What Do I Do Now That I Feel 'Under the Weather'? (part 1)

Just try to remember the last ‘difficult’ day you had; nothing was going your way, everyone seemed to come to you with all of their problems, work or school life could not be at a more difficult point, and all you wanted was for the day to end as quickly as possible. We all have to face difficulties throughout the day, and sometimes we end up being left feeling overwhelmed or ‘under the weather’. There are a lot of ways to help with those feelings; the first thing we tend to do most of the time is to talk to someone about it; be that someone close or a professional that can help us. Communicating our struggles, difficulties, or even happy moments with someone, always leaves us feeling better, liberated, like a weight is lifted off of our shoulders. Sometimes we have things we don’t feel comfortable telling anyone; that’s when writing comes in. Writing down your feelings is the same as talking with someone, except no one gets to know but you.

I want to talk about what we all know as ‘diaries’. I am aware that nowadays, keeping a diary is seen as something for children or girls, and it’s definitely not something that ‘serious’ grownups do. I completely disagree with that. And something that might help more and more people keep diaries is to change how we call the item. Sounds fairly easy, and it is. For example, I prefer calling my diary a reflection journal (because that’s exactly what it can be). You can either write down how your day went and leave it at that or you can write down a personal reflection of your emotional and mental ‘trip’ of the day. I can assure you that it is much more helpful and meaningful than it seems.

I’ve been keeping a diary for a few years now and I always find it helpful. After 12 years of keeping diaries (on-and-off that is), I’m glad that I did it. Do you want to know why? Because every time I decide to go back and read what I want, I can learn something new! It either helps me understand better who I am, how I react to things, or it ‘gives me advice’ based on what I did or thought about a similar issue before and how it turned out. So, the positive outcome of keeping a reflection journal is that you can go back to what you’ve written and it can help you analyse and better know yourself. Think of it as a form of self-therapy; you are the one person who can fully, 100% understand and know what’s going on inside your head and heart. Who then, can be better suited to help you become the person you always wanted to be?

Knowing one’s self is a widely discussed topic, which has had books written about it, so I cannot discuss it here with just a few words. I just want to say that knowing yourself better is always something we can count on to help us when we face decisions or when we feel we’re at crossroads. It is something very challenging to do, and what’s difficult about it is not only recognising the patterns of behaviour, it’s accepting them. Knowing what you excel at, but also what you struggle with makes you stronger. It’s a journey you decide to take with yourself; a trip of honesty, discovery, struggles, acceptance, relief, and happiness. Writing this, I’m not the wise person who has already done all of this and is now telling others what they need to do to help themselves. I’m still undertaking this trip myself, and I’m enjoying everything that I’m learning about myself, and how I interact or affect the community around me. Because this is something that is helping me more than I thought it would, I decided to share it with my readers knowing (and hoping) that I’m not the only one whom this would help.

Writing is one of the most effective things that, I think, helps anyone who does it. When I have suggested this before, I have had people tell me, “I’m not good with words so I don’t think I can do it.” The point of the whole thing is not to sound a certain way or write an artistic piece that will challenge the guidelines of great literature. The whole point of this exercise, or even discipline, is that we get to ‘talk’ to someone at any desirable time, we have the luxury of saying absolutely anything and everything our heart desires, and we can do it from the comfort of our own cosy homes.

Writing everyday would be the ideal thing to do, but the truth is that not all of us can do that; so, what I do, and what I would suggest is that you take about two to three hours a week (you ‘disperse them as you like and see fit) and you write ‘recaps’ of your mental and emotional states. You don’t need to write only when there are bad/difficult times, because that would only express half of your life. I’m sure that even going back and reading about happy and productive days is always a nice way to be reminded that there’s always a rainbow after the storm! And with that, I wish that you find this advice helpful and try it out, see how it goes ;)

‘Till next time…