Originally aired: August 19, 2021

We've all been there—when everything seems to go wrong and you're stuck in a spiral of frustration. But what if you could turn around a bad day without just waiting it out or forcing fake gratitude? In this Best Of episode, Janine shares her terrible, horrible, no good very bad day, and Shannon offers practical self-compassion strategies to shift your perspective and reset your energy. From the power of "yes, and..." to the surprising magic of moving your body, discover how to acknowledge what sucks while still finding your way back to good enough.

• 00:56 - Janine's real-time bad day unfolds
• 01:58 - The restaurant analogy: when things start bad, they often stay bad
• 02:48 - Creating a mid-day reset to shift your trajectory
• 02:58 - Janine shares her comedy of errors: the groomer mix-up and the doctor's appointment disaster
• 05:12 - The chiropractor cancellation, the ink stain, and when everything piles on
• 05:41 - Stepping back to recognize privilege and practice gratitude (even when you're grumpy)
• 06:22 - Shannon's reframe: "We only have this problem because there's money"
• 06:59 - "Why do I always have to be the grown-up in the room?"
• 07:30 - The three-part response: wallowing, gratitude journaling, and knitting
• 07:55 - The power of "yes, and...": acknowledging what sucks before adding gratitude
• 08:40 - Avoiding cognitive dissonance: why gratitude alone doesn't work without acknowledgment
• 09:50 - Learning from bad days without self-recrimination: "file this away for future reference"
• 10:50 - Moving your body to reset your energy: the almost-magical shift
• 11:33 - The "knocking on heaven's door" twist move for instant relief
• 12:22 - The heated neck wrap hack for pain relief while moving
• 13:32 - Getting in touch with what's important to you: removing the bad day filter
• 14:40 - Removing the"bad day" filter so you can see the good stuff.
• 16:01 - The importance of acknowledging difficulty before turning things around
• 16:30 - The blessing of good friends and free advice
• 16:57 - Laughter as an antidote: calling a friend or watching your go-to funny video
• 17:24 - Damn You Autocorrect and other guaranteed laugh sources

1. Acknowledge First, Reframe Second

Don't jump straight to gratitude when you're having a bad day—it creates cognitive dissonance. Instead, use "yes, and...": Yes, this really sucks, AND I'm fortunate in these ways. Acknowledging what's hard allows your unconscious mind to genuinely feel gratitude instead of pushing back with "yes, but..."

2. Remove Your Bad Day Filter

When things go wrong, we unconsciously start looking for evidence that proves we're having a bad day. We become "chief executive officers of proving our bad day." Combat this by intentionally getting in touch with what's important to you—it opens your perspective to all the good things you're not noticing when you're focused on what's going wrong.

3. Move Your Body to Shift Your Energy

Physical movement creates an almost magical reset. Try jumping up and down and shaking your hands out, or do the "knocking on heaven's door" twist (twist your upper body with limp arms so your hands slap front and back). Movement shifts