We all get them, that moment when the cloud descends and we find ourselves in an emotional fog we can’t navigate our way out of. Being in a bad mood sucks, it sucks for us and it sucks for the people who have to put up with us. Being a Debbie Downer is no fun even when your name is Hank! Bad moods can happen often without a known cause so we often look to our lives for the reasons. We look for reason in our job, not having got where we wanted to in life, blame our partners and before we know it we are now twice as fed-up as we were before. When you look for reasons to be unhappy, you can always find them. We think if we find the cause of our unhappiness we can do something about it and then become happy. Yet the opposite is true, looking for why you’re in a mad mood compounds it with justification. It starts to mean you have every right to be a grump. My mother had a great saying whenever I got fed up as a kid ‘I cried because I had no shoes, then I met a man who had no feet’. So focused was I to on my bad mood I snapped back ‘Maybe his lack of shoes caused his feet to fall off! Things can get worst!’ The truth is my mother was right, shift your prospective to one of gratitude for what you have and you find the moody funk goes away more quickly.
So here’s a quick guide on how to snap out of a bad mood and brighten your and everyone else’s day.
- Know that there is nothing wrong with you. Bad moods are normal, so don’t go poking around in your psychology looking for how you’re broken. You’re not broken.
- Whatever you’re doing, no matter what the deadline, stop doing it. It’s going to turn out rubbish the mood you’re in, so we need to snap out of the mood then when you go back to the task it will flow. Obviously don’t leave the baby in the bath water, but take the baby and find a change of scene.
- Try not to take yourself and your mood too seriously. Don’t make it mean anything or add importance to it, it is what it is in this moment and this moment will pass.
- Your moods have a rhythm to them; break the rhythm by playing upbeat music and having a dance, even if you don’t feel like it.
- Take a look at your food intake. More often than not bad moods have more to do with our intake of nutrients, exercises and amount of sleep, then anything in our external world.
- Know yourself and understand what your triggers are. For me, if I am cold, hungry or tired I am not the best of myself. If I am all three you better not get in my way!
Life is tough and it’s time to stop getting disappointed that it’s anything other than tough. When we shift that expectation we look for and value all of the wonderful things that are happening all the time. Then life doesn’t feel tough at all, it flows and we stop getting stuck in a funk.
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** If you feel in a funk, book a thirty minute phone chat with me and I’ll soon snap you out of it :) https://beckywalsh.com/intuitive-appointments/
