Day 75 – Bad Mood Days

This morning I was just in a bad mood. It started yesterday, I just had a feeling of being out of sorts, off my game so to speak. I started analyzing why that was this morning. Here I am feeling really grumpy and unmotivated and ultimately just want the world to leave me alone. Why?

I am assuming that everyone feels this way from time to time, perhaps I am just the victim of 10 generations of mental illness. I can say that because my ancestors came to America on wooden ships after selling everything they had to afford the trip. Some would call that risk taking, others would call it insanity! However, I have talked to many people and all of them have days like this.

The important concept is to push through your commitment. Remember the 365 commitment is the foundation, your last stronghold of your will. If you have a bad day and all that you were able to accomplish was the commitment – then at least that major foundation did not crumble. I have many thoughts on what causes these bad mood days. I will walk through what I think they are, perhaps some of you can comment on what you think causes them.

My first thought was that I was doing something wrong. Eating poorly, sleeping poorly or not exercising enough. I think these are contributing factors. I certainly did not eat perfectly this last few days, and when I started feeling bad I started to crave even worse foods. I considered dehydration as a culprit, and I think that may be a stronger factor then I care to admit. I have been exercising well, but this last few days I have been forced to work at the computer for several days in a row. The increased sedentary could also be a root cause. I think all of these are factors, but not the primary cause.

The second source of irritation I looked at was changes in my life. I am making quite a few changes, and recently decided to renovate my home office. Things are in disarray  and a bit of chaos and that has got me struggling with trying to get it right. That has preoccupied me and I have this sense that I am wasting time worried about something trivial has burdened me. Also, stress at work has had an impact. There has not been any unusual stress but there are some difficult matters that I have had to work through and those might be having a bigger impact on me then I realize. Taking a deep breath and evaluating how that might be effecting me may be a consideration to improve my mood.

The third area that I explored was control. There are a few things that I do not really have control over. Some issues at work, the contractor I am trying to get to fix my office, and even my children! Maybe when you are under stress and elements outside of your complete control start to encroach in and demand your attention then you start to spiral into a bad mood because you have an instinct that things are not right when this is occurring.

I also considered that there maybe something really wrong, like perhaps my soul has an early warning signal that is going off letting me know there is danger. This could be irrational, and probably is. I spent some time thinking about what that could be – I did see a few things that I may need to watch or consider but nothing that I could not handle. So perhaps I need to spend sometime quieting down my fight or flight response!

The last area that I considered has given me hope and helped me to feel a little better this morning. I started viewing my mind, will, soul as a muscle. As most of you probably know, when you put a muscle under heavy load that muscle will eventually breakdown. Once it breaks down, it will rebuild and when it does – it will be stronger. I think what my has ultimately caused my bad mood is my soul breaking down under heavy load. This is not a bad thing, I think it is actually good sign. I just need to recognize it for what it is. I have pushed myself to the breaking point and I broke down a little.

Just like with muscle tissue, it is perfectly acceptable to break down. In fact, it is part of the process of building stronger muscles. If I want a stronger soul (mind, will) then I need to experience breakdown now and then so that I can rebuild and the next iteration will be stronger. So after this thought I am actually happy about my bad mood! I am seeing that yes, under the things that I have mentioned I finally snapped a little. I needed to retreat for a minute and regroup. Tomorrow I will emerge with a stronger soul then I did yesterday! Woohoo!

Guy Reams (75)
365 Member