We all have these days where nothing seems to go right.
We get out of bed and bump our toe. We make a cup of coffee, but you end up with something that looks like tea and does not even resemble the taste of coffee because the filter folded in your machine. You get to work. Late of course, because there was a never ending traffic jam. Therefor our boss is upset with us because we didn't give them a call. (Driving and calling? Nope)
That co-worker seems extra snotty today and we are in a horrible mood by afternoon.
Everybody would have experienced the above or at least their own version of it.
And those days can feel like heavens especially selected us to be picked on that day. If we do not shift our minds it is just a big spiral downward from there.
Luckily for me it doesn't happen that much anymore. But today I caught myself thinking. 'O my god, these customers are hags and trolls. It's going to be a day like that.'
But then I stopped. I listened to myself picking up the phone and realize that my voice wasn't quite as cheerful and light as it usually is.
It would make sense that customers would react to that way of introducing myself. The first thing I did was to make myself smile and adjust my voice back to light and cheerful.
By changing my tone, I started to change my day.
I had to deal with a few more difficult customers but showed tons of empathy, patience and willingness to help.
By afternoon my day had turned around and I no longer felt the need to press my mute button and let out all of sorts creative swearings that do happen on a customer service workfloor.
Sidenote: please be patient with friendly customer service people that do their jobs and actually want to help.
But how did I turn my day around exactly? I realized that being moody was just not going to cut it and decided to shift my mind to focusing on the good stuff.
Here's a few things that may help.
Start out your day positive
I am not exactly a peach in the morning. I need to have time to wake up properly.
I like to start out my day with a morning uplift from The honest guys. They make beautiful visualisations on youtube and I just love listening to them!
It will only take about 5 minutes and you will feel so much better. This I promise you.
You may also want to set some intentions for your day and focus on those.
You could write them down on little post it notes and look at them once in a while.
Keep in mind that intentions are not the same as your to do-list. Whilst your to-do list may be the important things that you need to get done, an intention is more of a statement.
An example of one of my intentions:
I practice random acts of kindness everyday.
Practice little moments of mindfulness
I wrote about mindfulness before. It just helps to plan in little mini breaks and see how you are feeling at this particular moment. Rushing through the day is not going to do you and people around you any good. By taking that mini break and really listen to myself I found that my tone of voice needed a change.
On my next mini break I found that I was probably too impatient and refocused on showing more of that. Instead of spiraling down, my day went up from there.
Acceptance
A big key in mindfulness is acceptance. Sometimes you just need to accept the present moment and deal with it with more awareness. Make it a thing. It's essential if you want to know how to shift your mind into focusing on the good stuff!
Realize that there's 99% of how you react to things that can make all the change. Your attitude towards it is key. You will not be able to control that traffic jam, but when you get frustrated you are only losing precious energy. Maybe put on nice music, or use the time to come up with new, creative ideas.
Put your qualities to work
Do you realize that you have your own amazing and unique skill set of qualities?
Why not use them to shift your day? Today my customers clearly needed some extra patience, empathy and friendly help.
I know that all of those I am able to do and I can make somebody's day better.
Well hopefully, because it is entirely upto them if their day goes uphill from there.
But I know that I tried my best to do my part.
Keep a victory log
We simply do not give ourselves enough credit, do we?
Day in, day out we just try our very best to be good people.
Why not challenge yourself to write down as many victories as you possibly could?
Your victories might be different to mine. But I like to take my whole life on board and just write down what I'm proud of really.
For today mine are:
-I became aware of my voice, and changed my day.
-I had a healthy lunch salad.
-I did a kind thing for a coworker. Well, maybe a couple of kind things
-I made it my intention to do my conversations with care and effeciency, and it worked!
-I am writing this blog and being so much more consistent.
-I stuck to my coffee limit. (oh yes, it is a challenge!)
Count your blessings
At the end of the day I like to think about the things I feel grateful for. I do this before going to bed. I think about things that went well that day, compliments I received, and I can feel a deep amount of gratitude for the things I have. Even the things that many of us would count as most basic. I have a roof over my head, I get to take a warm shower, we have food in the house.
So there you go!
A how to shift your mind to focusing on the good stuff guide for you.
What do you find that helps getting you into a positive mind set?
Love and blessings,
Rainbow