When Life Gives You Lemons Make Sweet What Starts Sour

We all have days where we wonder why everything is going so awfully. Your tire blows up making you late for work; you forgot the important paperwork at home and now are unprepared for the presentation you needed to make. Or maybe it is more simple, like a bad hair day or just feeling like you are running behind no matter how much of yourself you put into getting everything back on schedule. I have found, having had my share of such days, that the only way to turn things around is to focus on the little things that are good. Sometimes it is something as simple as "When the tire blew up I didn't get hurt." By making a practice of seeing the good in every experience, it becomes easier on the days that feel like hell on earth.
It is not always easy to see the smaller, positive side to an uncomfortable or unwanted situation. Even little things, like the crust of my banana bread coming out darker than I had hoped, have been enough to throw me in a mood. But I am learning to recognize that the only reason something so small has the power to upset me is because I have chosen to let it. Instead of seeing this beautiful bread, moist and sweet, all I could see was that the top was not the shade I wanted. I focused on the one portion that I did not like. Backing up to see the whole picture was very beneficial because it allowed me to put into perspective something that truly was unimportant.
But there are times when these hard days are far more than just a small agitation here and there. There are the days when you just get hit with one unpleasant experience after the other. What are we supposed to do when it seems like the whole world has something against us? We woke up sick, were late getting out the door, got stuck in traffic, and then when we finally get to work and the copier is broken and four people called out sick. What are we supposed to do on these days? We do not want to let these things ruin our day, but it seems inevitable that it will affect us.
I think that it is important to at least attempt to put a positive spin on the experiences we do not like. Sometimes that spin is as small and simple as "I'll never do that again." This is acknowledging that you do have power to prevent the situation from occurring again. Maybe just "I'm so glad that's over." By putting into words that the unpleasantness is done you can bring yourself closure. Maybe you can actually find something positive in the experience: "My car lost a tire on the highway, I was late to work, but I found a nice mechanic and now I won't have to get the tires rotated next month because it got done early." I am convinced that by focusing on the positive that came from the experience, no matter how small or seemingly trivial, you are able to turn the day around. If you keep your spirits up the day will get better, even if only slightly.
I am definitely not an expert. I still have days where a stubbed toe seems like the final straw and I get angry over spilled milk (literally). But I have less of these days the more I learn to relax and just roll with the punches. I do not think any of us will ever get to the point where we no longer have these days. But I hope that we can learn how to live though these days without having them ruin us. I have made it my daily practice to focus on the positive, and by doing so have been able to change the way I experience my bad hair days, and even the just plain bad days.