Self-care for when you’re having a bad day

Tara Jackson, ex-PA and holistic self-care and wellbeing coach, advises PAs how they can focus on themselves when they’re having a bad day

Do you ever wake up and everything just irritates you? You can’t decide what to wear. It doesn’t look good on you when you actually find something that might be okay, or it’s ‘weather inappropriate’. You don’t have time to eat breakfast as you dozed through too many alarms. Your commute to work seems to be less smooth than normal, and even the other commuters annoy you just by being there. Then when you finally get to work, you’re irritated by your colleagues and their demands. Why can’t everyone just leave you alone for an hour, so you can get on top of what you need to do? You just want to crawl back into bed and forget today.

Unfortunately, that isn’t an option for most people, so to try and get back into the flow and turn your day around, here are a few tips that may help.

1. We all have days like this once in a while. It’s important to remember that. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
2. Think about when you last ate or drank something and what it was. Try and get some water and something nutritious (not processed) into you, such as some fruit and vegetables alongside some protein or wholegrains.
3. If you can, take a five-minute walk, ideally outside. Just getting a few breaths of fresh air and moving your body will help to calm you.
4. Try listening to some calming, instrumental music with your headphones in while you work. This helps to relax you and also may serve as a deterrent to colleagues disturbing you without a good reason.
5. Prioritise your to-do list. This can help you to get on top of things so you feel a bit more in control of what have going on and less like your day is controlling you.

What’s your favourite self-care tip for when you seem to wake up on the wrong side of the bed? How do you turn your day around?

If you would like a free monthly wellbeing planner to help you include more self-care in your life, visit bit.ly/wellness-planner.

Tara Jackson is a holistic wellness and self-care coach who is on a mission to help busy people who put everything else above themselves discover how important self-care is (within a healthy lifestyle) so that they can live a life that they love. For more information please see tarajackson.co.uk.