Whenever I feel off my game, like I’m having a bad day, can’t concentrate, or feel the pangs of anxiety creep up on me, I take some time out of my day to clear my head by reading what I call my “recenter-er”.
The recenterer is a short essay that I wrote to help myself right my ship, so to speak, and get me going in the right direction again, instead of continuing a downward spiral into oblivion. Essentially, the recenterer reminds me of certain fundamental ideas that I seem to forget or ignore when I’m feeling down. It’s an inspirational piece meant to galvanize my soul, and today, I’m going to share it with you, so you can read it to yourself on your bad days. I hope it turns those bad days into good days.
The Recenterer
Here it is, in all its glory:
Brett [or your name here],
If you’re reading this, then odds are good that you’re feeling down. Whether you’re feeling tired, or someone said something mean and nasty to you, or you’re starting to get sick, or you’re feeling anxious and apprehensive about something in the future (or something from the past), you need a dose of inspiraiton.
I want to remind you of something: if you’re feeling bad, then you’re probably looking for your environment to make you feel good. Start generating your own good emotions. True happiness and joy comes from within, not from what other people think of you, your possessions, how much money you have, your education, how much you know, or any other thing that might make you feel good in comparison with others.
Don’t try and fight your bad state. Just let go. Slow down for a few moments and just feel what it’s like to be alive. Whatever you feel down about – you’ll get over it. Maybe you need to meditate. Maybe you need more sleep. Maybe you need both. If you do, set aside a lot of time for them – they cure you like nothing else will. Put projects on hold if you have to – your mental and spiritual health is more important than anything else you have going on.
Remember the duality that governs the world. In order to truly experience pleasure, we must sometimes endure pain. Without the suffering, without the bad days, would we enjoy the good days as much as we do? No. However, as time goes on and you continue to develop yourself, as you’ve seen, the good days and the bad days alike get better. Even though the good days are awesome, the bad days, which used to be your “average” day, just seem bad in comparison.
As Napoleon Hill said in his book “Think and Grow Rich”, “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” The hard times you go through now, even if they just last for a day or even an hour, can contain a lesson that will spark your success.
Remember this as well: each passing moment is another chance to turn everything around. Make that moment right now.
But, above all, choose to feel good, now. Because it’s a choice. Because you’re you. Because, even on a bad day, you know that you’d rather be yourself than the other 9 billion or so other people on the planet.
Your Turn
That’s a bit of a template – that’s my recenterer that I read to myself whenever things go wrong.
Now it’s your turn. My words won’t have as much of an effect on you as your own words will. Craft your own recenterer by using quotes that inspire you – you’re welcome to take passages from my recenterer or other things I’ve written here at PluginID – and writing a message to yourself to remind yourself, even when you’re feeling at your worst, that you’re going to be okay and that you’re always going to be yourself, no matter what.
Let me know what you guys are going to include in your own recenterers in the comments! I’m dying to know what you guys will think of.
This is a great idea. When I’m having one of those rare bad days, I tend to just lay down, relax, and kind of talk to myself in the same way you do in this essay. Normally the bad emotions will take a hike if I just take some time to myself to work through the thoughts in my head.
Hey Jonathan,
I’m a lot different. Usually, after meditation and lots of sleep, I’m fine. For some reason, sleep just makes me forget everything.
Different strokes for different folks, I guess
Thanks for commenting!
I think this is amazing! And I’m planning on doing this someday too.
I just have one suggestion, and that is that not everyone is happy being themselves-many (myself included) have wished they were not themselves, that they were somebody else, and I know at least I find it helpful to remind myself that I’m a good person, and that its not me, its them (well… at least some of the time haha). So it might be helpful to indicate that its okay to feel that way too, even though a person feels better when they are happy being themselves
Thanks, Blackiren!
I think you’re right that it’s perfectly fine to feel however you want to feel… But, it’s usually in your best interest to feel like you have high self-esteem.
If you feel like sharing your recenterer, please do
I’m a fan of wearing plain old rubberbands on my wrist and writing little messages to myself, usually just one word each.
I find the brevity a challenge, but it helps, because they are always there.
Hey Josh,
I’ll have to try that sometime. Brevity always makes what you write more impactful
Thanks for the comment!
Hi Brett,
I think this is a great idea that can have a truly practical application. One of my problems is that I tend to look too far ahead and it often makes me anxious.
So I think that my essay would include a little about “living in day tight compartments” which from the book “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie. One of my favourites!
Randy
Hey there Randy!
I’ve never read How to Stop Worrying and Start Living. I might go take a look at it!
Thanks for sharing!
Nice to read it. bad day for me means I should stay in bed..