About once a month I have an off day. One where I get annoyed or frustrated. I feel down and want to hit someone with my handbag. I think that is pretty good. Very infrequent.

I am at a stage where I am able to identify these emotions and manage it. It is very rare that I will have 2 off days in a row. I generally consider my lows to be not that low. On the flip side, my highs are not overly high. I spend a lot of time just oscillating near the mean.

I am aware that this is not the case for others. And the more I talk to people, I realise it is not the case for a lot of people. Some people have bad weeks, months and even years. I can imagine that this would get really difficult to deal with.

When I think of the amount of energy it much take to manage these big swings, I begin to empathise with the struggles.

Being in touch with your emotions and managing them is vitally important to a happy and balanced life. It is critical to mental health and stability. I work hard at staying positive and actively practice the idea of ‘Control only things which are within my control’. Further, ‘Everything happens for a reason’. Now at the time, this is difficult to do. But allowing things to take their course, and only stress what you can change makes for easier living.

I think that there is a valuable role for your slashie in here. Whether you pin your happiness against it, or something else. Having a trigger that helps you identify the pending gloom is important. You also need to have a routine to help you through it.

I know that everyone is different, but I feel that if we take the time to listen to our bodies, our minds, and just as importantly our spirits, we can all manage the bad days and ensure they don’t extend to bad weeks and beyond.