Buy yourself a gift.

Talk to someone else and get a sense of their life/problems.

Stop fighting it and throw that pity party. Get it out of your system. Say the things you don't want to say out loud. They sound pretty foolish out loud.

Indulge a hobby, games, puzzles.

Focus on a neutral self-contained work problem.

Masturbate furiously.

I go for a run, with some great music in my ears.

Ugh, I have this problem too! What I've taken to doing is to choose ONE thing to do and not stop until that's done. Then I can get a treat for myself!

The lesson I've learned over a few weeks of dreadfully unproductive study leave - as long as I'm doing something, even if it's just putting on my uniform and getting out of the dorms to the library, it's better than nothing at all. I'm just not going to give in to a bad beginning!

Hang in there!

I've had a rough past few weeks with some major potentially life changing work turmoil, so I've become very conscious of how easily that can spiral downwards. I understand how easy it is to let that toxic feeling take over and it occasionally feels like an unbeatable cycle.

For me I've made sure I identify what exactly is causing the bad day - usually it's a few things combined. I find writing it down helps me both spell out the specifics and makes it easier for me to break it down into more digestible portions. Sometimes just that process is enough to clear my head since when looking at the list the individual items don't seem as bad as the larger sense of woe i was building up in my head. Other times I need to look at each item on the list and see what I can physically address/correct and try to come to peace with the things that are out of my control.

I've also started walking, which has helped immensely both as a way to clear my head but also feeling good about doing something good for myself (I've never been an exerciser so this is sort of new to me). Talking with friends is also great - both with people that can directly relate and commiserate (ie co-workers if it's a work thing) and also people that are total outsiders to the issues causing distress. Different viewpoints are great at putting things in perspective.

For me personally, I briefly lost interest in all of my hobbies and even surfing the web or participating in communities I love like MeFi or MeCha. I've finally snapped back and am finding that just a little time drawing or listening to music is enough to spark me into feeling better.

When I need to be motivated I find that making a clear, obtainable to-do list with a reward at the end helps. Rather than looking at the seemingly impossible-to-finish thirty things I need to do I pick a few items to knock out and then promise myself that when I'm done I'll do something fun. Yesterday that was me finishing some things I've let sit and stress me out all week and then rewarding myself with some MeFi.MeCha time. That included making my first post here in ages - an MP3 shuffle and talking about music.

I keep journals on-and-off and I recently looked at entries from a few bad days a few years ago and things that seemed so important and motivation-crushing back then didn't seem that big now. Most of them I don't even remember happening, which is weird considering how bad they seemed at the moment.

Hope you get some good advice and ideas - there are loads of good ways to beat those negative vibes. I recommend trying a sampler platter of ideas from different places and people.

Yoiks - I didn't realize how much I rambled up there! A friend recommended a documentary called Happy that was quite enjoyable and a little inspirational. It looks at people around the world and in different life situations and what they do to be happier and enjoy life. It was a nice little nudge for me this week to put things in perspective and appreciate things a bit more.

Distraction, distraction, distraction. Have a bad day? Surround yourself with up people! Run until your legs fall off! Do something that keeps yu moving but you maybe don't want to do - when I'm angry I clean my bathroom, like with a toothbrush, down to the tiles.

Comfort food, comfort books, comfort movies, sleep too much, sulk a day or two and then back at it.

It can be tough sometimes and I don't think there's any silver bullet, but here are a few things that help me.

One problem is what I call rehearsing (although there's probably a better term for it). You know the sort of thing: you have an argument with someone and then you spend ages going over it again and again in your mind. This drives me crazy. So I write it out as an essay explaining what happened, what was said, what annonyed me about it and what I would do differently next time. I ensure this is in a trusted system (ie. somewhere I know it won't get lost - this is important because my brain needs to know it can let go of it). The added bonus with work things is I can refer to this later if it comes up again (which has happened recently).

The other thing can be having a plan. Sometimes the thing that can make this feeling worst of all is feeling trapped or seeing no end in sight. So try to give yourself hope and think of a way you can improve things. It might just be finding ways to avoid that person, focusing on some aspect of your job that makes you happy, having an exit plan, etc. Just keep it realistic.

I find meditation has helped me a bit - certainly it's helped with sleep. Exercise is also good.

Ack, I go through a version of this every day. I teach a double period 10th grade class and an AP 11th grade class that, while not angels, are very manageable and motivated to learn, for the most part. With them, I really enjoy my job. We have some great moments. Then there's my morning tenth grade class -- all what they call "holdover" or repeater kids -- failed most of their ninth grade classes and state exams. Most, actually, aren't that bad. But four or five of them make the class a nightmare. Some days it takes every tool I have just to survive. And it's a hundred minute class. Yelling and cursing at the top of their lungs; trying to act as if I'm not in the room; throwing books, broken pencils, pennies, if I turn to write on the board; sitting with their back to me; drumming on the desk; repeating what I say in a mocking voice; breaking out into song; refusing to even open their books; constantly hitting and shoving each other. And unless they do something drastic, like break a window or get in a fist fight or actually assault me (which hasn't happened to me yet, luckily, but has happened to colleagues), there's nothing the school administration will do -- in fact, they'd use it against me the way they have against other teachers. I call home, but it doesn't help. That one nightmare class ruins my whole day sometimes, it's such a misery. I'm as good a teacher as you'll find, I swear, with ten years experience, and it nearly has me in tears some days. I tell myself to shake it off, let it go, try not to let it darken the rest of my day, focus on all the successes, but it's hard. I really need to transfer.

doing a Yin or Stretch Yoga class