Do you wake up some days and simply find yourself in a bad mood? It is easy to do. There are so many things that can disrupt our lives and bring us down if we let them. The key is to not let circumstances, people and events dictate your mood and day. I know, that is a tall order and not always easy to do. But here are a few tips to help get your off to a good start to your day or even turn a bad day around.

1. Start your day with verbal recognition of a few things (small or big) that you could put on a grateful list. Rehearse the blessings. Today, I am thankful for a good night’s rest, children who are healthy, a job that I like, etc. If you begin your day with blessings, your mood tends to go or stay positive.
2. During your day, give attention to the positive things that happen. Because I am trained as a therapist to always find problems, I can easily put my focus on problems and things that are not right. Doing this, brings my mood down. So when I focus on what goes right in my day, my mood improves—Here is a recent example: I had to fly to Maine for a family emergency. I was able to get a flight at the last minute that didn’t break the bank. Mu connections worked. I saw the hand of God get me to where I needed to be. Even though I was dealing with loss, I saw God’s hand move on my behalf.
3. Verbalize appreciation for the people in your life. We may think positive things about the people around us and not tell them. Verbalizing your praise, appreciation or even fondness for others will lift your mood and theirs. And then take that same idea into the work place. Praise your coworkers, your boss and others when you appreciate something they do.
4. Finish this sentence, “The best things in life are free including…” I hope you thought of the unconditional love of God and His grace. Those two things should make your heart soar. Changing a bad day to a good one has to do with learning to be contentment no matter what happens. If you appreciate what you have, notice the blessings around you, and focus on the goodness of God in your life, your mood changes.
5. Renew your mind with God’s truth. So often in the Bible, God speaks to renewing our mind because we can’t control all our life circumstances and we know difficulty will come into our lives. We can control how we respond to difficulty. And our response has to do with the perspective or the mindset we have. We can be the victim, blame others when problems come, or we can look at our circumstances as a way to grow and learn. And even look for the hand of God in the difficulty. Keep our eyes on God, not our circumstances just like Peter did when he was walking on the water towards Jesus. The second he took his eyes off the Lord, he started to sink. When we take our eyes off the Lord, we can sink into a bad day.
6. Believe! Believe that God causes things to work for our good, even the bad things that happen in a day. The apostle Paul challenges us not to lose perspective when times are tough. He had a number of bad days in prison. But he remained hopeful for a better day when he would be present with the Lord. He rejoiced in all his circumstances. To be content means trusting God completely.

Jesus turned the worst day of his life into the best day for us. His sacrifice on the cross gave us eternal life and peace with Him.  We can wake up in the morning and feel eternally grateful for his sacrifice. So turn that bad day into a better day by reminding yourself that God is for you, a help in trouble and will work all things for your good.