Noticing and Smiling Changed My Day For the Better

Two days ago was a rather bad day. Nothing really awful, but still rather unpleasant. Work was fine but, of course, some problems needed to be handled.

Maybe it was because of the colleague I dislike. Maybe it was that mail I got from a client. Maybe it was because of the cold weather outside every time I went out for a smoke.

Either way, I was in a pretty bad mood. You know the kind I’m talking about, right? When you feel your day is pointless. When minutes feel like hours. When you picture your evening and realize you won’t have any time to relax. When even talking with people you like feels like a drain. That kind of mood.

In such situations, we are well aware of the bad mood we are in. But we push the realization away and mumble complaints to ourselves.

“My gosh, another one of those? Again?”

But then, 2:15 p.m. came around and woke me up from this maze.

“Hey, isn’t that cloud beautiful?”

It was there, outside my office window. A weird-looking cloud that looked like nothing but just felt beautiful.

This one positive thought disturbed my train of thoughts and my mind got clear for a split second. This tiny span of time acted as a reset button.

“Wow, what was I thinking?! Today may not be the best, but it’s rather okay, isn’t it?”

Hearing myself in my head and picturing me saying that to someone made me smile. Probably for the first — honest — time of the day.

From there on, the day continued… in the same way. Did it get factually better? Nah. Did I solve the problems I was handling? Nope, it took me another day for one and I’m still working on some others. As a matter of fact, negative thoughts did come back a few times.

But one thing did change. My perception of it all. The realization that all of it was just part of a passing moment. I had noticed once the beauty of the day. And I was now able to intercept negative patterns, reminding myself over and over the same thing:

“It will pass.”

If it’ll pass, why should I give it more thoughts than it deserves? I’d gladly give mental space to something that deserves it. But if it’s negative, I won’t allow it to impact my mood. After all, I don’t want to forget again that the world is beautiful.

And hey, look up. I’m sure you can also see a beautiful cloud or tree outside. Appreciate the simple beauty in those and smile. Your day is better than it seems. As Bob Marley would say:

Every little thing gonna be alright.

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Mathias Barra is a French polyglot living in Japan and who has learned 6 languages and dabbled in numerous others. Being a curious child full of wonders is how he keeps on learning and can’t stop sharing about every tiny idea, even non-language-related.