MANAGING YOUR MOODS

Part 6: Designing Alternatives

We are always in some mood or another. According to the mood we are in, the world and the future will seem different. Our moods color the way we look at the world and the way we look at the future.

Learning how to manage our moods puts us in a position of creative power. We can learn to take action and make shifts in how we relate to anything, and as a result change our moods. When we are in a 'good' mood, life is good.

What if you find yourself in a 'bad' mood. What can you do?

You can ask yourself some questions:

• How am I assessing the world? (What am I telling myself about my world?)
• How am I assessing people around me? (What am I telling myself about the people around me?)
• What assessments do I have about my self? (What am I telling myself about myself?)
• What assessments do I have about the future? (What am I telling myself about the future?)

These questions will help you identify the mood you are in. You will probably find you are in either a mood of resentment or resignation.

Now ask yourself if you are willing to shift. Are you willing to take action and design something different for yourself? If the answer is YES, proceed.

Look at what is true/false, valid/invalid, grounded/ungrounded about what you are telling yourself. You may find as you do this, things shift, as there is insufficient grounding for your mood.

Action promotes change. What else could you do to shift your mood? Examples could be:

• Accept yourself right where you are. Appreciate and be sensitive to the reality you have created in this moment. This in itself will help you open to something more expansive.
• Describe aloud to yourself or another a body sensation, feeling, or thought as you are in the moment. Tell the truth of the moment. Example. "I feel heavy hearted and I'm thinking I will never, ever have what I want regarding this job."
• Remember you are interpreting, making up stories. Challenge yourself to see another way of looking at what is. Ask yourself, "how else can I see this situation? Is there another way to look at what is occurring? How can I find the aspect of what is occurring that is an opportunity for me, rather than something that is happening to me or against me?"
• Call a friend, someone you feel safe with, and ask for support, "I'm in a stuck place, feeling sort of lousy, can you talk with me and perhaps show me a different perspective?"
• Make art expressing how you feel, ... or write about how you feel . Then BURN it, or FLUSH it down the toilet as a symbol of letting them go and moving on. Then write out a statement of what you would prefer.
• Take a walk, go for a run, ride a bike, dance to music, any kind of movement will help you shift.
• Listen to music that has a mood that is opposite to the way you feel. If you feel dark, sluggish, contracted, pick music that is light, upbeat and expansive and let the music move you.
• Or alternatively listen to music that has a mood that is in sync to the way you feel. If you feel dark, sluggish then pick music that is sluggish and dark and really get in to it. Move to the music until you are ready to change!
• Look for what is working. Take action by being thankful.
• BREATHE. Breathe fully down into your belly, filling your lungs all the way up to your shoulders and then exhale fully and completely. Do this until you notice a shift in your mood.

Experiment with other ways that work for you. Add to this list other things you know or discover that work for you and DO IT. Post your list somewhere you can refer to when you are stuck.

Remember the key is to TAKE SOME ACTION with your intention on getting back into an easy flow.

QUOTES

"You might as well win in your own fantasies." 
  ~ John Roger ~

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place." 
  ~ Nora Roberts ~

PRACTICALLY SPEAKING

Follow the steps outlined in the above article!

Send me some of your own.... 
leslie@living-bydesign.com

WONDER QUESTIONS:

Are you willing to be the cause of your moods, rather than be at effect of your feelings, thinking, or outer circumstances?

Are you willing to take action to create what you want?

QUICK LINKS:

COPYRIGHT/CONTACT INFO/REPRINT PERMISSION

Copyright 2006 by Leslie Karen Sann, Living by Design
Visit this link for contact information:
leslie@living-bydesign.com

Reprint permission granted in part or whole when the following credit appears in full:

Copyright 2006 by Leslie Karen Sann,
Living by Design.All rights reserved. 
Web site. http://www.living-bydesign.com