I have those days. I HATE those days. I could eat whole pints of Ben and Jerry's on those days.
To me, it's like whatever it is inside me that makes me who I truly am has taken a vacation without giving any notice. If I was a cartoon, there would be a picture of the inside of my head with one of these:
Unfortunately, I am not a cartoon. There will be no solution presented to me after the break and no happy ending in 30 minutes. There will be no white knight arriving at my door to rescue me from my truly disfunctional day, completely disregarding my severe lack of shower and makeup.All I can do on those days is hope and pray I can keep it together until bedtime and continue to hope and pray that tomorrow, I will be me again.... and probably eat a whole pint of Ben and Jerry's.
But then there are those days when you couldn't be more happy with yourself. Where you can conquer the world. Laundry not only gets cleaned, but folded AND put away! Dishes are done and real-life, healthy meals are made. It's like the sun shines down on you alone and birds sing your praises and everyone is your best friend. And poor Ben and Jerry are eschewed with a firm hand, never to be heard from again.
I have those days. I LOVE those days.
The trouble comes in trying to find where the difference lies. Is it attitude? I don't think it is, because you can try and try to be happy no matter what during an off day and it just doesn't change things. They are different from bad days. Is it some outside influence? I would also have to say no to that. I think it really is just a need for opposition. You can't have the good days without having the bad days. You can't be "on" if you are never "off."
So maybe it's all about embracing those off days, as uncomfortable and frustrating as that may be. Allow yourself to take a break mentally and physically. Try not to focus on how your inner self is probably off lying on a beach in the sun somewhere. Lay down and take a nap with your kids. Read them a book. Read a book for you. Watch some TV and eat some Ben and Jerry's. Let the laundry and the dishes wait. Eat cold cereal for dinner (your children will think you are awesome, I promise). Embrace the off days and maybe they will be fewer and further between and you'll actually have more time to just be yourself.
6 comments:
I also have both kinds of days. It's so frustrating when, no matter how hard you try to just be okay with everything, you get that nagging feeling that nothing is going to be quite finished EVER, even if you can't remember what it is you haven't finished. But it was for those days that pints of ice cream were invented. Fruit is for the days when the squirrels press your pants for you.
hahaha Great!! This is perfect. It's like a light went on in my head. I love it. From now on I'll embrace those days and call them my 'Ben & Jerry's Days'. I'll be more grateful when I wake up and know it's gonna be one of those off days cause I'll say 'Well heck, it's ok... I like Ben & Jerry's Days!!
Also Meg: I love your 'Fruit is for the days when the squirrels press your pants for you.' quote. that's just fantastic!
Thanks Heidi. Although I have to admit that at least part of it was inspired by an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond that I saw a few years ago. Robert said something like, "Why don't you go back to Raymond Land, where the birds sing your name, and the squirrels press your pants for you?" Lin said something about the birds singing your name, and there were squirrels outside my window and . . . yeah. But the application to this situation was all mine. :)
Whenever I have on of those nasty groggy days I always make the mistake of thinking it'll be gone the next day. More often than not it takes me at least a couple positive experiences to back in the swing of things. I flippin' hate those days.
Truthfully, it usually takes a few positive experiences to snap me back into the swing of things as well, but generally the day after an "off" day, I can actually work more on my own attitude towards things. So the trying to be happy thing actually works the next day, not that I necessarily bounce right back into being happy.
Did that make sense?
I have both of those kinds of days. I have the first kind a lot more often--days when no matter what I accomplish, the day feels like a waste. But those days just kind of fade in my memory.
The interesting thing is that the other kinds of days--the ones where I walk around staring at the sky or the trees or the mountains because I can't believe how beautiful they are, and spontaneously create playlists on my iPod because I need certain songs to express how wonderful I feel--even though they happen much less frequently than the other days, those days stick out in my memory, and I can remember them years later. I think it's a nice compromise.
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