Having one of those days?  Those days when nothing seems to be going right? No matter how much ice cream you eat or how many well-intentioned friends encourage you to “Shrug it Off” or “Lighten Up” you just feel miserable? Well, most likely, something triggered the stress response and the switch turned on, but won’t turn off. This is often caused by emotions and thoughts about a particular event or situation that caused you to lose perspective. It could be an off-handed comment from a co-worker that triggered a negative memory from your past, or a mistake you made on an important project at work that brings up feelings of inadequacy, or even a phone call from your mother.  Okay, we don’t have to elaborate on why a call from your mother might trigger the stress response, do we?  Besides, I don’t have that many giga bytes!

But once you’ve lost perspective, your perception of the situation actually seeks out that which will reinforce it. So what started out as a bad moment turns into a bad day and you begin to attract more things you perceive as bad.  Suddenly the pile of papers on your desk looks like Mount Everest. Then, your boss comes in with a pile that rivals Mount Kilimanjaro, at the same time the school calls for you to pick up your puking pre-teen. Your spouse is out of town, your car is in the shop and you suddenly feel sick yourself. You are in a downward spiral. Let’s face it. There is no way warm, fuzzy affirmations like, “There is good in every situation.” and “I love my hips.” is going to flip that stress switch now.

So what do you do? Take the Slightly Off Reality Check to begin to spiral up and put life back into proper perspective! Here’s how it works. On a scale of 1-10, ask yourself, “How bad is it?”

Of course, you’re going to tell me, “Oh, it’s bad, Deb, it’s a ten!”

But it can’t be a ten, because on the Slightly Off scale, a ten is the end of the world. And the only thing as bad as the end of the world, is the end of the world! So you can’t pick ten. You can pick nine, but you can’t pick ten, unless, of course you see a meteor zooming towards your head.

Now it also helps to know what a one is on the scale. One is a vurp. What’s a vurp you ask? Well, if you must ask, I must tell you. A vurp is when you burp and kind of vomit at the same time. And you get that awful taste in your mouth? Well, you asked!  Okay, it’s unpleasant, but overall not that bad!  And if you want to see the girl having a vurp on my Slightly Off Reality card, open it and print it out. Now without even realizing it, you’ve added another tool to help you out of the stress response. Humor.

Humor has the power to release the feel good hormones called endorphins. So does exercise. But wouldn’t you rather laugh than jog? Me too!  So keep your Slightly Off Reality card handy for those tough days. Then you can start to spiral up by choosing this one better thought, “It’s not the end of the world and there is no meteor zooming towards my head!”