Moods - Dr. Liz Miller

source: System X Psychology

 

Have you ever wondered why some days you can leap out of bed and get everything done by 11 am, and other days, you can hardly get out of bed to make a cup of coffee? Somedays start off well and go bad, and other days, somehow with a bit of determination everything comes right in the end.

Welcome to your mood!!

Everyone always has a mood, all of the time. Not just when you notice it, but all of the time. You don't always notice it because the body has a habit of adapting. When nothing new happens we take things for granted and stop noticing whatever we are seeing, thinking or feeling.

Let me give you an example. Rub the back of your hand with your first finger, you can feel the skin under your finger moving. Stop moving your finger and hold it still. After a minute you can no longer feel the skin under your finger. Move your finger again. This is because the body has adapted to the feel of your skin.

You only notice your mood if it changes, or if it stopping you doing what you want to do. You may notice that you feel better or worse than you did first thing in the morning. You notice you are anxious about an up and coming event, when you want to settle down quietly and read. You may not notice it so much if you are milling around with a lot of other people who are also anxious.

Everyone has a mood, every minute of every hour of every day. No one can escape their mood. Which is good, because with practice you can learn to recognise your own mood and change it if you need to. You can also learn to recognise other peoples' moods. This helps you know how they are feeling, even before they tell you and to build better relationships.

To conclude, in the short term, mood tells you how a person feels, thinks and is likely to behave. Children are the best mood monitors on the planet. They never give bad news when their parents are in a bad mood. They wait until everything is quiet and peaceful before they drop their bombshell. That way, even if someone gets angry, he or she will be a lot less angry than if they had given the bad news to a someone who was already in a bad mood.



Copyright (c) Dr. Liz Miller

http://www.drlizmiller.co.uk