Skip to main content

100 Sad Days; Day 38: Black Days and Mondays

The Carpenters said it was Rainy Days and Mondays but hey...

A very good friend of mine recently asked what do I do on my black days and it got me thinking. What do I do on days when I just want to curl up under my duvet and never wake up? On days when I want to cry myself to sleep and hide from the world. When I want to creep into my lair and just stay there?

Sometimes I do just that. However that is a luxury, how many of us are able to just forget about the world? Sometimes we go off the rails and we do just that we get so caught up in our own misery we forget the people around us. However I am talking of the dark days when you are still trudging along pretending to yourself and the world that it's all ok. 

So what do we do? What do I do? I try to step outside my bubble. To realise that there is a me and a world and we are able to live symbiotically. 

I think the key is remembering you. Reminding yourself that you are a person in your own right. Not just mummy or daddy, sister or brother, shoulder to cry on, child or parent, lover or friend. You are you. Nobody is better at being you as you are. In fact, at this precise moment you are perfect at being you; how can you not be?

Are you able to spare yourself a few minutes and a cup of tea? Put the kids in front of the tv, close the door, be you for a small amount of time. Or maybe someone can have them for half an hour or an hour? Go and get a coffee, chat to strangers, window shop. Make no arrangement other than to be you and to be happy in your own skin. 

Then when you return be firm and fair. If you are not coping or you are feeling yourself slip just remind yourself and those around you that you are having a down day and that should help them to step away. 

I find taking myself out of a situation is the best route but understand it isn't always possible. As much as we try to "close the door" on children in a room, or have five minutes peace in the bath, it never really happens because they are always there in our subconscious. 
I am trying meditation this year to give me somewhere to escape to, even if only for five minutes a day, a space that is all mine. When I first wake up, or when everyone else is asleep. Just some me time. A calm place of my own. 

Maybe if you work you can get a moments peace in your car before you start your day, or in a coffee shop on the way, if the kids are at school and you are at home, take some time before staring your chores. 

Just remember you are you. Chesney Hawkes had it right you know "No one can be myself like I am for this job in the best man."

Be you. Be perfectly you. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Blue Monday 2024 - Memories of Dad

You’ve heard of sleeping policeman. Well my dad was the cooking policeman. Growing up I was so proud to have a dad that was a policeman. His job always sounded so cool and exciting.  Then there was his ability to follow a recipe (the same one time and time again).  He made an amazing macaroni cheese (the best), shepherds pie, lamb curry (from scratch) and oh my goodness the Devil’s food cake - four storeys of ultimate chocolate cake! I loved to be able to talk about the fact that he was born in India. That he was brought up in South Africa. That he had a three-legged cheetah as a pet.  Stories of sat on a wall eating mangoes with monkeys   Dad was also a knitter - having learnt from his grandma.  And I can remember our loop cardigans and the waistcoats he knitted.   Duchess, our dog, brought home after night shift. The fish tanks and trips to all of those aquatic centres   Being a South African, he loved his tech. He always had the newest gadget (oh that satellite dish) and a cool car

January’s got the Blues

Seven years ago I watched as January allowed pancreatic cancer to steal my mum’s zest for life.     Over the course of the first three months of 2017 we lost my mum slowly.     And painfully. Gracefully, and peacefully.   Cancer, COPD, mental illness and dementia have gradually, over a much longer period, eroded the man that my dad once was. In some cases he has become a happier, more fun-loving grandad than he was a father, but in another he is just the husk of the man that could fix ANYTHING. A technology-loving, recipe-following, policeman. January 2024 bears witness to another parent’s dwindling life as I see the fear in his eyes. Yet I am pleased that he still remembers who I am, my name. I hate the sadness and pain in everyone’s face, the tears in their eyes. I hate, even more, the pleading for help, knowing he would rather be, and should be allowed to be, at peace.  New year. New grief. Constant reminder that the world keeps turning and time keeps on ticking.  

LuluSLR: What depression means to me (first published in July 2014)

As a teenager we lived next door to a lady with depression.   She and her husband were lovely people, they would always stop and chat, but sometimes she would retreat and we wouldn't see her for months. Instead we would only see Ernie on his daily walk. Then suddenly she would be back beside him with long hair (Gladys always had short hair). I didn't really take much notice but can remember my mum commenting about Gladys and her long hair meaning she had been depressed.   Now, looking back, I can see how they were connected. How Glady wouldn't want to leave the house and thus her hair would grow and she would look unkempt when she did reappear. I get it now. Growing up depression wasn't really something I knew much about. I know members of my family have suffered with it but it just kind of passed me by. After all we all have sad days or  short periods. Well that's what I thought. Just get on with it. Keep smiling.   However my short periods would get longer