Personal Note
This week has been one filled with blessings, such as opportunities to give two of my talks to appreciative audiences. The Stonebrooke Golf Club Women’s Luncheon was the site of my talk on “What Do Wonder Woman and You Have in Common?” and Robins, Kaplan law firm heard “The Angina Monologue,” my talk on women and cardiac disease.
The weather, too, has been cooperative: pleasantly warm with relatively low humidity. The only storm came one day pre-dawn, so that we awoke to fresh air and a cleansed world.
Excited and stimulated by my successes, I returned home and flopped down in a chair, exhausted and curiously depressed.
So I chose to have a tranquil mood, by pulling a CD out of my collection that reminded me of serene, dreamy times in the past and the kinds of scenes in which I want to participate in the future.
If you don’t already have a system for managing your moods, consider setting one up.
Choose Your Moods
Sometimes it seems as if moods overtake us with the swiftness of summer storms. Perhaps there’s a warning: something happens, someone says something. Sometimes they just seem to appear out of nowhere.But moods don’t just happen, and you don’t have to be a “victim of the storm.”The key to taking charge of your moods lies in seeing that you have choices. You can increase your ability to be aware of your choices when you start limiting automatic behavior.
Think of all the things you take into your body and your mind daily, besides food: sights, sounds, smells, tactile experiences.
For example, do you flip on the radio automatically – in your car or in your home? Just flip the switch and leave it on? When you do, be aware that somebody else is choosing the music, whether it’s bright and lively, slow and tranquil, or fast and furious.
Your body is moving right along with the rhythm and the sounds, and your emotions are, too. Someone else is in charge. Is that what you want?
Perhaps you have turned on a talk show – and when you are not paying attention the topic of the program has changed, and there you are, listening to a speaker making a passionate argument for or against a current issue. Even if you agree with the speaker, do you really need to have your passions aroused on that issue right now?
What about the daily news? Do you read or watch TV automatically? The media generally focus on the idea that Good News is No News, so a lot of what we read, hear or watch, is Bad News.
I’m not suggesting you shield yourself from anything unpleasant, because of course you want to be a mature and an informed person, but how many exposures do you need to the same story about burglaries, murders, wars, and other atrocities? Such stories are often repeated over and over again, all day long, without necessarily adding more information that might be important for you to know.
Think about everything you take in all day through sight, hearing, touch, or smell – how do you feel right afterwards? What is your mood? Pay attention.
You can make choices about what not to view or hear or experience.
Just as you can make choices to select things to view or hear that bring you serenity or even joy.
Make a list of some experiences you can give yourself every day – music to hear, a poem to read, a picture to look at – that support your good mood.
Remember always: Pause. Think about it. Then choose wisely.
