5 Foolproof Tips To Turn Your Morning Around If You Wake Up In A Bad Mood

We’ve all woken up on the wrong side of the bed before — shit happens! Whether your day was tainted by screaming kids in lieu of an alarm clock or just an onslaught of negative thoughts first thing, bad mornings happen all the time. The trick is to know how to turn your day around quickly and before it really starts to spiral. 

While there will never be a one-size-fits-all cure for bad mornings, there are a myriad of different tactics to help you seize the day when you feel like the day has been seized from you.

arrow

Start your day with gratitude

I swear that gratitude is the universe’s secret weapon. Practicing gratitude will help you in almost every aspect of your life. Practicing gratitude can be a team project with you and your partner. Exchanging gratitude with each other will strengthen your relationship and also release a ton of dopamine. If you wake up and negative thoughts are clouding your mind, maybe look to your partner and ask if you can both affirm something in each other. By expressing gratitude for someone else, it also helps you get out of your head and into the posture of helping which will also aid your morning. 

Most bad mornings can become worse if your mind is focused on negative aspects of life. While reality sometimes isn’t all beautiful and easy, adding in gratitude to your morning habits will help you begin to see the positive aspects of life rather than the negatives. 

Gratitude comes in every shape and form. You can verbally affirm yourself, God, your partner, or whatever might be around you. You can also do it privately by making a gratitude journal or a log of your day. You can save the positive thoughts for a rainy day and write things you’re grateful for on pieces of paper and bring them out when you’re having another bad day. Whatever you choose, gratitude often removes you from the center of your thoughts and puts the focus on other better things.


Work out!

Sweating is my answer to anything. If you are ever too in your head or the world is too much for you at the moment, try a quick cardio fix. I like to start my days with yoga and a walk. The mind-body awareness paired with the stretches that come from yoga helps my muscles and my headspace. When I walk outside I’m emerged in natural sunlight and surrounded by greenery and other people. That gets me out of my little cocoon and into the real world. 

You don’t need to do an hour-long workout either. I usually do exercises in 15-20 minute increments so I can stop and start whenever I want. Choose a workout that you’ll enjoy every day and get to it when you feel like your life is a little too hectic. On days I’m angry, I find a good kickboxing workout and punch imaginary people. On days when I have more energy than anything, I’ll put on a Broadway dance workout and ~express~ myself.


Restart the day

My friend taught me this trick. Some days everything seems to go wrong in the world. You woke up late or forgot something. Your hair is not cooperating with you or you burnt your toast. Whatever it is, maybe think of restarting the day. This is a mental and possibly physical reset. Put your pajamas back on and get in bed. Close your eyes for about five minutes or take a real nap. When you wake up, treat it like you’re starting a whole new day! 

While this trick might not work seamlessly on busy mornings, you can do elements of it anytime you feel it might benefit you. Maybe just take a quick shower or change your clothes. Small things that might trigger your mentality to make you think you’re restarting the day.


Practice morning meditation

Morning meditation can help you target the part of you that isn’t feeling up to snuff. Sometimes we know something’s off but don’t know exactly what it is or how to fix it. Meditation will often direct your attention to what is wrong and let you sit in it and familiarize yourself with the feeling. Meditation is wonderful because it brings calm to the storm that so often can surround us.

You can meditate on your own, incorporating stream of consciousness ideas into your journal or mind. You can also get an app — I love Headspace with all of my heart and swear by it. There are also thousands of meditations on YouTube — whether they’re guided or just chill music playing in the background.


Get going

Some days when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed, the best way to fix a sour upcoming mood is to get through it. Wake up, make your bed, take a shower, get ready, and go. Don’t sit in the feeling too long — feel and acknowledge your feelings, but don’t harp on them and let them control you. 

Try to adapt the mindset that the bad feelings will be left at your place and in the morning, rather than following you around all day. 

Crappy mornings happen all the time. They’re natural and a real bummer when they do, but the key thing to remember about bad mornings is it’s just that — a bad morning, not a bad life, or even a bad day. Try to keep a positive perspective and remember that the feelings can be temporary!

LINE

What do you do on mornings when you wake up feeling like you just can’t win? Comment below!


For More Motivation, Check Out These Articles:

I’m Having a Mid-Life Crisis – These Are 6 Ways I’m Coping With It

The Sandwich Generation is Overwhelmed. These Tips Can Help You Manage That Stress

Join the Conversation