Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen ways to improve your day:

1. Smile. Even if you don't feel like it and would rather pout, make your face smile. If you're talking on the phone, smile so that you sound like you're enjoying the conversation.

2. Laugh. Laugh at yourself. Laugh with your friends. Buy a joke book if you have to. Recall the funniest thing that ever happened to you and grin and grin about it.

3. Daydream. Spend a few minutes outside of yourself. Think about your dream vacation in Hawaii or Belgium or wherever. Imagine you're there, hear the sounds, feel the breeze. Think about the shoes you'd buy to wear; whatever turns you on.

4. Buy yourself a present. It could just be a pack of chewing gum, but note when you make that purchase that it is for yourself and don't just buy it out of habit. Tell yourself you deserve this, by golly. You're worth a pack of gum.

5. Stay in the present. Forget your worries and stop thinking of the past. For just a minute, feel the air around you. Hear the sounds of your workplace or home, see the colors of the room, feel the air you're breathing as it passes through your nose. If you're eating something, focus on how it tastes, its texture, how much you like having it in your mouth.

6. Brush your hair and/or reapply makeup. Straighten your clothes. If you look your best, you feel your best. Heck, you might want to go all-out and take a shower and start all over again if you're having a really bad day.

7. Read a book or magazine. Reading can take you out of yourself for a while. When you stop, you often have a new perspective.

8. Find a friend and have lunch. You can turn it into a b*tch session if you need to, but you might just find the companionship is the balm you seek.

9. Praise someone else. Telling other people that they've done a good job, or look nice, or have a nice smile or a pleasing voice or whatever can make you feel special, too.

10. Do something nice for someone else. I am constantly amazed at the reaction I get from people if I let them get in front of me when I am in line at the grocery store. I do this all the time if someone has fewer items than I and I've never had someone be ungrateful. This is a relatively simply act of kindness - actually it's just good manners - so think how the world might be if we all went out of way to be mannerly to one another.

11. Relive a good memory. Maybe it's the day your husband proposed. Maybe the birth of your child. Maybe the day you were promoted. Whatever it is, recall it with great satisfaction. Remember that you have this memory because people care about you and because you deserve things.

12. Finish the task. Sometimes it is the things hanging over my head that loom like dark clouds. I put them off and shove them away because something about them bothers me or is unpleasant. But if I buckle down and get to it, then when it's over with the sun shines and all is well. This is hard for me to do but it does work.

13. Have a hug. I don't care what kind of mood I am in, if I can get a hug from my husband or a friend or even a stranger, everything is better. We go through life with our shells surrounding us, afraid to touch each other, and it is so sad. I think we need a great hug-out day so that we can all get the Touch Vitamin we so desperately need. So here's a cyber-hug to you! {{{{{{YOU}}}}}}