How To Turn Bad Days Upside Down

Dear all,

Hope everyone is doing great and having a nice relaxing weekend :) I have not blogged in 3 weeks as I have been super busy starting August and before I know it, it is 19th August already. While deciding my blog topic today, I was choosing between this topic and life updates. Then, I thought let's have a fusion of the two. I have many life updates to share and also I want to write something motivational that can hopefully motivate you. Tomorrow is Monday and the start of a brand new week. May it be a wonderful start for all of you. 

Where should I start? Oh dear, so much has been going on in my life at the moment. So Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday have been eventful days. Bear in mind that Wed, Thurs and Fri were still normal working days so I was at the office the whole day and these happened after office hours. On Wed, I had a full rehearsal at the hotel for the event I was hosting on Thursday. Thursday was the BIG day we have been waiting for. It was an exclusive, VIP event for the company I am working for. It was Oscar-themed so there was a red carpet and a Hollywood feel ;) Good job team! My emcee partner and I started from 650pm till 1015pm and we did great! Lots of positive feedback after the event, they thought we were professional emcees aww thank you muah. To be honest, I was super nervous for the first hour of the event or so because I mean the entire hall was filled with bosses and like the highest ranking person in the company and their spouses. These people whom I usually just see in videos or on stage in townhalls or on the website or official pages and here they are all sitting down in the hall and I am standing hosting the event. Omg, it was pretty daunting but I felt OK after awhile and after I overcame the jitters, it started feeling natural again. I like emceeing, I was doing it all the time in high school it is so fun :) I always get really nervous every time I am hosting a big event but I always try my best to overcome the fear and just have fun and do my best. 

The message here is to always believe in yourself even when it seems impossible. You are capable of more than you think you can. 

Friday I went to the night market for sate with a few friends at work then one of my friends came over to my house and had dinner together. Then, we rushed for karaoke with a few other friends who were already there. We sang and danced till 12 am omg. I told myself, Meen you were holding the microphone for literally 3 hours Thursday night and now Friday night another 3 hours with the mic, like say what? I barely had enough rest so Saturday morning I decided to turn off all alarms and wake up anytime I like but guess what? I am totally a morning person. Even with no alarm, I woke up 8am and could not go back to sleep haha. After getting some chores done, my friend came over and we went out together. First, we had lunch at The Chicken Rice Shop, watched Winnie the Pooh at the cinema then went to the beach (weee). We managed to reach right at sunset when the sun was the most beautiful. We went to another mall to buy some things and had dinner and went home. 

Then, on Sunday I went to the airport around 7ish am to send off my friend. I felt so sad, she was temporarily here and it was time to say goodbye. I try not to get too attached to people because I hate goodbyes but we got along so well that I decided to forget about my don't-get-so-attached theory and just went with the flow and just deal with the situation. I am OK, I thought I would cry but I did not or not yet. I think I am just exhausted from all the busy days that everything is still sinking in. I managed to get some good rest today and look forward to tomorrow.

Speaking of bad days, the week before last, I had one day that week I would call a bad day, I was not feeling too good. Then another day in the same week I received unpleasant news in the morning and that made me feel a bit down that day. This recent week has been much better and fun. When I have a bad day, I acknowledge that it is a bad day. I accept it and I will not be too hard on myself. I will do what I feel like doing and usually, I still want to be productive even on a bad day (typical me hehe). 
Here I would like to share a few ways to overcome bad days that I find helpful for myself:

• Accept the fact that not every day will be a good day. Once you acknowledge this, when you do have a not-so-ok day, you will accept it with a positive mindset. Accepting a situation is a positive thing.
• Different people have different ways of numbing the feeling. Listening to music can help or talk about it. However, do not talk about it too much. I find that if I talk about a problem excessively, it seems amplified than it truly is. 
• Write down or think of 3 good things that happened to you today. They can be simple things like I got to work/school safely today or I am feeling healthy.
• Be kind to yourself. There may be things that you must get done that day especially if it is a working day but ask yourself if there is something you would prefer doing?
• Have some quiet thinking space to put it all in perspective. Too much socialising when you are feeling down does not help. In certain cases, socialising can help get your mind elsewhere so you would not be focusing on the problem. 
• Read or listen to something motivational, we all need reminders including myself.
• Exercise, the adrenaline from workouts can really boost positive energy.
• Eat ice cream, chocolate or your favourite food/drink. They certainly make me happy.
• I always try to separate personal and work-related issues and be professional. People always relate 'being professional' with working life only but I feel like it is applicable at any stage in life. Even during my time as a student, I started practising this. I would try my best not to let anything in my personal life affect my studies, work, relationship with people. I just deal with it, talk to someone I trust and whom can give me good advice.
• Talk to someone who understands you and who can give good advice. To me, there is no point in speaking to someone who just listens and says nothing or who makes you feel worse. I would only open up to those I feel genuinely care, who have experienced the same or who I can rely on compassionate advice. 
• Look at what caused you to feel negative that day and think of ways to avoid it in the future.
• Ask yourself if this is a minor issue because we do have the tendency to over-dramatise some situations when we are feeling stressed. If minor, let it be. Let you feel negative that day but tell yourself this is not something you will give much thought to tomorrow.
• Cheer up, there are still so many things in life to celebrate.
• I love making people happy, it makes me happy. Make someone happy can even turn that bad day upside down.
• Do what you can, that's the most important thing. Many people today need motivation and lack of motivation. I just want everyone and anyone reading this to know that I am sure you are doing a great job in life, be proud of where you are today and keep trying your best and may all your dreams come true.

Wishing you lots of love and have a beautiful start of the week my dearies XOXO