Recently I planned on enjoying one of the first nice days of Spring. My plan was to work on “work stuff” in the morning and spend the afternoon playing outside. Well, work turned into more work and before I knew it, the evening rolled in and I was crabby…
Little things started to bother me, those things that are usually taken as ‘par for the course’ and my crabby mood spiraled into down-right mad!
I quickly started spouting off to my husband about everything that went wrong in life (as often happens when we let out minds loose), and when he offered a suggestion, I added him to my ever-growing list of complaints for the day and left the house.
I was about 4 minutes into the scenic drive by the bay when I realized that I was originally mad about my plans not going as I intended…and just when I was about to begin cursing myself for letting my mood be ruled by a simple change in plans, something occurred to me.
“Wait a minute! It’s OK that I’m in a bad mood!” said a little, sheepish voice. I remembered the lessen about allowing myself to be wherever I was at because resisting often makes it stronger…and as soon as I did, I felt my mood actually start to change. All I did here was recognize the foul mood, see my judgment of it and give myself permission to feel it!
I then noticed that I had gotten frustrated with my husband (who was only trying to help make me ‘feel better’) for trying to make me feel better! How often does this happen? I bet it happens a lot. When people feel yucky, for whatever reason, they often dive head-first into how do I fix this? And without knowing it, they cause it to get worse.
I had only been in my car for no more than ten minutes when my mood shifted from crabby to calm…and I was able to enjoy one of the first nice evenings of Spring!
