First, to preface this post, I am doing absolutely 100% great today. I'll be seeing my wonderful, soon-to-be returned missionary brother in about 24 hours, and as a result, I'm so up that it's probably been really annoying to my friends the last couple of days. However, I've been musing on the following subject for the last few days and I decided I wanted to share my thoughts with the rest of you.
Now, maybe it's because I can read the subtext in my own posts, but I notice patterns in my blog, especially in the moods in which I write my posts. And I've noticed that a lot of the time, I talk about being up as being the best thing, and when I'm down, it's because I have to fix something. Generally speaking, that's true, but I want to expound.
I had a crummy day a couple weeks ago. Plans got rearranged/canceled on me, my roommate was in a rare "Don't talk to me" mood, and I was just generally not so happy. I knew that I didn't want to be alone with my own thoughts, so I called my mom (because that's what I do---I'm so glad she's my best friend).
After my recent discovery that I can and do enjoy my life exactly as it is, I felt guilty. I had so much to be grateful for. If I felt down, it must mean that I'm forgetting that.
Thank goodness Mom snapped me out of that. "Lynnae," she said, "you can't be up all the time. No one can. It's okay to have a bad day."
Her reassurance formed an interesting contrast to the attitude of a friend of mine from several years ago. This friend used to say that she'd decided never to have a bad day again. I always found it an admirable sentiment, but I never felt like I'd actually be able to do something like that. And honestly? All due respect to my friend, but I don't think it's the healthiest attitude. I think we need to have bad days.
It's important for us to acknowledge that we're limited. Sometimes, we need to come face-to-face with our own darker emotions and recognize that they're making us feel guilty or miserable. We also need to realize that we can't make them go away on our own. Only then can we allow the beautiful power of the Atonement to lift us up. That's what humility really is. It's not beating yourself up for your bad thoughts or feelings, it's openly acknowledging those feelings and being willing to do what you must to make them go away.
We need to have bad days so that we remember to appreciate the good ones. I'm straying into territory that makes so many people groan and roll their eyes, because we've all heard it before. BUT, I'm reiterating it because it's true. If you had nothing but good days, don't you think that you'd get so used to them that you'd forget to notice? We see the trend every day. Think about the "First World Problems" idea. Your day sucks if your internet breaks down or your phone dies. However, there are other people who are so happy simply because they didn't die today. We have been blessed with so much that little inconveniences seem like major problems. If you only had good days, even minor annoyances would turn your day into a bad one.
Now back to the "I need to fix something idea." Did you know that pain is your body protecting itself? You probably did, you smart people. You experience pain because your body is basically telling you that something is wrong and that something isn't good for you, so knock it off. That thing is too hot and will damage you if you keep touching it. That object is sharp. Those germs are wreaking havoc and need to be gotten rid of. You learn from it. If you can, you break away from the thing that's causing you pain. Bad days and bad feelings are our emotional pain receptors. If we pay attention, we can identify what's upsetting us and do something to fix it.
Last but not least, bad days remind us that we're only human, just like everybody else. Like my mom said, we can't be "up" all the time. Other people have bad days too, no matter how happy they seem. You aren't alone. What makes happy people truly happy is that they are okay with having bad days. Rather than living in denial about their negative emotions, they recognize them, acknowledge them, maybe even indulge them a little bit, and then they let them go.
So remember, it's okay to have a bad day. Just remember that, even on your bad days, I love you, your other friends love you, and most importantly, your Heavenly Father loves you.
Love you!
Love, me
