Trash days

I had a client tell me an interesting story about how his family sometimes has “trash days.” For them, a “trash day” is a really bad day that they choose to throw out with the trash.

The thing I found most intriguing about this idea was how the family used this tool to transform negative momentum into positive momentum. Sometimes when we experience a string of bad events, it can lower our energy and our moods and manifest even more unwanted circumstances.

Trashing the day and starting over brings you back into the present moment. Here you have some time to reground yourself. You create some space to allow more possibility and better things to flow. Have you ever noticed when a few things are going wrong that they continue to get worse? What we don’t always notice is we can get caught up in complaining about the circumstances and adding negative energy and power to attract more. Especially when we say things like, “What else can happen?” Or “What else can go wrong today?” I don’t know about you, but every time I have asked this, things get worse. One of the hardest habits I’ve had to break is asking these two questions.

Sometimes we don’t get too far into our day before it turns to trash. At this time you may have a day of work or responsibilities to finish before the day is over. We can’t always go straight home and hide under our bed sheets until it’s over, even if we are secretly daydreaming about it. In these instances we can be mindful of our reactions and try some ways to slow the momentum down.

I understand when you have had a day with many unfortunate events taking place, it can be hard to turn it around. You may find yourself dealing with frustration, anger, and disappointment in the incidents. If you can slow down just enough to realize that your reactions add to or take away from the momentum, you can empower yourself to turn it around.

Sometimes the best scenario is to at least slow down your anger and negative feelings. Some circumstances can be a bit out of our control. What we can work on is how we respond. This is one way for the trash day to come in. Realizing that we all have trash days may give you reassurance that it can happen to anyone. Knowing that we can trash it and move on can give us some hope. Especially for a better tomorrow. When you find yourself at the end of a bad day, this is a perfect time to consider trashing it. Take any lessons that could have come with it as wisdom, but by letting it go we take away its power. You don’t want carry that energy into the next day.

Just some ideas to consider. When you notice your day feeling sour, try out a few ways to change the energy or at least your mood. You may need to walk away and give yourself a little fresh air. We may not always be in a situation to implement every idea that calms you, but you can be creative. I had to be creative in a few previous jobs to find a time out option. When I worked as a nurse, the day could get hectic and head south quickly without much warning. I wasn’t always in a position to go walk around the building. What I could do at times was to go to the restroom and lock the door behind me. I would sit down just for a few minutes and take some deep breaths. Just enough to calm me down and let me get some better footing before I returned to the chaos. I really think some of you would be amazed at what little time it can take for a few deep breaths to help you. The important thing is just to do it.

When you let the stress and chaos build up in your life, it can affect your health and your family when you get home. It often spills over somewhere. If I had utilized more of these tools in my nursing days, I would bet I would have held less stress in by body, probably gotten rid of my heartburn quicker, and definitely been less cranky towards my family. Sometimes it’s good to sit in your vehicle for a few minutes before going straight home to center yourself and separate what happened at work so you can be calmer and more present when you get home. In all the years of working, I don’t think anyone taught me this and it would have come in handy in some of the stressful jobs I had. I know many of you out there are working in daily stressful environments.

Whether you are attempting to slow down the momentum in the beginning or middle of the day, know you can use some deep breathing or a relaxing technique that helps you fizzle that energy. Watch something funny online, envision a better scenario, or sit and think of as many things you can be grateful for in that moment. Gratitude can be much more powerful than we often think. When you are at a point to trash the day, it may be the best idea left. Allow the negativity to dissipate. Sometimes holding the intention in your mind that the day is a trash day helps your mind to simply let it go and look forward to better things to come.