Best Day Ever
/A few weeks ago I was meeting with a client who was fighting low-grade depression that she attributed to the current state of our nation’s leadership and global news of ongoing wars. She is a deep feeling, highly sensitive, empathetic, highly intelligent, soulful woman who has, “tried to not care and yet can’t turn my worry and sadness off.” She explained that she was feeling a solidarity for the people suffering and felt guilty if she stopped.
After we discussed it for a while, she agreed that staying in this helpless funk was stealing her joy, wasting her days, and draining her energy. She was aware that her anger at situations outside of her control was negatively impacting her relationships with people she loved. Then she asked me how I coped with things like this. I shared that I too was in a funk for similar reasons but also because we were moving kids to college and I would miss them terribly. I told her that I didn’t want to live my days in a perpetual funk so my goal for myself was to make each day the best day possible given my circumstances and that goal was becoming a fun challenge to help me to feel a little better.
She asked if we could do a week-long challenge together to make each day our “best-day-ever.” I thought to myself ‘it is a stretch to call it the best day ever when it’s going to be a blah week for me, but it’s worth a try and would be good for both of us’ and said “yes, let’s do it!”
So each day for a week, we texted each other one photo with the caption “best day ever!” And I eventually shortened it to “BDE!” because I was at a stoplight catching a photo of a rainbow and only had time to type three letters.
The things that helped us make it the best day ever were things like this:
A chocolate dipped ice cream cone
A dog curled up on a lap
Flannel pajamas at 8pm
A sweaty smiley post-workout selfie
Pink and orange clouds in a glorious sunset
Helping a child learn to tie a shoe
Three butterflies on white hydrangeas
These little doses of joy, and our intentional noticing of them, led both of us to experiencing an uptick in our happiness for the week.
We aren’t texting about our noticings anymore, but as I was traveling last week I decided to continue this practice. When I would feel a wave of sadness as we drove further away from the east coast, I would ask myself, ‘what could make this the best-day-ever?’ I could immediately feel a shift just in brainstorming what would help me feel like I was having a great day.
This is obviously an exercise in positivity and hyperbole, but the important thing is to feel the shift inside of energy from intentionally thinking about creating a great moment in your day. It’s worth doing.
We all have hard days, but if we aren’t careful they can turn into weeks, then months, and we don’t even notice how much time we waste feeling stuck. As you’ve heard me say before: if you get the potential of 100 years on this planet, how do you want to spend them?
Every day this week let’s each consider: how could I make this the best day ever?
See what you notice.
I’ve played with different phrases for this practice, and you can pick your own words, but I found that I needed the exaggerated potential of “ever” to really shift my brain. The true best-days-ever are monumental events and core memories for me, but considering if an ordinary day could be the best-day-ever really does shift something inside to create a sense of potential and hope.
The most effective way to move our collective humanity towards light is for each of us to be filled with light. We shine when we are having a great day. Do whatever you need to do to have a great day, if we all do that, we can serve humanity in profound ways.
Go have the best day ever,
