We all have down days. Life is full of ups and downs, remember if everything was always rosy we would never grow. If you've not been feeling 100% yourself the last few days or weeks, here are a few tips to help.
It's really important to acknowledge:
1. I'm not feeling myself right now. This is called Awareness. Write it out so you can figure out how many days per week (and then per month) you notice this.
2.Know that it's OK to feel like this - expecting you will be 100% perfectly positive and happy every day is unrealistic.
3.Then, it's really important to figure out why (i.e. the trigger). Sometimes, there is no reason, we just feel 'off'. Other times, there is a clear reason (maybe a situation, comment, bad body image day, break up, pressure at work etc.)
Journaling can really help with both of the above. Simply writing out how we feel and trying to figure out why is actually really therapeutic.
4. After 1, 2 & 3 we need to have our own coping strategies to deal with these down days while also allowing ourselves to feel those emotions. When we ignore emotions or try to distract ourselves, this is when unhealthy behaviours can come into play (binge eating, emotional eating, drinking, over exercising, isolation etc.) Some of my coping strategies vary from dancing, listening to music, exercising, watching a documentary, facetiming friends and cooking!
If you don't have a list of healthy coping strategies that work for you, now is a time to develop some (yours will be different to someone else's).
Building that awareness, acknowledging feelings, and having a support network along with some healthy coping strategies are what will really help you get through the down days (because they will always be there throughout your life) and having your own set of tools just for YOU will help hugely and also make you more resilient.