Grey Skies Are Gunna Clear Up

Ever have one of “those” days? A day where you feel off or weird or uncomfortable in your own skin? It could be anything in your life that makes you feel this way. A bad day at work. I recent break up. Two pounds on the scale. A rainy/gloomy day. Even something like a bad dream the night before can set the tone for a bad day. I don’t get them often, but when I do, they kick my ass and make me feel like crap.

Because I don’t get days like this very often, I always forget how to deal with them. I do my best not to let it affect me, but that’s easier said than done. I talked to a friend of mine and asked her how she deals with “her feelings” (something most guys don’t know how to do too well) and she told me she plays “the glad game”. She writes down a list of things she’s glad for and puts it in her pocket and takes it out and reads over it when she’s feeling down throughout the day.

I won’t lie, it took A LOT of power for me not to laugh out loud at this. I felt really bad, but to me this seemed really really dumb! Then I thought about it for a second and remembered an article I wrote a few months ago about being cranky and to quote myself I wrote “I learned something through this little stint of being cranky… If you’re cranky or stressed or not feeling like yourself, sit down, take a breather and make a list. Once your list is compiled, go through it and see what’s important and what isn’t.” Hmmm… I guess the “glad game” isn’t as stupid as I thought it was. It’s not quite the same thing but I figured I’d give it a try (although I’ll never call it the “glad game”).

So here’s a list of a few things that are going good in my life right now:

1. Coco. She’s the best dog in the world and is always there through thick and thin!
2. My family. Although I don’t get to see them that often, they’re great and support me in everything I do.
3. My friends. Again, the support I get from them is great! They’ve had my back over the past month when I needed them.
4. This site! It’s become something I never in a million years would have imagined it would. With an average of 100 hits a day (may not seem much to some, but it means a lot to me) and almost 800 followers on Twitter, I’ve been able to reach out to others around the world and have people reach out to me. It’s a great feeling to hear the words “you’re an inspiration” from a complete stranger. It’s comments like that that make me keep doing what I’m doing.
5. I RAN 5 KM LAST WEEK!!!! Sorry for the CAPS but if you read the site or my Twitter or my Facebook regularly, you’ll know the struggles I’ve been having with running lately. I wasn’t getting past 2-3km and it was really really pissing me off! But, Friday morning I went running with my friend (the same friend who told me about the “glad game”) and she pushed me much harder than I could ever push myself. Halfway through our run she even got me to do sprinting intervals between light polls, up a hill. I would have given up several times but she kept urging me on and we got in 5km!!! (she actually ran 2.5 km to my house and then did another 5 km after our 5 km, she’s a running machine!). I’m super proud of my 5km and I’m going to try and do it again on, my own.

I’m going to stop my list right there because I feel like I could get up to 100. I’m not sure how much this helped me at all right now, but it does feel good to get some things down and to re-read them. I will never call this the “glad game” but if I do get in a funk again, I’ll be sure to write down what I’m glad for.

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