Better Days Are Coming — This One's for Anyone in the Thick of It

We're not going to pretend this one is easy to write.

Because "better days are coming" isn't a message you reach for when things are fine. You reach for it when things are hard. Really hard. When you're in a season that's testing you in ways you didn't see coming and the end of it isn't anywhere in sight yet.

If that's where you are right now — this post is written for you. Exactly where you are.

The Meaning Behind the Red Box

Red is bold. It's the color of urgency and passion and the kind of energy that refuses to be ignored. We chose it for this message because "Better Days Are Coming" isn't a soft whisper — it's a declaration. It's something you have to say with some fire behind it, especially when the evidence for it feels thin.

This year's theme is Connection Makes Us Stronger, and the red box holds a specific kind of connection: the one between you and your own resilience. The relationship between who you are in the hard season and who you'll be when you come through it. That's a connection worth tending to.

The artwork was created by Ashley aka Little Sisters Studio on IG . Their work carries the boldness and momentum this message calls for — a visual reminder that movement is still happening, even when it doesn't feel like it.

What to Do When You Can't See the Better Days Yet

Here's what we've learned, both personally and through years of building this community: the hardest part of a hard season isn't usually the difficulty itself. It's the uncertainty about how long it's going to last. It's not knowing if what you're doing is working. It's the exhaustion of holding on when you can't see the finish line.

So we're not here to tell you to just stay positive or keep your chin up. That's not what this is. What we want to offer is something more honest than that.

Better days are coming not because life is always fair or because pain has a guaranteed expiration date — but because you are not static. You are changing, growing, and adapting even when it doesn't feel like it. The work you're doing right now — just getting through, just keeping going — is doing something. Even when you can't see it yet.

You are not the same person you were at the beginning of the last hard thing you survived. And you won't be the same person on the other side of this one either. That's not a cliché. That's just the truth about humans.

Bringing This Reminder Into Your Life

• Tend to the basics first. In hard seasons, self-care isn't about bubble baths — it's about sleep, food, water, and movement. Make sure the foundation is there.
• Find one anchor per day. One thing — a person, an activity, a moment — that reminds you there's still something worth being here for. Hold onto that.
• Let people in, even a little. You don't have to share everything. But carrying the weight completely alone makes hard seasons harder. Let someone sit with you in it.
• Stop measuring progress by how you feel. Feelings in hard seasons are not accurate data about how you're doing. You can be making real progress and still feel terrible. Both things can be true.
• Be gentle about your capacity right now. You are running on less. That's okay. Scale your expectations of yourself accordingly without judgment.

Journal Prompts to Sit With

• What hard thing have I already survived that I thought might break me? What does that tell me about my capacity?
• What does "better" look like for me — not perfect, just better? What's one small version of better I can imagine?
• What am I needing most right now that I haven't asked for yet?
• If I could send a message to the version of me who makes it through this, what would I want them to know about what I did to get there?

Find the Box That Finds You

The "Better Days Are Coming" red box is part of the 2026 Kleenex x Self-Care Is For Everyone collection — six boxes, six affirmations, one mission. Find the full set at Target stores nationwide while supplies last through the end of June.

If someone in your life is in a hard season, this is the box to bring them. Not because it fixes anything — but because sometimes the most powerful thing you can do for someone is hand them something that says: I believe in your better days, even when you can't right now.

👉 Find the SCIFE x Kleenex collection at your local Target → LINK HERE!