We’ve all been there. We excitedly return a friendly wave that actually was not meant for us. A car cuts in front of us on the highway. We accidentally step in a puddle of water in our kitchen while wearing socks. One little annoying or embarrassing thing happens, and the day is ruined. At night as we lay in bed, we think, “Wow, I had a bad day.” But imagine if that one little thing did not happen? Did we still have a bad day? Or, as the quote says, did we milk that one thing until it turned our day sour?
It is far too easy for little things to get in the way of our happiness. Not every day will be perfect, and sometimes the awkward moments that we dwell on are were not as noticeable as we think.
This is definitely a bad habit on my part. I find myself dwelling on one little incident or awkward conversation all day until this one practically insignificant thing makes the day a bad one in my mind. My cheery mood proves to be made of fragile glass as it remains gloomy and broken for the rest of the day. As an overthinker, my mind latches on to the negative and ignores all the good that outweighs it. Even being in a bad mood can spoil what might have been an enjoyable day. That isn’t to say that I cannot have bad days. But the question is whether the day is actually bad or if my perceptions made it so.
We can try our best to avoid things that bring our mood down. The issue is that minor inconveniences happen every single day. If we let it, they will ruin every day of our lives and we will be left with a lifetime of stress due to a small percentage of actually stressful moments. It is how we handle the things that happen to us that matters.
Life is certainly going to have its bad moments. It’s unavoidable. There are definitely some major tragic moments that warrant the time to heal. However, minor inconveniences do not need to take the fun out of the rest of the day. We can move on and hopefully improve our mood and life as a whole. We can brush off these negative thoughts like the annoying flies they are and take our day at face value. Sometimes, it really was just a bad five minutes.
Katelyn, I cannot believe I have not visited this blog yet because the theme is amazing! I love the idea of discussing how you interpret words of wisdom as it is not only interesting to read someone else’s interpretation but it also can add/change one’s own interpretation! For this blog specifically, I agree that small blunders definitely have the ability to warp someone’s perception of their day. It is a very hard habit to try to counter or even change completely, but, if you can achieve it, days most certainly would have a strong streak of happier days! One way I always like to look at it is that what happens in the past, no matter how embarrassing or upseting it is, helps to shape who we are and teach us lessons. Basically, without these small blunders happening we could be an entirely different person even if it is just one small aspect! Great job!
To be honest, this is so true. Why should you let your day go bad due to 5 minutes or even an hour? This is something I have to work on as well, and I have to stop taking things so personally and internalizing them haha. I love the idea of your passion blog by the way. It’s very positive and kind of like therapy, and I love the theme you chose.
I am SO guilty of this. Sometimes I even find myself dwelling on embarrassing things I did a few months ago and letting me ruin my mood. I definitely need to work on not letting it kill my mood. Good post that was a great reminder for me!
This was probably one of my favorite posts I read because I took so much away from this. I resonated, like almost everyone, of letting minor inconveniences ruin my mood for the rest of the day. I like how you expressed that we need to move away from these to try to improve our mood.