were exactly what I was wishing for but they didn’t stay forever. I finally understood that at the end of the day, to wish for a goal that never changes in a world built on change is a goal I was never going to reach anyways. That was a gift that a good day gave me.
In this blog post, as with our others, I’m going to give you a peak into this journey that we are about to undertake together word by word. During this time together I want to explain the steps I use to spot a good day, the power of a few words in retraining your brain to find good days rather than dwell in the bad, and hopefully give you the support you need to make this and any other shifts in your life. I hope to inspire you to keep pushing through your wellness journey or maybe to even start stepping into the present moment and creating a world you want to exist in.
To start, I want to do a quick review on how the brain works. I’ve talked about this in more detail in the blog post “The Golden Task: Building Stronger Habits Week By Week.” Reference that post if you need more detail on this topic. The brain works like a computer. It is a physical organ that uses neurons to process stimuli coming into and out of the body and control every function. Therefore, as with all things in the body, it has limits. Those can be pushed and expanded with practice and repetition but in a moment, it only goes so far. Knowing this is both a blessing and a curse because it requires you to adopt the mindset that our brain is not limitless and cannot transport us to that goal instantaneously. It must first be reprogramed to look for those good days, to adapt the habits to sustain that feeling and bring those into as many moments as possible. Then the program must be ran, looking for bugs and issues before it can be left to run on its own automatically.
So, to start we must first stay present and observe our days mindfully looking at each moment to check for properties of our “good day”. For me, my most recent good day was about a month ago. I took some vacation time from my “day job” to reset and recenter. Most importantly I wanted to spend time with my family. Each day flowed together and by the end of the week I felt like the good days would never end. It wasn’t because nothing went wrong and the universe gave me nirvana in a week. No, it was because everything I learned over the last 6 years came together in perfect flow. The code was working. I was overcoming obstacles at a great rate. I was honoring my feelings and staying very centered from moment to moment. I could see all the hard work manifesting before my eyes. Now this feeling didn’t last forever of course, but it gave me a gift. It reminded me, energized me, and showed me the progress I had been making.
This is the gift!!! I was able to recognize it; I noticed that my tools were letting me overcome obstacles without losing days. Changing of plans didn’t have to leave me spinning. I found beautiful moments of play and productivity and put my energy toward the things I both needed and wanted to do. Once I noticed it, the next biggest step is to put that shift into words. I will say it until I’m blue in the face and my fingers ache from type “WRITE YO S**T DOWN!!!!” Even if it is only 4 words in a note on your phone. Put that feeling, put those activities down. Too much work, just put down a date for you to remember what a “good day” looks like to you. Your brain has so much going on that it cannot remember everything so write it down so you can remind your brain later. Write it down so you can utilize the repetition required to train your brain instead of putting more pressure on it to do it for you. I journaled what felt good and felt right so I can utilize it in the storm to guide me back to my next “good day.”
Writing things down will also help you learn when your idea of a good day shifts so you can tweak your code when bugs arise. For me I learned that though I had 7 good days in a row I pushed myself very hard and when bigger harder obstacles came or shifts in my day-to-day routines re-immerged, I didn’t have enough in the tank and burnt out. It showed me what things were no longer severing and had the ability to knock me off the high so to speak and bring me back to old patterns of being stuck in the funk. I was able to look at things and am now working to implement other shifts, other code to come back to my good day. This feeling is what keeps me going. Knowing my next good day is around the corner and feeling even more confident that I can spot it and stay present within it when it arrives.
So, to conclude this adventure that we went on together I hope that this post finds your wherever you stand and brings to perspective how important it is to honor those “good days”. Because your next one is coming it could be right around the corner. If you’re reading this on your best day ever I hope this encourages you to go a little deeper today. Really enjoy this feeling. Notice all the things that made the day and when it fades, though I hope it never does, notice what brought you out of that perfect space so you can realign and get ready for your next good day. And remember WRITE THAT S**T DOWN!!!” Utilize your repetition, have faith in your process and know you are never alone. We are here to support each other, join any of our social media to meet people just like you today!!!!!!
