6 Pick-Me-Uppers You Can Do By Yourself on a Bad, Miserable (& Lonely) Day

Okay, so the day didn’t start so good. You burned the toast and spilled the coffee on your shirt. Then someone was rude to you ‘cuz they didn’t like your comment; and you got cut-off in the middle of an intersection; and you got a bill with a late fee you didn’t expect. Seeing red ’bout now.  You get the picture. To make matters worse, you are by yourself and the walls seem to be closing in on you.

What to do?

Glad you asked. There are a few things you can do to help yourself into a better or  good mood. Here are a few mood-elevators that work for me. Maybe they will work for you.

1. Light a candle(s) or Scensi – Enjoy the scent as it wends its way through the room and beyond. Delight in its soft glow and warm energy while it graces and refreshes your inner person. Allow yourself to relax from head to toe. Stretch and sigh. Close your eyes. With intention, turn your thinking mechanism toward nobler, kinder, life-enriching expressions that are positive in nature.
2. Read a favorite book – Most of us have a favorite author and book. Dust it off, reread those sections that speak to your soul. While you’re at it, remember back to the first time you read it and the thoughts that spoke to you of love or adventure, human strengths of courage and bravery or sacrifice and goodness. Let yourself be taken away to that delightful place of rediscovery. Immerse yourself in the book’s language and absorb its truth, the message you find refined like gold between its pages.
3. Play music that inspires you – If you need to lift yourself out of a cranky mood, put on some lively tunes and let yourself sing or dance to your heart’s content. If you’re in a quieter, reflective mood, revisit a few old-school crooners or rock ′n roll legends with their lovely music scores and tender love songs. These can mellow and sweeten you in a place that will take you back to yesteryear. Gospel can be quite uplifting and joyous. Band, symphony and movie scores are wonderful too. We have a fondness for music that speaks to us.
   
4. Put together a jigsaw puzzle – Buy a new puzzle if you want. It will be more fun. The puzzle in the picture cost $10 at Kmart. My goodness, you can have music playing, candles burning, popcorn or chips and salsa (or ice cream) and have a nice little solo party while you put a challenging puzzle together. I did the 1,000 piece puzzle in the photo this summer and loved finding and matching every individual tiny bit of puzzle color.
5. Watch a movie from a genre you love with an actor you adore – Be it western or romance, war or adventure, comedy or a musical, a movie you love, love, love will be a day-brightener and mood-lifter. Certain actors with talents we appreciate make the screen come alive. Watching a well-liked movie has the power to change our mood in an amazing way. A great movie is timeless and entertaining. It offers us solace and retreat when we truly need it, and it gets better each time we view it. We wait in anticipation for those well-known lines and music scores.
6. Go for a walk, exercise, or take a drive in scenic country – Here are MY all-time favorites. I love nature walks no matter where they are located. A bad mood is quickly chased away after about ten minutes of walking or viewing. Nature has a way of calling to me. A sunrise or sunset can transport us in another direction as it give to us an almost other-worldly sense of awe. Even the stars on a moonlit night far from city lights causes a remarkable soothing within our inner person. A hike on a trail where we notice the blackberries and moths, butterflies and ladybugs, is a delight that sings to our insides and has the power to bring generous spurts of joy.

Well, of course, there are many more than the ones I’ve listed. Maybe you cook or garden, sew or crochet, make or build things. Most of us, other than the most phlegmatic and even of temperaments, will have a few or many bad days that make us sad or miserable whether caused by others’ actions, hurtful situations, or utter loneliness. Part of the human experience means we will have bad days and difficult situations. It’s a given.

There are times we are lonely and feel left out of life–when the phone doesn’t ring, a text isn’t answered, the friendship has ended, or we are struggling with a loss of some kind; loss of a job, relationship, finances, home, or failing health has caused a bleakness to grow in our spirit. We may go to our friends for support. We talk and talk, cut loose the anger, harbor the bad feelings, or we self-indulge, overeat, over-drink, shop ’till we drop or whatever rocks our boat that we do to make ourselves feel better. Moods are a bear. Some solutions we choose to mediate our moods can be damaging and destructive to our health and well-being and some are not wise. Other better choices are both wise and good for us.

It is helpful at times to be alone with ourselves and allow peace to come in to refresh our souls. We may read Scripture, pray and meditate or journal, write prose or poetry. There are many ways an individual can recoup and draw strength to meet the down mood head-on as an active solution to help chase it away.

What can you add to this list?

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