No Good, Very Bad Days

Written By Our Nurse Practitioner, Jen Owen

Earlier this week, I had a bad day. I woke up in a funk and it was downhill from there. It reminded me of one of my favorite children’s books, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst. Do you know that one?

The main character, a young boy named, Alexander, wakes up on the wrong side of the bed. From that point on, he decides it is going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. He finds evidence of this everywhere he goes and in every interaction. He decides that the only way out is to go to Australia.

It truly wasn’t a good day. He even voiced his concerns to his family and they ignored him. After many negative things happened, it was finally time for bed. As Alexander reflects on his terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, he states, “Mom says some days are like that….even in Australia”.

Can you relate? It seems like a lot of people are having terrible, horrible, no good, very bad days these days. 

Your day starts out lowsy. Then, you’re only paying attention to the negative things that are happening. Your instinct is to flee (read more about fleeing here). You can’t go to Australia, so you go to your phone, social media. tv, food, alcohol, etc.

You go to bed grumpy.

As you wake up the next day, you have choices…you could have another bad day, you could book a flight to Australia, or you can remember that some days are like that and choose to try to have a better day. 

I know it’s not always that simple and yet oftentimes, it’s simply a choice. 

It’s like this with health goals as well. You start out strong with listening to your body, eating food that helps you feel nourished, moving your body in ways that feel invigorating, cutting out things that cause you to feel depleted. You do great for a few days and then something happens and you lose your momentum. You don’t do all the things that support your well-being and then you flee.

You give up on all of it. You quit. You go back to the old way of doing things.

Then, later, you have to do it all again.

Sound familiar?

What if, when you have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, you wake up the next morning, forgive yourself, and just go right back to the supportive stuff?

You don’t have to give it all up because you went off track for one day. You can pick up right where you left off.

There will always be days like this…..even in Australia.