Go Outside Before You Decide It Was a Bad Day

The rule I made for myself

I have a rule now. Before I decide a day is a bad day, I have to go outside first. Ten minutes. No phone in my hand. Just me, the sky, and whatever is going on out there.

I made this rule because I noticed something about myself. I would have a rough morning. A frustrating call, a mistake, some bad news. And by about two in the afternoon I would have already filed the whole day under bad. Once I did that, everything after it looked bad too. I was not giving the rest of the day a chance.

Going outside became my way of hitting pause before I made that call. And more often than not, I come back in with a different verdict.

Why it works for me

I am not a doctor, so I will not tell you the science. I can only tell you what I have noticed. When I am inside, my problems feel like the size of the room. When I step out and see a big sky, a tree moving in the wind, a hawk circling over the hill, my problems shrink back to their real size.

Here in North County we get a lot of sunshine, and I am grateful for it. But this works in the rain too. Some of my best ten minutes have been standing under an awning watching the rain come down. There is something about weather that reminds you the world is bigger than your inbox.

Being outside also gets you moving. Even a slow walk to the end of the block gets your blood going. And for me, a little movement does more for a bad mood than an hour of thinking about it.

How to do your ten minutes

Leave the phone inside or keep it in your pocket. The point is to look up, not down.

Walk if you can. Around the block, to the mailbox and back, across the parking lot at work. Slow is fine. You are not training for anything.

Notice three things. Something you can see, something you can hear, something you can feel. A bird. A lawn mower. The sun on your arms. It pulls you out of your head and into the moment.

Breathe slower than you have been. When I am stressed, I barely breathe at all. Outside, I try to take a few long, slow breaths on purpose.

Say a quick thank you. To God, or just to the day. Name one thing that is still good. There is always one.

What usually happens next

Most of the time, I come back inside and the day is not as bad as I thought. The problem is still there, but I am in better shape to deal with it. I am calmer. I am kinder to the next person I talk to. I make better choices about what to do next.

Sometimes the day really is a hard one. That happens. Ten minutes outside will not fix grief or a real crisis. But even then, it gives me a little room to breathe, and that matters too.

I have started sharing this rule with my son. When he comes home frustrated, I will say, let us take a walk first. Half the time he does not want to. By the end of the block, he is usually talking, and by the time we get home, the bad day has turned into an okay day with a hard part in it. That is a big difference.

So the next time you feel the day going sideways, do not decide yet. Put on your shoes. Open the door. Give the sky ten minutes to make its case.

Ten minutes of sky can change the whole story of your day.