Hard days.

You know them.

You have them.

You might feel like you've had too many in a row recently....

I prefer to use the word 'hard' rather than 'bad' day as even hard days aren't all bad. We are taught resilience on our toughest days (think back on what you have already been through yet you're still standing!) and often something good comes out of them - appreciation, a lesson, a new way to do things.

So what to do on these harder days?

First of all, how do they come about?

- Well they can hit us out of nowhere. We can be sailing along and wham, everything is harder because well, it just is. We can blame hormones, circumstance, the full moon or maybe it was just something that needed to shift and come out.

- Something may have gone wrong, a spanner in the works so to speak which has resulted in the 'domino effect', where everything just seems to collapse around us.

- Maybe we have been having many hard days in a row and are in fact 'stuck in a hard rut' due to life circumstances. Have you noticed that when you are in the habit of vibrating at a certain level, you keep attracting those same things and feelings towards yourself?

- Maybe we need the hard days to appreciate the better ones?

However often they hit you, they will remain a part of life and how we deal with them makes all the difference.

Hard days don't mean you have a hard life. They mean you have a normal one.

  

Let's have a look at what can cause them and some proactive ways in which we can bounce back. 

Sleep

Everything is harder on less sleep!

Get more of it! I can hear the excuses rolling in already...I know, I know! I have the same excuses but if I get honest with myself, I know I could help myself more in this area. Get to bed EARLIER. Just do it. Then all the nightly interruptions or early morning starts will be less of a pain as sometimes just 1 hour more is all we need to help us. If you are a stay at home mum or work from home (or both!!) sleep when your kids are asleep! Just get that nap in! All the 'but I have to do this and I should do that' dialogue is pointless. All that stuff is not worth it when you are sleep deprived. If napping during the day is not an option - schedule your 'get to bed' time in and stick to it! Just catch up on your sleep when you can. For more sleep tips, please read my Sleep Blog.

Negative Thoughts

Daily Affirmations.

We can literally turn anything around via our internal and external dialogue. Words and thoughts have so much power. We attract what we think so when things get harder and we dwell on it, that is where we will stay. It's all very well to know this outside of a hard day but very hard to see when we are in one so practicing better dialogue and positive thoughts every day will help so much.

Write yourself a little affirmation on a piece of card or paper that you know will help YOU with your particular 'stuff'. Every day, wake up and read that affirmation out loud. I now use my Note To Self Cards as my daily affirmation and I love closing my eyes and thinking about what I need to see each day as I shuffle and pull my card. Vision boards are another great tool and can help so much.

 Foggy Thinking

Water and Good Food.

Sometimes we make bad decisions that can make our day harder. This is going to happen. If you had all the answers right now, what would you need life for? However, sometimes a decision is made by a foggy and not clear thinking brain. You may be dehydrated! Drink lots of water. Add a squeeze of lemon or a capful of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of himalayan sea salt if water tends to go right through you. You may need these elements to absorb the water into your cells.

Every cell in your body is kept nice and plump and talking to your other cells by adequate amounts of water - your body is made of the stuff! Drink up! We are also affected by the food we put in our body. Some people will have a foggy head after sugar, gluten or starchy carbs. Putting the right food and enough water into your body will result in many less hard days. The mind-gut connection is powerful! 

Disaster Strikes

Support.

Sometimes, through no fault of our own, something will happen that will affect how you carry on. Worldwide pandemics, bad news from a relative, a sick child, an upset friend, a fight with your partner, a job loss, a health scare - you name it. Dealing with these blows in a healthy way will help you lessen the amount of hard days you need to have in a row. I can not stress enough that you really can't shovel this stuff under the carpet in the hope to deal with it later. Later, you will find another excuse to not deal with it and so on and so forth. This can have a snowball affect.

You may find that everything starts to go wrong and you are really not dealing with anything very well. That is because there is a subconscious block affecting what you are attracting and feeling. My advice? Have someone on speed dial that you can talk to about what has gone wrong and do it as soon as time permits. Whether it's to a friend or a professional, just talk it out. There may be no answers just now, but verbalising and talking it through with someone will clear it enough to deal with in a healthier manner. The black cloud lurking over your brain will not be as heavy. Trust me.

If you are really struggling, I really urge you to reach out to an organisation that will point you in the right direction and offer you professional help. For Australians reading this blog, please go to this link HERE which provides you with all our Mental Health Hotlines.

Pleasure

Feel good activities.

Your day may have gone totally pear shaped and you just want to crawl into a hole and hide or perhaps you start to engage in self-sabotage behaviour because all you can think about is staying with this icky feeling. Self sabotage behaviour is normal and common on hard days and could mean eating things you know you shouldn't, drinking, seeking company of those who may understand but also may perpetuate the ickiness as they are comfortable there too. You know what I mean?

I think it's a good idea to turn to serotonin-boosting by doing something that gives us REAL pleasure. An activity that makes you feel good at the time AS WELL as after. Sit down and read a novel, watch a funny movie, exercise (one of the best tips as you also get an endorphin rush as well as serotonin boost), meditate, take a nap, sit with yourself in stillness in a spot you love, get out into nature and feel that natural serotonin boost come through, do your hobby, listen to some uplifting music. Just take the time to do something that gives you pleasure. Your day might still be pear shaped but you will deal with it better.

Emotional Checking-In

Flower Essences.

My Flower Essence Blends and Flower Essence Mists are wonderful for the times that take you by surprise or the times that you just have nothing in the tank to think clearly or feel properly. It is great to have something on hand to help nudge you in a better direction or be on daily to keep shifting those emotions and heavier energies through.  Keep them in your bag or somewhere handy while at home and think of them straight away when you need that extra help. It can be as easy as closing your eyes, popping 7 drops under your tongue and giving yourself a minute to breathe and release.

 My favourite Blends and Mists for hard days are:

Help Blend - for shock, grief, anxiety

Slow Down Blend - for feeling overwhelmed, pushed and pulled into too many directions, spinning head, scattered thoughts

Energy Blend - for that nothing in the tank feeling, no motivation, no enthusiasm, I just need a rocket under my butt kinda feeling ;)

Self Love - for second guessing yourself, for negative thoughts about how you look and act and heading into a negative pity party for one

I have made up a discounted pack containing these 4 popular blends called the 'Looking After Yourself Pack'. 

Other Flower Essence Blends to look at when feeling at odds with the world or having a hard day are: 

Manifest, Protect, Courage, Grounding, Bliss and Peace and you can find all the single blends (including the four I mention above) at this link HERE and make up your own discounted pack.

And if you'd like to look at the Flower Essence Mists to help change the feel of your house, personal energy field, office, car etc. please check those out HERE

Well I hope you have some ideas on how to tackle and lessen those hard days that are, no matter what, inevitable and that we can always do the things that help us turn them around.

But more importantly, I hope you know how NORMAL it is to feel completely shit some days and that's ok and part of being human. Let it all out and do what you need to do.

Yours in health,

Alisha x

Hard days.

You know them.

You have them.

You might feel like you've had too many in a row recently....

I prefer to use the word 'hard' rather than 'bad' day as even hard days aren't all bad. We are taught resilience on our toughest days (think back on what you have already been through yet you're still standing!) and often something good comes out of them - appreciation, a lesson, a new way to do things.

So what to do on these harder days?

First of all, how do they come about?

- Well they can hit us out of nowhere. We can be sailing along and wham, everything is harder because well, it just is. We can blame hormones, circumstance, the full moon or maybe it was just something that needed to shift and come out.

- Something may have gone wrong, a spanner in the works so to speak which has resulted in the 'domino effect', where everything just seems to collapse around us.

- Maybe we have been having many hard days in a row and are in fact 'stuck in a hard rut' due to life circumstances. Have you noticed that when you are in the habit of vibrating at a certain level, you keep attracting those same things and feelings towards yourself?

- Maybe we need the hard days to appreciate the better ones?

However often they hit you, they will remain a part of life and how we deal with them makes all the difference.

Hard days don't mean you have a hard life. They mean you have a normal one.

  

Let's have a look at what can cause them and some proactive ways in which we can bounce back. 

Sleep

Everything is harder on less sleep!

Get more of it! I can hear the excuses rolling in already...I know, I know! I have the same excuses but if I get honest with myself, I know I could help myself more in this area. Get to bed EARLIER. Just do it. Then all the nightly interruptions or early morning starts will be less of a pain as sometimes just 1 hour more is all we need to help us. If you are a stay at home mum or work from home (or both!!) sleep when your kids are asleep! Just get that nap in! All the 'but I have to do this and I should do that' dialogue is pointless. All that stuff is not worth it when you are sleep deprived. If napping during the day is not an option - schedule your 'get to bed' time in and stick to it! Just catch up on your sleep when you can. For more sleep tips, please read my Sleep Blog.

Negative Thoughts

Daily Affirmations.

We can literally turn anything around via our internal and external dialogue. Words and thoughts have so much power. We attract what we think so when things get harder and we dwell on it, that is where we will stay. It's all very well to know this outside of a hard day but very hard to see when we are in one so practicing better dialogue and positive thoughts every day will help so much.

Write yourself a little affirmation on a piece of card or paper that you know will help YOU with your particular 'stuff'. Every day, wake up and read that affirmation out loud. I now use my Note To Self Cards as my daily affirmation and I love closing my eyes and thinking about what I need to see each day as I shuffle and pull my card. Vision boards are another great tool and can help so much.

 Foggy Thinking

Water and Good Food.

Sometimes we make bad decisions that can make our day harder. This is going to happen. If you had all the answers right now, what would you need life for? However, sometimes a decision is made by a foggy and not clear thinking brain. You may be dehydrated! Drink lots of water. Add a squeeze of lemon or a capful of apple cider vinegar and a pinch of himalayan sea salt if water tends to go right through you. You may need these elements to absorb the water into your cells.

Every cell in your body is kept nice and plump and talking to your other cells by adequate amounts of water - your body is made of the stuff! Drink up! We are also affected by the food we put in our body. Some people will have a foggy head after sugar, gluten or starchy carbs. Putting the right food and enough water into your body will result in many less hard days. The mind-gut connection is powerful! 

Disaster Strikes

Support.

Sometimes, through no fault of our own, something will happen that will affect how you carry on. Worldwide pandemics, bad news from a relative, a sick child, an upset friend, a fight with your partner, a job loss, a health scare - you name it. Dealing with these blows in a healthy way will help you lessen the amount of hard days you need to have in a row. I can not stress enough that you really can't shovel this stuff under the carpet in the hope to deal with it later. Later, you will find another excuse to not deal with it and so on and so forth. This can have a snowball affect.

You may find that everything starts to go wrong and you are really not dealing with anything very well. That is because there is a subconscious block affecting what you are attracting and feeling. My advice? Have someone on speed dial that you can talk to about what has gone wrong and do it as soon as time permits. Whether it's to a friend or a professional, just talk it out. There may be no answers just now, but verbalising and talking it through with someone will clear it enough to deal with in a healthier manner. The black cloud lurking over your brain will not be as heavy. Trust me.

If you are really struggling, I really urge you to reach out to an organisation that will point you in the right direction and offer you professional help. For Australians reading this blog, please go to this link HERE which provides you with all our Mental Health Hotlines.

Pleasure

Feel good activities.

Your day may have gone totally pear shaped and you just want to crawl into a hole and hide or perhaps you start to engage in self-sabotage behaviour because all you can think about is staying with this icky feeling. Self sabotage behaviour is normal and common on hard days and could mean eating things you know you shouldn't, drinking, seeking company of those who may understand but also may perpetuate the ickiness as they are comfortable there too. You know what I mean?

I think it's a good idea to turn to serotonin-boosting by doing something that gives us REAL pleasure. An activity that makes you feel good at the time AS WELL as after. Sit down and read a novel, watch a funny movie, exercise (one of the best tips as you also get an endorphin rush as well as serotonin boost), meditate, take a nap, sit with yourself in stillness in a spot you love, get out into nature and feel that natural serotonin boost come through, do your hobby, listen to some uplifting music. Just take the time to do something that gives you pleasure. Your day might still be pear shaped but you will deal with it better.

Emotional Checking-In

Flower Essences.

My Flower Essence Blends and Flower Essence Mists are wonderful for the times that take you by surprise or the times that you just have nothing in the tank to think clearly or feel properly. It is great to have something on hand to help nudge you in a better direction or be on daily to keep shifting those emotions and heavier energies through.  Keep them in your bag or somewhere handy while at home and think of them straight away when you need that extra help. It can be as easy as closing your eyes, popping 7 drops under your tongue and giving yourself a minute to breathe and release.

 My favourite Blends and Mists for hard days are:

Help Blend - for shock, grief, anxiety

Slow Down Blend - for feeling overwhelmed, pushed and pulled into too many directions, spinning head, scattered thoughts

Energy Blend - for that nothing in the tank feeling, no motivation, no enthusiasm, I just need a rocket under my butt kinda feeling ;)

Self Love - for second guessing yourself, for negative thoughts about how you look and act and heading into a negative pity party for one

I have made up a discounted pack containing these 4 popular blends called the 'Looking After Yourself Pack'. 

Other Flower Essence Blends to look at when feeling at odds with the world or having a hard day are: 

Manifest, Protect, Courage, Grounding, Bliss and Peace and you can find all the single blends (including the four I mention above) at this link HERE and make up your own discounted pack.

And if you'd like to look at the Flower Essence Mists to help change the feel of your house, personal energy field, office, car etc. please check those out HERE

Well I hope you have some ideas on how to tackle and lessen those hard days that are, no matter what, inevitable and that we can always do the things that help us turn them around.

But more importantly, I hope you know how NORMAL it is to feel completely shit some days and that's ok and part of being human. Let it all out and do what you need to do.

Yours in health,

Alisha x