Mental Health Sunday: Moods & Emotional Intelligence

How to turn a bad mood into a good mood!

All of us experience bad moods - that is, having low days - and not wanting to do much. It is normal for some of us to experience low moods on a continual basis, resulting in depression. Just in case you didn't know, that's a fact. Further, depression is real, and so should our attitude toward taking care of our moods.

We tend to brush off low moods in the past, even in society. As we tell our friends, "what are you worried about?" or "just shake it off.", these specific advice points can actually cause more harm than good. Like a flying carpet - our moods simply stay in motion. Hence, we need to start thinking a bit more about why we feel the way we do.

As a matter of fact, we seem to only want to pay for a therapist when our daily is unbearable. Counseling itself can be counterproductive at that point- as we over-rely on it as a means to fix our problems- or we just pay to keep going because we think it's the only way to be happy- or worse, offloading.

Understanding why you are in a low mood

It is not hard to understand the science behind it, such as, if you tossed and turned at night and did not get a good night's sleep, you yelled at your kids the following day. Later that day, a mood returns to tell you that you are tired of living. To top it all off, the washing machine breaks down - and it's raining outside. It's enough to make anyone's mood worse. Our brains are so much more adept at unconscious thinking - the rational side (left) does not have enough time to put things into perspective. We tend to be too quick to judge ourselves.

We can begin to draw much more advanced self-diagnostic ways when we start to break down the mood points and identify exactly what triggers us to feel tired or negative, for example.

"Well, sometimes things do go wrong - and I don't blame myself"

"It wasn't my fault that the car wouldn't start"

"I think I will just put the kettle on now."

It is clever and concise to use these short phrases to raise our self-awareness to counter negative moods.

Using our emotional intelligence skills to control our mood swings can be very rewarding. When we rationalize our thoughts, our happiness levels can dramatically increase. Everyone experiences bad moods or feeling low at some point in their lives. It's a natural reaction. Sometimes we don't know how to process a moment. Neglecting a series of emotions or bad days builds up pretty much like not emptying the trash can. Negative emotions are like the trash in the trashcan and if we don't empty it, it starts to smell - for example food waste. Additionally, leaving our bodies in a low mood is not healthy at all.

We should feel our emotions so we can figure out how to move through them rather than against them. Furthermore, we cannot eradicate low mood or depression. We can instead build a portfolio of EQ skills to navigate the treacherous waters.

Hunting The Brain For Reasons of Low Mood

When you wake up in the morning and just don't feel like facing the world - I want you to get back in bed and find out why you feel that way - even if it doesn't make any sense. Overthinking and old-fashioned brainstorming can sometimes open the creative side of the brain (right) to channel rationased ideas. In short, worrying is good for us in a way we can hunt down the root of the issue.

Social Media Exercise

It would be better if we woke up and threw a cup of coffee down us and got a sheet of paper to analyze our EQ skills. Yes, do that next time you're in a foul mood - at least give it a try and post a video of how you feel afterward.

Sitting Badly Affects Your Mood

It's strange to think that sitting badly does affect the way we feel. Think about relaxing on the sofa and watching a really interesting movie after the kids have gone to bed. This is your time. Nice, isn't it? You're relaxing. You're in a good mood. It is not necessary to clean at this one time or even to wash up if you don't have a dish washer.

You just came home from work, poured a glass of wine, and sat at the kitchen table. You are not sprawled out on the sofa. Even though your mind is relaxing, your feelings are different. As a result, humans can alter their mood by the way they sit and what they sit on. Most of us have experienced sitting on an uncomfortable chair. Here I am writing this article on a wooden chair that is probably more than ten years old. I became more comfortable with two cushions and a pillow to support my back. I am now writing in a much more friendly mood. I feel like I am being kind to myself now.

Social Media Exercise: Design A comfort Chair

Pick a room in your home and design your comfort chair out of the contents of your home and announce to your family that this is now the family comfort chair and should not be touched unless you want to sit on it and destress out of bad moods. It's important that you share the experience online - so you have a stronger emotion of helping others - take a picture instead and share with your friends and co-workers. If you really want to leverage up on this - and can afford to buy a comfortable chair go for it - but it's important that you share it online. I would love for one or two of them to go viral and start a trend. I would like to make the point that small creative exercises can instantly alter our moods. I know when I feel down - I will think of a creative exercise to perform, and it always works.

Self Awareness Training for Better Moods

Let me start by saying that self-awareness as an emotional intelligence skill is a complex topic, and I do not intend to cover it all here. Being self-aware is a lifelong learning process that begins and ends with you. To close the gaps, I will try to give you some pointers on how to build and shape a new you. The kind of person who stands up to those awful bad moods you've been experiencing lately.

Goldern Tips For Better Self-awareness

(film quotes to challenge the status of moods)

Relax and just fly the Plain - Film - Executive Decision

When we have learned to cope with stress and aniexty through training or counselling, it is often like relaxing when we first learn to ride a bike. Though in the film it is more eventful than that - where Halle Berry tells Kurt Russell to "Just fly the plain" and he casts back to his training and actually lands the plain where it is in bad shape. We are to have confidence in our learning through our reflections. When you use the anolgy you never forget how to ride a bike. Actually, the body's emotional and physical attributes are remembrances of when we've not ridden a bike for years, and then start riding again. This is amazing. We might just be able to land the path safely if we applied that concept to our mood swings or low moods - relaxing our minds and removing them from stress and anxiety.

"You can be my wingman anytime" - film - Top Gun - Original

Men tend to say "I need my wingman" when looking for love - it's a strange phrase, I know. Yet as we look back at the film, Tom Cruise learns the skill of teamwork and having a close wingman, which reengages him back into the fight and helps Iceman - played by the great Val Kilmer. As we take our bad mood and pair it with the good mood we had before, we can pair them up like fighter pilots like in the movie: a strong leader (good mood) paired with a weaker leader (bad mood) ignites a wingman concept. In order to transform the bad state into a good state, we must be able to talk to ourselves. Kill the bad bad guys - and get home. On our own, life is much harder, but through TOP MOOD SCHOOL, we can learn to be the best mood fighters in the world.

Mood Summary

Life is real, and so are our moods. When we do not have a clear framework to rationalise our thoughts and feelings we will not be able to ride out the storm of a bad mood. Next time you are in a bad mood, learn to challenge that emotion and try to hunt the brain for reasons why. The pen and paper exercises and social media exercises here are very effective. It is a much more affordable way to create a new you in the long run. On the one hand, progress is happiness. Moods, however, dictate our state of mind and personality from one day to the next. Develop your self-awareness and understanding of your emotional intelligence. Moods are real, but so are your abilities to manage them and enjoy the good days while rationalizing the bad. Here's to creating better moods for you and your communities. ????