waking up in angry pants

Have you ever woken up in the morning and you were just mad?  You don’t really know why, well you kind of know why but you thought all those angry thoughts would go away from the day before. You had a bad day yesterday. It could have been work, or maybe something your significant other said to you, your kids were making you mad, the dog chewed up your favorite shoes, the list goes on and on. Doesn’t your brain rejuvenate itself overnight? 

https://new.nsf.gov/science-matters/nightlife-brain

Anyway, you had a really good reason for being mad yesterday, but you thought when you woke up today, it would be over. But it isn’t. You are still mad.  In a funk. You want to be mad. You don’t want to get over it. Your inner sociopath has taken over and they want revenge. This happens to me all the time. 

https://hbr.org/2015/10/how-to-turn-a-bad-day-around

https://www.planningmindfully.com/having-bad-day/

But that’s not the only emotion you can feel when you wake up in the morning, there are many others.  Sometimes you wake up in your sad mini skirt. You know the one that looks terrible on you, that you could never make work. When you bought the sad mini skirt, it was the hot mini skirt.  It was going to be life changing.  You would be so cool when you put it on and wore it to the club (or whatever we call “the club” today).  Guys would turn and look at you in that skirt, and be like “damn she’s hot!”  Girls would want to be you, wearing that skirt.  Life would be so awesome. Everything would be great when you wore that mini skirt. But then reality sets in and really, you are not pulling it off. (Well, truth is you should pull it off and NEVER EVER WEAR IT AGAIN!) But you never threw it out, it waits in the corner of your closet, tormenting you… Yes you woke up in that skirt and you never want to leave the house ever again.

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/322155

https://psychcentral.com/depression/morning-depression#signs

So today I want to talk about waking up in the morning and having “big feelings” (yes I am saying it) about something.  Whatever was happening to you the day before has not left your mind and it’s hard to get your day started because you are still living in yesterday’s shadow. What do you do?  How do you get over yesterday?

My suggestion is very simple and crazy enough that it might work.  You get undressed mentally.  Let me explain. In your mind, you take off those angry pants, maybe it’s by meditating (that’s one of my favorite things to help me feel better), maybe you go to Starbucks and get your favorite coffee, maybe it’s just by petting your dog or cat. Anyway, my point is you do whatever meaningful thing that helps you relax.  But you also mentally, virtually maybe, even physically like pretend dress up, take off those sociopathic angry pants, take off that sad, sad mini skirt or whatever virtually toxic piece of clothing you are wearing and put on your LBD (little black dress) or slinky black pants, pop on those virtual kitten heels in the cheetah pattern, (hey this is my virtual hot outfit not yours) and while you are at it, while visualizing how great you look, let’s also knock off those 20 (or 50) pounds that would make you feel so much better and do your best mental model walk to get on with your day.  You don’t have time to sit around and feel, mad or sad or sociopathic, there are new people to piss off or piss you off and start the cycle again for you to wake up in a new pair of angry pants tomorrow too. Lucky for all of us, our virtual budget for our new virtual wardrobe is unlimited!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_black_dress

https://www.wardrobeshop.com/blogs/flapper-era/history-of-the-little-black-dress

At the end of the day sometimes you have to (virtually) wear that big baggy hoodie with the hood up and strings pulled tight. It’s my “nothing here to see” look. It means I am just plugging along, doing my own thing and don’t want to be noticed. I should probably wear it more often, but that inner sociopath is good at making me take it off and change into my angry pants most of the time.

Tell me about your waking up in angry, sad, or even awesome virtual clothing.  How do you tame that inner sociopath or pick yourself up and get on with your day?  What is your fantasy virtual outfit? Is it a real outfit that you wore when you had the right body for it or is it a fantasy outfit that you could only wear in your mind?  I want to hear from you.