Letting Joy Into A Miserable Morning

If you wake up miserable, just keep in mind that the morning is full of promises it can’t keep.

Just Another Miserable Monday

I did not want to go into work this past Monday.

I was just coming off a fantastic weekend at Kentucky Kingdom with my wife and two-year-old daughter Addison (an experience I’ll cherish forever), and was still trying to get over the sinus infection I’d had since the prior Thursday (which, combined with the trip, had left me exhausted). Getting up was absolutely no fun – I had a sore throat and a headache – and despite the fact that I’d gotten a decent amount of sleep the night before, I could barely keep my eyes open.

To top it all off, I was within my third week of no caffeine – Doctor’s orders – so my body, my mind, and my spirit were dragging. I just wanted to drop back into bed and let my body recover.

Or die, I suppose. Because reading that back… well… I mean there’s a reason my daughter is a drama queen.

In any event, if this was the kind of day Monday was going to be, I didn’t want anything to do with it.

But I didn’t have a choice. I dragged myself out of bed, took a shower, and sleepily got dressed and put my shoes on. Thankfully, Emily was on daycare duty, so I didn’t have the added responsibility of taking Addie to school.

Escape From Misery Mountain

When I arrived at work, I found myself with a mountain (a “Misery Mountain”) of things to get done. I looked at the pile of to-dos and practically froze. I felt the urge to run away and leave it all behind for the day. Heck, I was ready to escape the day itself entirely at this point.

But I couldn’t.

Because, in the real world, you can’t.

The first hour in, the day dragged. I didn’t feel like I was getting anything done, and that large mountain of stuff just wasn’t getting any smaller. My throat still hurt, my nose was stuffed and runny, my headache hadn’t dissipated much, and even the dirty, grungy floor was starting to look like a nice place to lie down for a few minutes.

If I could find a spot that didn’t have spiders nearby, waiting to spring.

Clearly, I needed something to distract me. So, knowing I was going to be stuck in the same hot, humid space for the next few hours, I decided to pull up my iPhone and turn on Pandora.

Joy Takes Hold

I don’t know what compelled me to turn on some tunes – it’s something I rarely do at work.

The first few songs in, it was clear that the ambience in the room had changed. It didn’t seem as dark and miserable in there.

A few more songs later, I caught myself humming. My body was starting to move with the music.

Not two more songs after that, and I was singing. It was nasally and probably didn’t sound great, what with me being sick and all (humor me), but I was singing nonetheless.

Before I knew it, barely half an hour after turning on Pandora, I was singing and dancing up a storm! My head was bopping, my body was moving, and the entire mood in the room had changed.

That’s because my mood had changed.

Sure, my head still hurt, my throat was still sore, and I’m sure if I had stopped the music I would have noticed how tired I still was, but I didn’t care.

I was having an absolute ball!

The Morning Is Full Of Promises It Can’t Keep

While the singing and dancing continued, so did my work. I was so engrossed in the music and energy that I hardly noticed how quickly everything was getting done. That mountain was rapidly turning into a little ant hill, and in seemingly no time at all I was done with my morning work. For that short, fun period of letting go, I hadn’t even realized I was doing work!

Suddenly, the day looked nothing like it had when I got up. Don’t get me wrong, I still wasn’t thrilled to be at work, but now the outlook was no longer dark and miserable – it was bright, colorful and full of optimism and Hope. I was even starting to feel better!

It was a day that I could have let get away from me. Instead, whether consciously or unconsciously, I had found a way to wrangle it back.

I had let Joy in, and it showed me that the morning may make a lot of promises, but it doesn’t have the power to keep them.

That power resides only in you.

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How many times have you woken up miserable and let it consume your entire day? At the end of that day, how did you feel about it? Have you woken up with a gloomy outlook and found a way to let Joy in? How did you do that? What happened to your day when you did it? Share your experience below!