LESSON 2 - WHEN A BAD DAY OVERSTAYS, REV UP YOUR COPING MECHANISM TO HIGH GEAR

I don’t like bad days as much as the next guy but bad days come whether we like it or not. Bad days can take on different forms and comes to us in different ways---

disaster, accident, illness, death, failure, separation, defeat, disappointment, embarrassment, betrayal… or a horrendous traffic jam, a missed flight, a missed out contract, a big hole in our best suit, termites in the basement, an overstaying house guest, a bad report card, car not cranking up, and even more.

My bad day happened on that day in November 2007 and stayed on for days and down to weeks and on to months. So how do you make an overstaying bad day go away? The answer is --- you can’t. With my kind of bad day I just lived through it -- all that a bad day gave me but managed albeit frantically to throw my own punches back at it hoping to knock it out into smithereens. The thing is… it didn’t because bad days are as rigid as a rock and solid as a mountain. So poor tiny me was no match to this monster intent to ruin me and everything I stood for.

But hey, this was not just an ordinary bad day -- this was something that had the potential to alter my life and my family which I knew and sensed. And I had no control over it. It was like a rampaging bull going berserk and rammed through all obstacles of hope courage faith and confidence which stood on its way. It upset routine and schedules, disturbed peaceful nights; it piled on the worries and anxieties, it tore down courage and strength, and punched huge holes in the family coffers. It fiercely uprooted everything I believed in on faith and trust. It succeeded to turn me into a mess and a nervous wreck. I turned into its worst creation and product.

I behaved like a mechanical toy or a robot programmed to respond in predictable manner. No thinking required there. I was numb, weak in the knees; senses dulled, thoughts cluttered, and heart thumping loudly I believed it stopped traffic!

But you know something…. at some point there, something makes you halt and stop - look real hard at things happening around you… its effect on you and the people you love. It hits you real hard jogging your brain cells back to thinking again.

Your coping mechanism begins to restore itself. And what you have to do now is to rev it up to high gear and get flying. Shore up your strength courage faith guts vigor belief. See the situation for what it is, for what hope it may hold, for possibilities that could move you up to help and safety a notch higher, and to get you out of there - the deep abyss - with your heart and soul in one piece.

Rev up your coping mechanism. Do it yourself because nobody is going to do that for you. Energize, recharge yourself if you must. Borrow other people’s strength to boost your own. Seek the power of prayer. Connect with good and supportive family and friends; there is power too in numbers. Discipline your mind and heart to be still and calm; do not clutter it with worry and anxiety no matter how hard that will be in practice.

If you succeed to do at least two or three of these things, you will have acquired for yourself a fair chance for peace and stability, understanding and wisdom. And believe me --- it’s going to help you go through the long stretch ahead and down to its final end.

Bad days --- it can’t destroy us, no! Because a wise God when he created us put in place a built-in coping mechanism in our system meant for life’s bad days, short-lived or extended. All we have to do is learn how to rev it up --- to the max!!

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