Introduce keep-calm touchpoints into your day, by taking time out to stop and press pause
According to Owen O’Kane most of our bad days are caused by an emotional response to an event, rather than the event itself, and if we take simple steps throughout the day to calm our stress response, we’ll feel more in control and less reactive when things don’t go according to plan. ‘These little microinjections can make the most enormous difference,’ he says. ‘Things might still annoy you, but you’ll feel calmer, and more able to understand why you’ve been triggered and how you can get back to a point of stability.’
When you wake up
Instead of rolling out of bed and crash-landing into your day, take a few moments to check where you’re at. O’Kane likens it to getting in your car and doing your safety checks. ‘It’s a vital part of setting out on your day.’
● Ask yourself, where am I today? How am I feeling physically and emotionally? Once you have a sense of where you are, you can think about what you can do to make your day better or more manageable. You’re not trying to fix your problems or engage with your thoughts; you’re simply scanning your mind and body to see what’s going on. This helicopter view will you give you masses of information about yourself that you might not have noticed if you’d got up and gone straight into sorting out the kids, making breakfast, checking your emails, or scrolling the news. If you’re feeling overloaded, you have the chance to look at your diary and see if you can take something out or ask for support. If you’re feeling low, you could send a message to a friend to see if they ’re free for a coffee or a chat, which will make you feel better.
● Set an intention for the day.
With your eyes closed, set yourself up to three intentions for the day ahead. Gear your intentions towards what matters to you and makes you feel genuinely happy and at peace, rather than materialistic desires.
● Think of three aspects of your life that you feel grateful for. When we step into gratitude mode, our brain will naturally start to produce more feelgood chemicals, and it will improve your mood and reduce anxiety quickly.
Early afternoon
It’s time to reassess, says O’Kane. ‘By lunchtime, someone will have annoyed you – maybe they pulled out in their car, turned up late for a meeting, or wound you up with an email or comment.’ Understand why you’ve been triggered and what that’s about, and how you can get back to a point of stability. ‘Things don’t generally turn out as we expect, and we need to try to work with life as it is, rather than what we think it should be. A bad day can be transformed instantly if we pause to review it.’
● Go for a walk. It’s easy to fall into the trap of keeping going until you’re exhausted, but if you take regular
