There are days when I feel great! Great about the world and the people around me, about myself and what I do, . Days when I’m high on love and gratitude and green juice. When I believe in myself and what I offer. When I feel like I have everything I have ever dreamed of and so much more and the future holds even more magic. When I have oomph in my step and a twinkle in my eye and my heart feels wide open. Anything and everything is possible and being alive is just the best thing ever!
But then there are the other days. Days when I feel tired and sluggish and all I want to do is hide beneath my blankets. Days that things don’t go the way I had planned and I can’t seem to move past them. Days when I feel like a failure, a fake, a flake, a fraud. Days that I stop believing in myself and days that I can’t imagine how I ever believed in myself in the past. When fear takes over and I feel powerless. When I feel stuck and no matter what I try, I can’t seem to do anything but to stare at my feet. When everything feels like a struggle, no matter how hard I try.
These days my great days outnumber my cranky days by far. But in the past it has been the other way around as well, when the blegh days outnumbered the great days. I used to try to think my way out of them. Do positive affirmations. Tell myself to snap out of it alright. I didn’t know why I was feeling that way, on paper everything looked fine. I had no idea what to do and used to think that there wasn’t much I could do but to ride it out.
Over the years I have found out that I don’t need to ride out those blegh days, but that I can actually turn a cranky day into a cracking one. Whenever I’m feeling cranky, it can often be fixed easily by asking myself these 7 questions:
Am I eating properly?
When there’s too much time in between my meals I get cranky. When I’ve eaten too much junk instead of fruit and veggies, I get cranky. The solution is simple: eat. I grab an apple or some crisp-bread with almond butter and bye bye crankiness!
Am I feeling cold?
Sometimes I feel cold without even noticing it, but my mood goes down and everything seems difficult. Depending on how cold I am, wrapping a soft, warm blanket around my shoulders or making myself a cup of ginger infusion makes everything better, including my mood. Sometimes, when I’m feeling really cold, a hot shower is the only thing that helps me feel energetic and upbeat again.
Am I drinking enough?
I’m one of those people who often forgets to drink and ends up getting dehydrated. Our bodies consist for a large part of water, and dehydration makes us feel tired and cranky and less able to focus. The solution is simple: drink plenty of water or herbal tea (not coffee, black tea or sodas, as they don’t do anything to hydrate your body). I normally drink water or a ginger or peppermint infusion, but if I want to get fancy, I make me some liquid sunshine (juice of organic carrots, oranges and ginger) to drive away that crankiness.
Am I moving my body enough?
When I spend too much time sitting behind my laptop, it’s easy to forget that my body needs to move. Doing some yoga, going out for a walk or a run or simply dancing around my living room will stretch my body and make me feel a whole lot better.
Am I being surrounded by clutter?
Experience has taught me that being surrounded by clutter and stuff that I’ve just been too lazy to put away makes me feel overwhelmed and tired and cranky. Now I’m not naturally a tidy person, so sometimes clutter creeps up on me. Clearing away things that can be cleared away and creating sacred space for me to be in helps me feel more centred and connected.
Did I write my Morning Pages?
Morning Pages are my way of mental clutter clearing and when I don’t do them, my mental clutter just creeps up on me. Writing my Morning Pages, even if it’s in the middle of the afternoon, clears my mind and creates space to think again.
Did I get fresh air today?
I love working from home, but if I’m not careful, there are days when I don’t go outside at all. And when I’m cooped up at home for too long, you guessed it, I get cranky. Nothing like going out for a walk, even if it’s just around the block, to clear my head and feel energetic again.
I’ve have these questions as a checklist in my notebook, so that when I’m feeling cranky, I can just go through them and tick them off. Most of the time, this will do the trick and turn my cranky day into a great day.
In the comments below, tell me how you handle your cranky days and what you do to turn them around.