It’s interesting that most of us feel we’re supposed to feel happy every day. We’re not used to “neutral” days. That’s my day today. Neither good nor bad, nothing to cheer about but nothing to cry about either. Doing mundane things. I’m learning to really appreciate the mundane. Drama-free, I’m learning, is a very good thing.
But if you’re prone to depression “neutral” days can prove problematic. When were feeling good emotionally, we can handle days like this but if we’re battling a low mood, these kind of days can prove to be a trigger to worse days. We keep thinking we’re supposed to be feeling happy, happy, happy. Then we start to worry because we’re not-happy, that is. We’re just neutral.
Here’s what I do on what I would really call a “boring” day. (Neutral just isn’t a word I’m comfortable with.) I remind myself that some days are just “days”-neither good nor bad. I try to redeem those kind of days by doing small tasks where I can experience some completion and some success. It might just be cleaning a closest or straightening up a room. It might be a phone call or reading something I’ve been putting off. Whatever it is, it gives me a sense of accomplishment and seems to break my cycle of constant evaluation.
So far today, remind yourself, “It’s just a day. I don’t have to judge it or evaluate it. I can just live it.” By the way, have a good one.
I used to love boring days. In the old days I was never bored. In busy years I used to save up a lot of leave and take April off. I would just hang around the house for a whole month, do a bit of decorating, get the garden ready for summer, spend time with friends and family, just enjoy taking life as it came. These days, boring days are a real challenge. You are absolutely right that with depression we tend to judge days against each other and every day has to be a good one. If we keep going down that road, how good can a good day get? It seems to me that happiness is a comparative state and without bad days and boring days there wouldn’t be good days either…