There is an interesting fact about moods that people never realize. No two moods are exactly alike. They have varying lengths and varying intensities. Why and what does it matter?
It matters a lot. If moods are different then maybe some things make it better and some things make it worse. Put simply, maybe a major part of managing moods is not to make it worse. When you are too up or too down or too angry or too anything the biggest step is to try to turn the temperature down. The most important thing to turn the temperature down is not to turn it up. Moods change. They live and die. Give yours a chance to die and dont feed it extra breath.
The process is fairly straightforward:
- How angry, how sad, how manic, how anxious are you. In a previous post I spoke about the importance of cues. How do you know where you stand on a 1-10 scale of sad, a 1-10 scale of manic, a 1-10 scale of anything?
- Based on past experience what it likely to make it worse? How can you avoid that factor, escape from that factor, or cope with that factor to change outcomes? The operative phase in mood management is, “Dont make a bad situation worse.”
- What part of the plan in number 2 can you pull off by yourself? With support and help? Not able to do, but need further instruction, practice or counsel?
- What are you committed to do when things start going bad?
- And finally how is it working? What have you learned? What do you need to change?
With these steps you can learn to turn down “your temperature” also. It is not always realized but the source of many of our problems are our solutions. When we get depressed we “solve” it by acting like a depressed person. We get more depressed. We try to solve our anger by being angry…. The list goes on.
There may be many things about your mood you may not be able to affect much of the time– but there will be many things you can. Try it. Do what you can do to turn down the temperature and see if life doesnt get better.
There is an interesting fact about moods that people never realize. No two moods are exactly alike. They have varying lengths and varying intensities. Why and what does it matter?
It matters a lot. If moods are different then maybe some things make it better and some things make it worse. Put simply, maybe a major part of managing moods is not to make it worse. When you are too up or too down or too angry or too anything the biggest step is to try to turn the temperature down. The most important thing to turn the temperature down is not to turn it up. Moods change. They live and die. Give yours a chance to die and dont feed it extra breath.
The process is fairly straightforward:
- How angry, how sad, how manic, how anxious are you. In a previous post I spoke about the importance of cues. How do you know where you stand on a 1-10 scale of sad, a 1-10 scale of manic, a 1-10 scale of anything?
- Based on past experience what it likely to make it worse? How can you avoid that factor, escape from that factor, or cope with that factor to change outcomes? The operative phase in mood management is, “Dont make a bad situation worse.”
- What part of the plan in number 2 can you pull off by yourself? With support and help? Not able to do, but need further instruction, practice or counsel?
- What are you committed to do when things start going bad?
- And finally how is it working? What have you learned? What do you need to change?
With these steps you can learn to turn down “your temperature” also. It is not always realized but the source of many of our problems are our solutions. When we get depressed we “solve” it by acting like a depressed person. We get more depressed. We try to solve our anger by being angry…. The list goes on.
There may be many things about your mood you may not be able to affect much of the time– but there will be many things you can. Try it. Do what you can do to turn down the temperature and see if life doesnt get better.
There is an interesting fact about moods that people never realize. No two moods are exactly alike. They have varying lengths and varying intensities. Why and what does it matter?
It matters a lot. If moods are different then maybe some things make it better and some things make it worse. Put simply, maybe a major part of managing moods is not to make it worse. When you are too up or too down or too angry or too anything the biggest step is to try to turn the temperature down. The most important thing to turn the temperature down is not to turn it up. Moods change. They live and die. Give yours a chance to die and dont feed it extra breath.
The process is fairly straightforward:
With these steps you can learn to turn down “your temperature” also. It is not always realized but the source of many of our problems are our solutions. When we get depressed we “solve” it by acting like a depressed person. We get more depressed. We try to solve our anger by being angry…. The list goes on.
There may be many things about your mood you may not be able to affect much of the time– but there will be many things you can. Try it. Do what you can do to turn down the temperature and see if life doesnt get better.
There is an interesting fact about moods that people never realize. No two moods are exactly alike. They have varying lengths and varying intensities. Why and what does it matter?
It matters a lot. If moods are different then maybe some things make it better and some things make it worse. Put simply, maybe a major part of managing moods is not to make it worse. When you are too up or too down or too angry or too anything the biggest step is to try to turn the temperature down. The most important thing to turn the temperature down is not to turn it up. Moods change. They live and die. Give yours a chance to die and dont feed it extra breath.
The process is fairly straightforward:
With these steps you can learn to turn down “your temperature” also. It is not always realized but the source of many of our problems are our solutions. When we get depressed we “solve” it by acting like a depressed person. We get more depressed. We try to solve our anger by being angry…. The list goes on.
There may be many things about your mood you may not be able to affect much of the time– but there will be many things you can. Try it. Do what you can do to turn down the temperature and see if life doesnt get better.