Moods are somewhat different than emotions.
Emotions are a direct result of thoughts we have been holding, and therefore have an identified cause. Moods, however, are a background feeling we are having, and have no directly identifiable cause, but are created as a result of the relationship between our physiological energy level, the tension we feel in our bodies, and the stressful way in which we respond to the situations in our lives.
The three causes of moods are:
1) The meaning we add to the events in our lives. For example, a person think that a business that doesn’t work out means that “I am a failure”. That’s just a meaning that they are adding to that event! A mother who has a fight with her daughter might add the meaning to the event that she is a “bad mother”. That’s just meaning she’s adding!
2) The extent to which we tense up against, resist, what we are experiencing, thereby trapping the negative energy within our energy fields. Learn to allow your posture and stance to relax so that you are not tensing up against having an experience that seems to be unpleasant; This is allowing yourself to have the experience.
3) The extent to which we have depleted our energy through inappropriate amounts of sleep, inappropriate amounts much exercise, or self deprecating thoughts. The solution is to have balance in your life, relative to how much sleep you get, or don’t get, and how much you exercise, or don’t exercise. Too much in either direction is still imbalance!
To change the mood, do the opposite of whatever you were doing when the mood came over you. If you had been going “gang-busters”, take a break, and sit down. If you had been sitting a lot, get up and go for a walk. If you had been staring at the computer, get up and do some jumping jacks, or some other exercise! If you had been very social, get some along time. If you had been alone quite often, join a meetup.com group and get some social interaction! DO THE OPPOSITE.
So, our thoughts do yield the fruit of our eventual mood, but the mood builds through the accumulating negative perception we focus on.
And guess what? The feelings you are feeling are not FACTS! The way you are thinking about the situation is what causes your feelings, so look for a different perspective. Try to think of other ways to think about the situation.
It doesn’t have to be the way you are currently thinking! Currently, you are simply only looking at one of the many possible interpretations of the data going on in your life. What other potential interpretations of that data can you think of?
Janeen J. Detrick
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