When things are FUBAR

You know those days where things are FUBAR by 9 am? I’m having one. If you’re not familiar, FUBAR is a piece of military jargon. It stands for F@cked Up Beyond All Recognition. The good news is this is not my first epically F’ed up Monday. The bad news is that it’s 11 am and I’ve already smoked nearly a pack of cigarettes and drained a pot of coffee.

Coping Skills for “Bad Days”

So now that I’ve successfully over medicated my stress, I’m using a few coping skills that I frequently recommend:

  • Taking pause (just stop before you make any decisions or risk a homicide conviction).
  • Journaling/writing it out. It’s much easier to sort it out when it’s outside of your head.
  • Talk to people about it. This is one of many forms of accountability in my life. Vlogging is a form of connection and a way to share both my struggles and my solutions.
  • I’m saying the Serenity Prayer because it helps me separate what I have control over and what I do not. I am asking my HP to manage the things I can’t and what’s beautiful about that is that whether I trust my HP to do so or not, I’m not going to pour time and energy into what I cannot do.

There’s a number of very important things I had planned on getting done this morning. My tech guy came in over the weekend to update our computers. I’m not sure how my employees are faring with that but currently my machine won’t boot up. Pretty sure that’s not a successful upgrade but apparently trying a dozen times to get the operating system to load is just not a good use of my time.

Let’s Make Today an Adventure Kind of Day

There’s a meme to the effect of, “I remind myself that my survival rate of bad days is 100%.” I’ve gotten through the last three hours by saying to myself, “Just do what you can. Just do the next right thing.” This is me officially starting my day over. I’m not going to agonize. I’m not even going to stress. I’m going to practice acceptance while mindful of what my friends in AA say, “You don’t have to like something to accept it.”

I have spent days like today wallowing in a bit of self-pity. I’ve spent them spewing sarcasm (watered down anger). I’ve spent them physically and emotionally tense. I don’t have to do any of that today. Today is a day I’ll look back on and laugh about soon. Today is an adventure and I’m not going to waste it with strife. I’m going to practice what I preach because it makes me more effective as a healer and healthier in every part of my life.

It’s amazing how we struggle with the simplest things and how long it takes to learn the most important lessons: Let go. Let go. Let go.