Turn that frown upside down

You rolled out of bed this morning and could just feel it. Gray skies, sleeping 20 minutes past your alarm and nothing to eat for breakfast: the day is going to be bad. According to Nancy Stockton, director of Counseling and Psychological Services, around 20 to 25 percent of students experiencing anxiety report waking up feeling their day will be awful.

One might call this feeling intuition, but a rational explanation usually exists. Cathlene Hardy Hansen, director of Health and Wellness Education at the IU Health Center, and her staff said sleep deprivation, hormonal cycles, stress, and a poor diet can contribute to waking up with negative predictions about the day.

Though feeling a day is going to be bad does not mean anything, it can affect our attitude, performance, and productivity. The good news is this cycle of negativity can be broken. After all, if our mind has enough power to convince us the day is going to be bad, it also has enough power to convince us the day will be good, or at least more bearable and productive.

Here are some ways to turn a bad day around:

Make your bed. Your mom has been telling you to do it since you were four, but now leaving the sheets rumpled seems logical. As soon as class gets out you climb back in anyway. But Cathlene says, “Organizing externally helps you organize internally.” Feeling like the day is going to be bad might prevent you from being productive, but starting with something small like making your bed will give you a jump-start.

Center yourself. Practices such as prayer, mediation and deep breathing are gaining ground as viable psychological treatment options. CAPS offers Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction as a clinical service, which aims to increase attention and awareness. Cognitive Control Lab postdoctoral research assistant Anand Ramamoorthy says an example of a centering exercise is to close your eyes and pick five sounds out of your environment to focus on one at a time.

Share a laugh. “Try to be around happy people,” Health Educator for Smoking Cessation Azar Nikravesh says. “Avoid places, situations or people that make you sad.” Popular science has been telling us for years that laughter is contagious, but test it yourself. Grab a group of friends and a silly BuzzFeed video to see how long you can last without at least cracking a smile.

Face your fears. Anand and Azar agree: acknowledge your problem and face it head-on. “What is the worst thing that can happen?” Azar says. “Face that, and then say OK.” An ignored problem will not disappear by itself. “A longer term solution to an intense negative perception is to process going through it and not going around it,” Anand says. Acknowledge you feel bad —then move on.

Find the fun. Registered dietitian Katie Shepherd says, “Make sure to plan something that you enjoy or that is fun, even if it is for 15 minutes.”
Katie says she sets aside time to read for pleasure. Having something to look forward to later in your day will give you a welcome break from dealing with problems that arise and help refresh your mood.