Bad Mood Have You Stuck?
3 Ways to Unstick Yourself
It happens without us even realizing it.
There we are cruising about our lives when WHAM!!
Seemingly from out of nowhere, it is upon us and we are stuck — deep.
It’s a no-good, dirty rotten, prickly pear of a mood and we are right in the middle of it. And we don’t like it.
Unless you are Oscar the Grouch and actually get enjoyment from a bad mood, most of us really just want to get unstuck and move on. While the educator in me wants to address that, the human who gets stuck in bad moods in me just wants something to DO to get me OUT — now. Not in a few hours or weeks or months. I want something now.
So here it is. Bare-bones, with minimal explanation, 3 ways to get yourself out of a bad mood — with a few examples. I’ll get to a deeper analysis later — for now let’s just get unstuck.
What’s got you stuck?
If you are stuck in a mood then you are more than likely stuck in the feeling of it. The emotion itself might swing, anger, sadness, frustration, desperation, back to anger. Your thoughts and your behaviours will start to align with these feelings because at a deep level they are connected, along with our physical sensations.
The bad news is because of these connections, your thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and physical sensations will start to reinforce each other and make you feel like you are getting more and more stuck.
The good news is that once we recognize we are stuck we can use the other three to turn around and pull us out.
Get to the unsticking already…
Because we are stuck in the feeling — let’s focus on our Thoughts, Physical Sensations, and Behaviours to get us out.
Thoughts
It can be easy to go into a downward spiral with our thoughts. We tell ourselves a story about what we are feeling and that story can either help us or get us more stuck. Instead of beating ourselves up about our feelings, we can try to tell ourselves a different story. The goal here is to give ourselves some space between ourselves and our thoughts:
Physical Sensations
We underestimate the power that our senses can have over our emotions. When we are stuck in our feelings it can really help us to give our brains something else to ‘feel’. Using our senses can provide us with some easily accessible ways to get unstuck. Start with being aware of what you are seeing, hearing (or listening to), eating, smelling, and touching — change out anything that is actively bringing you down, and then try to boost your mood.
Behaviours
Finally, get out of your head and into your body. A bad mood can trick us into thinking that hiding under a blanket will make it go away — but the opposite is true. Getting up and moving can be a fast way to get unstuck. It doesn’t have to be a grand event, it can be as simple as standing up and stretching, or as goofy as having a personal dance-off. If we are angry and frustrated moving our body can be a powerful way of releasing those feelings and letting our brain know that we’ve got this.
Try these activities or use the categories of Thoughts, Physical Sensations, and Behaviours to think up some of your own. When you are feeling better you can start to create an ‘In Case Of…’ box with some of the best ways for you to get unstuck. Next time all you’ll have to do is grab the box and go.
Remember, having an occasional bad mood is normal. If you are having trouble getting unstuck yourself REACH OUT! We’ve all been there and we could all use a little help getting unstuck.
What are your go-to ways of getting unstuck? Do you have a favorite video to laugh at? Or a silly movement that gets you busting a gut? Share them here so that we can all learn some new tricks!
