In a rotten mood?

Serenity for your bad mood

How often are you in a bad mood? A really bad, mean, rotten mood? The kind of mood when you just want to smack somebody? But you don’t because, well, non-aggressive. But you really feel like it?

If you frequently feel that way, perhaps it’s time to seriously change a constant in your life. It could be that you’re not getting an important nutrient – study your diet. Or you’re not being stimulated mentally. Or you’re dissatisfied at work. Or your relationships need work. Or the human connections you have require too much from you. Or you’re not getting enough fresh air. Or exercise.

The point is, if you’re in a bad mood all the time – it’s not the world, it’s you. Time to figure it out. I can’t help with that. No one can but you.

Yes, I figured it was time for a kick-in-the-pants post. A big part of fitness is the mental side – the whole mind-body connection. Get your head working right and the rest will follow as long as you’re working on it.

There’s no question about it, and we hear about this constantly from every media outlet – these are difficult times. We’re all trying to figure it out together. Some people seem to have a better handle on it than others, though.

So, what’s their secret?

I don’t think there is a secret. I think the people you see who seem to be handling these “difficult times” the best fall into two categories – those who are hiding their true feelings and those who are working on making things be OK.

Hiding your true feelings can be as bad as lashing out, but the person you’re hurting the most there is yourself.

But working on making the best of things seems to be a healthy road to take. Work actively on the relationships that are important to you – your family, your friends, your coworkers. Maintain a healthy diet. Get moving – exercise has been proven to be a mood-lifter. (I wrote about that a while back.) Do fun things frequently. Play with your dog. Dance to your favorite music. Watch old episodes of your favorite sit-coms.

These will help you get out of the doldrums.

In a funk?

You may have sensed from my last post that I’m in a funk. I’m feeling my age. I had to really push myself yesterday to do my workout, and the day before that wasn’t great either.

Some days are like that. Some weeks are like that. The cycles we go through in our lives leave an impression. The seasons affect us. The weather affects us.

It had been cool and rainy here for days, which certainly did not help things. Joints were stiff and creaky. People were in bad moods.

When I’m in a bad mood, I don’t want to do anything. I don’t want to associate with anyone. I don’t want to talk to anyone. Those days I wish I could put myself in a bubble with a “Do Not Disturb!” sign on me.

Of course, that’s not possible.

So what I’ve learned to do is paste a smile on my face during working hours and try to be as helpful as humanly possible to the people I meet. And hope that the smiles I receive in return will make an impression on my brain and stick there!

It’s really hard to keep that up indefinitely, though. On days like that, it’s all I can do to be nice to the dogs!

And working out yesterday was not fun. I did not want to do it, but I made myself. I wanted to quit after every exercise for the first half of the workout. By the second half, I conned myself into finishing – “You’re more than halfway done. You can do this!” And I did. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t fun, but it was done!

And afterward I took a long warm shower with “Citrus Fresh” essential oil dropped onto the baking soda disc, which was delightful. And I felt better when it was done – quite virtuous!

It’s nice and bright and warm today, so hopefully that will put a more positive spin on things.

Let me know how you combat your blue funk days!