Overcome Mood Swings Instead Of Fighting Against Them
Mood swings and unproductive phases hit you when you least expect them. The major reason why everyone dreads them is because they greet you without a warning, turn your life upside down and make you miserable, even though it could be for a short amount of time. But what I am about to tell you is how, instead of running away and trying to shelter your mind from the next unexpected mood swing, you could embrace these mood swings and unproductive phases and learn your mistakes from them. Just like me, you too could grow from them, dissolve these blocks and reduce the frequency at which they might affect you now or in future and overcome mood swings.
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Mood swings are one of those phases of life that every single one of us has gone through in the past and occasionally endure in the present too but no one ever wishes to talk about. Although I myself do not suggest pouring all of your problems over your close ones and friends, I do not see how mood swings became so taboo that they turned into a 'Never-Talk-About-It' subject.
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| A downward spiral we experience during mood swings that drain the colour of our lives. |
My Recent Mood Swing
My sixth semester engineering exams started a week ago and we have a study gap of around five days between every two paper. So I ended up either studying or spending way too much amount of time on the computer and Internet. And lately all my time spent on the Internet consisted of increasing this blog's network by joining and researching different blog networks and communities and this whole thing went on for about a week. Day before yesterday, it just became way to difficult to even read anything related to networking and communities. Also I soon found out that, except one or two, almost all blog networks were of no use to me and hence I just couldn't take it anymore and totally gave up the network building shortcut to attract audience.
Although the mood swings I face lately are extremely feeble compared to the ones that I used to have around say half a year ago, I knew I was going through one the other day because my face seemed dull and pulled down. Even worse, although I really like writing and wanted to write at that moment, I couldn't write more than a few sentences. I tried switching the subject to write about but to no avail. I couldn't even watch a movie that I was planning to watch that day. Five seconds into the movie and I closed the movie player.
Every Mood Swings Teaches Me A Lesson
When you really want to do the things you enjoy but you can't, for whatever reason it is, the only option left is practicing solitude and tracking back the source of negativity and mood swings. This one wasn't really hard to be tracked down and figured out. I soon found out that I had been spending way too much doing things that I hardly enjoy. I spent lots of time on joining new networks and publicising this blog whereas I could have instead put the same time writing quality posts and attracting genuine traffic from the Google search or having fun in real life. The moment I eradicated the root cause of the mood swing, productivity gushed back into life the same way air would gush into an envelope of vacuum. Just over the last two days , I firstly put an end to unnecessary networking and cleaned up all unneeded bookmarks from the browser. I also, ended up cleaning my entire computer table, played few hours of guitar, worked out, studied overnight for the paper and wrote a good three hour paper yesterday evening, installed a comment system in the blog, listened to a whole album by Greenday at a stretch and completed reading half of a May 1991 edition of Reader's Digest I found in my dad's book stash recently.
And My Point Is...
This post was not written about 'how to not sign up for various blog networks and make life 110% more productive'. You need to understand that the stupid networking was just a spark to the onset of my mood swing. It could have been anything else which could have sparked a mood swing too. But I actually used a method, a process that I automatically go into unconsciously to get rid of my mood swing every single time and at the same moment find the reason for its occurrence in the first place itself.
A Method To Acknowledge, Cure And Overcome Mood Swings
1. Acknowledge: The first step to solving any problem is to identify and acknowledge the problem. If you feel that, your face looks comparatively duller than usual, if you procrastinate doing the things you usually love to do, if your mind feels fatigued and tired without any reason, or unexpected sadness and/or anger suddenly takes control over your normal mood, you could be going through a mood swing. But nobody except you can really decide if you are feeling low and depressed.
2. Isolate The Evil: Try practicing solitude instead of fighting against your own mood and mind. Go for a long walk or just be idle and try to think over what could be the cause of your mood swing. The reason could be loneliness, not pursuing your passion, staying in company of negative people, not being out enough in nature, lack of pleasureful activities or absolutely anything else. The reason could be anything but it will be very personal to you and nobody else in the world other than you can find it out.
3. Solution: You already have a solution. Once you have isolated the cause of the mood swing, your mind must have already found out ways to solve it. If not, think of way to solve it and be brave enough to get rid of the root cause of the mood swing.
4. Replace: A mind that has just got rid of a mood swing is like a coastline just washed off by a tsunami. You can't let the mind be like a barren land. You need to fill it with positivity by doing activities that you find fun and give you pleasure.
5. Record: If the experience was a major one and has altered your life, write down the whole thing in words. Describing the issue and how you found solutions for it and dealt with it. This will help you avoid repeating the same mistakes again in future and give you an anchor to hold you against the next mood swing. The very act of writing itself is a very pain and stress relieving act.
7. Chill: This self-made law is one of utmost importance in my life and has proved to be true every single time. There is nothing worth in life worth fretting or worrying about. Love, death, pain, stress, promotions, career, relationships, world peace, global warming, terrorism or anything else in the world, it is not worth worrying or getting serious about. In moments of stress I keep saying to myself, "Chill! Don't take things so seriously. If you are taking it too seriously, you are doing it wrong."
Embrace Mood Swings, Procrastinations and Unproductive Phases Of Life
There is a reason why we go through mood swings. Mood swing is a way of our sub-conscious to tell us that we are doing something harmful or wrong. If you are getting mood swings, it means your sub-conscious is desperately trying to protect you from damage. The moment you understand this fact, the moment you accept and assimilate it, you stop fighting against yourself. Your procrastinations and unproductive blocks turn into timeouts to think over what you have been doing wrong in the higher order of life choices and methods of living.
Also Read: What Is The Purpose Of Life?