Did you ever notice that you are oftentimes in “one of your moods?” We all are.

Sad, happy, euphoric, pissed off, or otherwise, we are forever and a day subject to a mood.

Moods, if you’ll excuse the expression, most often, come from out of the blue. All of a sudden it’s on our doorstep without warning.

Our mood can remain in place for minutes, hours, days or decades if we don’t act.

We get a clue every time we notice we’re in a mood as to how to extricate ourselves from it.

That key is the noticing itself.

Who’s noticing that you’re in a mood? Answer: The part of you that notices.

This part of you that does the noticing of your behavior is your savior.

Noticing is the wedge that separates you from your mood. Notice that you’re not in the mood when you’re noticing it. It’s a moment of respite – a break in the action if you will.

Noticing is your ticket to freedom.

Let’s pretend that you discover that you’re in one of your frazzled frames of mind. It’s what you do next that determines how long your mood will last.

Most folks go looking for the reason they’re in a mood. That never works. 99.9% of the time we are looking for someone or something to blame for our mental unrest. That just insures that our mood hangs around longer.

What if you just noticed that you were in a mood without all the attendant recrimination? Instead of saying, “Damn, I’m in a lousy mood and it’s because of this that or the other thing,” what would happen if you just noticed?

What if you just unemotionally said, “I’m noticing I’m in an un-resourceful frame of mind”? Did you notice there was a period at the end of the last sentence? Stop the conversation after noticing.

Once you notice, you now have an opportunity to move out of the mood. Here’s how: Notice where the feeling registers in your body and stay with that feeling. Keep your attention on the physical sensation of the mood without any conversation of “why” you’re in a mood.

The more you keep your attention focused on the physical sensation that accompanies the mood, the quicker the mood will dissipate. I call it the metabolization of moods.

Justifying your mood is an invitation for a long visit with a boring relative, or worse. The more you talk about it the worse it gets. You’re at the mercy of your mood’s timetable if you don’t notice and feel. The more people you tell about your mood, the more you reinforce it. You may not have noticed, until now, that “mood” rhymes with “brood.”

Teach yourself how to notice and feel. It’s a skill worth cultivating. It’s a one-way ticket out of town for your ‘tude of a mood.

All the best,

John