So you wake up feeling refreshed and look out your window at the beaming sunshine - you take a deep breath, stretch and tell yourself - today is going to be a great day. You go to jump in the shower but realise your partner is already in there. No dramas you think, I’ll just make the bed and start getting breakfast ready. However, feeling out of routine when the shower becomes available you feel compelled to jump in even though you're halfway through making your breakfast. When you get out the toast and the tea is cold and you’ll have to make it again, and now you're running late…
On the way to work you hit heavy traffic and then someone cuts you off stopping you from making your turn off - you feel bubbles of irritated energy arising within you as you know you're going to be late for an important meeting. When you arrive at work and the boss makes a nasty comment about your lack of punctuality - irritating you even further and you think, if only they knew the full story!
Our moods can seem to change at the blink of an eye depending on what seems to be happening around us. However, is it because of the things happening or just our perception of it? This month we take a closer look at moods and how to manage them for good physical and mental wellbeing.
Our mood is the reflection of our overall emotional tone at that given moment. Experiencing different moods adds to our enrichment of life and the experiences we have. However, this blessing can become a double edge sword if we don’t learn when to intervene.
So what can we do to help keep our mood in the healthy spectrum more often than not?
The 7 Key things that we can do to assist our moods.
Begin every day by asking yourself - What could I do today that I would really enjoy, look forward to or make me feel a great sense of accomplishment? This will get your mood meter started in the right direction!
Physical movement and posture - if we were being a downer as a child what did our parents say? I know mine would say something like “why don’t you go outside and kick the ball /play with the dog /or go for a walk?” Our posture is very reflective of our mood - our body language reflects up to 55% of how we express ourselves to others. How do you walk when you're really down vs when you feel on the top of the world? Interestingly though - changing your posture into a more positive or balanced state can ACTUALLY change your mood. This is because we are so anchored neurologically between our emotions and our movement. This means we can literally fool our brains to trigger different emotions just by changing something as simple as our posture! Try it and getting your adjustments regularly helps!
Drink a lot of water - this is for many reasons. It turns out the majority of fatigue, hunger and headaches can be fixed by drinking more water. For the average adult I would suggest at least 30ml per kg of body weight as a minimum! If your baulking at this you're probably one of the 68% of us in western society that lives chronically dehydrated :)
Learn to screen your thoughts. Pull yourself up when you a thinking thoughts that are belittling, harsh or don’t serve you well. Many of the thoughts we have actually stem from our emotions around the experiences we have. Our stories about these experiences (not necessarily real, right or true) can be change by changing our perspective. One really useful technique to do this is called REFRAMING. Check out the blog I wrote about this here.
Practice saying thank you more often or be of more service to those in need or are important in your life. It amazing how powerful this simple technique is to boost feelings of self worth and purpose.
Make sure you schedule time in your day to connect or socialise with friends, family or people you just like being around. Maybe give them a quick call, do a workout or have lunch. My brother in law just did a 30 day challenge where he had to connect with at least one stranger every day for 30 days. Not only did he come out of it with a few more connections but meeting new people became a breeze!!
At night think or write down the things that you are grateful for, what you learned and what your looking forward to.
Remember the mind, our emotions and our reactions to events are in our own control. Most of us want good health so we can feel good and experience the things that make us happy.
If we start to direct our minds with the things we want to think and feel, the better we will get at experiencing life in that way. We will also enjoy better moods on the healthier more positive end of the spectrum and will naturally take on the challenges that get thrown at us with flexibility, presence and a state 'okness' that will keep us on track!