Dealing with “Off Days”
Make space in your life for the off days.
Make space in your life for the off days
For the moments of sudden doubt and loneliness
When an unexplained fear greets you in the morning
In those days when you recognize you’re working hard
Only to come home feeling unfulfilled and empty.
Make space for the off days
Because you can’t control everything.
There will be moments where things go awry
Or episodes when your heart flips through emotions
with every beat.
When anxiety creeps into the crevices of your day
and pulls you down on your knees.
There will be times when things unplanned
Catch us off guard
And there’s nothing to do except let them do so.
Because the more we fight what is already here,
the more we dislodge ourselves from the lesson
and the gift of the present moment,
our current life.
Make room in your life for the off days
Because, they too, are part of your existence
They too serve a purpose
To remind you of the impermanence of everything
And to encourage you to look more deeply..
To see that, despite the bleakness you encounter,
love lives in each moment
— in your breath, in the blue sky, in the birds’ singing,
in the clean water you drink, in the smile of a stranger.
Make room in your life for the off days
For the off days can turn you on again
When you realize that the world turns
Life goes on
And this is just a phase that you pass through
On the way to your next joy.
Note to Self, June 6, 2022
It’s been a few months since I wrote this note to myself. Stumbling upon it again, I am reminded of how important it is to remember this. Inevitably, there will be days when we feel off, things don’t go the way we planned, or we receive news that catch us off guard. It’s okay when we come to a moment where we don’t know what to do or when we feel extreme disappointment and sadness. These moments are part of being human. Instead of being hard on ourselves for having these days, may we be kinder to ourselves when they happen.
Off days are inevitable.. but more importantly, they are unplanned. Sometimes, they hit us directly like a brick to the head. Other times, they’re more subtle and it’s only late in the afternoon when you realize you’re not really feeling like yourself that day. It’s important to acknowledge these moments and these “slips.”
When we reflect on our lives, we end up looking back on moments — snippets of joy and laughter and slices of despair and suffering. We can see that these are all jumbled up in a day, in a year, in a lifetime. Some of our joys have become our pain and a lot of the tears that we have shed bring us lightness and a sense of newness after the storm.
No matter what we are faced with though, the fact that we are still here — reading, breathing, smiling, crying — proves that we have overcome all our “off days” to find our composure back. Sometimes, we do this by actively doing something different. Other times, we accomplish this by simply letting things be as they are.
There is beauty in the struggle.. but also in the surrender. “Off days” are ultimately evidence that we have lived our lives to the fullest, through the highs, the lows, and the in-betweens.