Do you ever wake up in a slightly negative mood and then you tend to feel off the rest of the day? I recently had a day like this where I was just ready to throw in the towel and watch Netflix for the rest of the day. That is, until I decided to take a walk and listen to a podcast from The Lively show.
It all started the night before with our handle less toilet. We recently updated our master bathroom and decided to upgrade our toilet as well. My husband thought the new handless automatic flush toilet was pretty nifty and decided to purchase it for our bathroom. I didn’t quite find the same amortization with it, but reasoned that it would cut down on germs. You simply swipe your hand over a button on the top of the toilet and it flushes. Sometimes it even decides to flush several times in a row in the middle of night. This resulted in a restless night of sleep for me and an irritable morning. I suspect this toilet also had something to do with this incident.
I had a conference call that morning which I was excited about and we spoke for much longer than anticipated. Then while we were speaking a pop up message about a virus invaded my screen and wouldn’t go away. I had to make a call to Apple Care and spoke to a friendly gal who fixed my issue. I’d planned to go to the gym, but decided I needed to eat first. I’m one of those people who finds it hard to go to a gym if it’s past lunch time. I think of every excuse why I shouldn’t go which is why I decided to finish a show I started the night before on Netflix and pull some weeds. I also received a text message that irritated me for many reasons which I won’t go into. Since I was having difficulty focusing on anything I decided to take a walk and listen to one of the many Jess Lively Podcasts loaded onto my iPod.
This particular podcast with writer Alexandra Franzen was just what I needed to hear. Alexandra talked about how one day she woke up late which threw her whole day off and was contemplating on staying in bed and watching Netflix. She decided to fight the urge to waste her day and instead went to a yoga class, called her mother, got a massage and manicure and wrote several posts which inspired her to work on a book with the premise of what you can get done in a day. You can read the blog post here or listen to the podcast on iTunes-episode 70.
After I listened to the podcast, I decided my day is not done. It may not have gone the way I planned and without a clear focus, but I still have time. I decided to finally take a shower, start a book I had been wanting to read called Essentialism, check-in with a friend who was going through a tough time and was inspired to write this post and came up with an idea for another.
If you’re reading this post you’re probably thinking she can get easily irritated, these aren’t third world problems, and what happened to finding the joy in the everyday? These things are all true and I can get easily agitated. It’s in my DNA, I was born in the Northeast and I’m peri-menopausal. Those are my excuses and I’m sticking to them!
I often need to feed myself with good things such as inspirational reading and podcasts to turn my mood around. What I hope you take away from all my scribblings is if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed and you feel like your day has been wasted, think again. What can you do today that will make a difference in your life or someone elses? It doesn’t have to be big. You may be surprised at how much time you actually have.
Loved your post! We all have days that we wish could fast forward. Your new toilet sounds interesting I didn’t know they made those. I’ve heard you talk about these pod cast one of these days I’m going to try it. You are amazing Dawn:)
You are so sweet Keri! I wouldn’t recommend the handle less toilet. It turns out there is a problem with the mechanism inside and they have to send new parts. Evidently others have had the same problem.
I’m laughing about your excuses for being irritable, Dawn. I think I have the same excuses! A change of scenery (like your walk) is the best medicine for me… one of the reasons why I hate to see the weather change, because I hate being outside in the cold. Prayer also helps, and trying to put my issues in perspective.
Thanks for sharing Seana! I’m not much of a cold weather walker either.