Moods – Turning Mountains into Molehills.
Ever find yourself in a mood?… Of course you do! Moods are a natural part of life ☺️
Usually at the beginning we don’t know we are in a mood. Annoyingly, the ones around us, be at work or home, often do! … and if it’s not a nice mood it makes it even more irritating that others are starting to react to our ‘vibes’.
Noticing you’re in a mood is powerful. It is the beginning of not being held hostage to your upset feelings and unconsciously acting in protective patterns of withdrawal or irritability.
Unhelpfully though, upon noticing we often resist or fight the mood. With others picking up on our vibes it can intensify and make the mood worse, or increase our denial, resistance or fighting with the mood.
Best thing we can do is recognise the mood, knowing it’s a clump of upset feelings in response to something that has happened, or is happening. You may be familiar with the saying ‘you’re making mountains out of mole hills’ – well, yes we all do this at times, but the opposite is also true – we often dismiss, minimise, or marginalise a cluster of feelings, wanting to see it as a molehill and not appreciating it’s more of a mountain! This is how we unwittingly and unconsciously manifest a mood!
If we persist with trying to dismiss our mood then the ‘mountain’ will persist in following us and we won’t succeed in shaking it. We want to shake it because it doesn’t go along with how we want to be in the situation, or moment. It clashes with our identity. But there it is, it’s a thing that is disturbing us and doesn’t seem to want to go away and now we’ve woken up to it and found ourselves in it – What to do now?!
Be there for yourself – remember it’s a clump of feelings and possibly a mountain you’re treating like a molehill. Being there for yourself means making more time and space for those feelings. Yes, you have to pause in your tracks, turn, pay attention to the unwanted feelings and lean into them with openness and curiosity – not shutting them down but opening them up – listening attentively and kindly. Not easy to do especially if you’ve developed a mood about your mood! Oh No! ..this is when you’ve got fed up and exhausted with the ‘mountain’ following you around everywhere! 😱🏃🏽🌋
In these situations we have two parts of ourselves having strong feelings and developing stronger feelings towards each other! The term ‘cluster f**k’ was invented for this scenario, and it’s actually a very common experience, so don’t think you’re alone when this is happening to you! This is a good time to go: No I’m not waving, I’m drowning! and find a decent someone to talk with who will help you loosen the complex bag of sh*t that’s going on for you.
Ok strong feelings need to be: attended to; listened to; and understood; and then actions taken if necessary. There is just no way around this. The feeling part of our brains is way stronger then the mental part. It’s like getting cross with an elephant. The good news is our elephants love it when we genuinely listen and care for them! 😊 and it’s the secret to restoring emotional equilibrium with ourselves and others, and getting the elephants on our sides again 😃😊
We’re coming into a moody time of year! The year is ending. We’re having feelings of being done for the year and at the same time feeling pressure to get things done, and for others to get things done. We are fantasising about getting away from it all, and at the same time experiencing all sorts of social desires and obligations.
The environment is set for feelings quickly ripening and getting rotten. Look out for yourselves, each other, and know I’m available when you need that bit of extra support.