Understanding
Moods
“There
are good and bad times, but our mood changes more than our fortune.”
Thomas
Carlyle
Are
you ever possessed by a mood you cannot shake? Ever feel down in the
dumps, or angry, or especially ebullient, but you don't know why, or
what took you there? All human beings are subject to mood changes,
some more than others. Many of us, and not only women, seem to have
cycles of good or bad mood due to changes in our body/brain
chemistry. But sometimes moods come without warning, and change the
climate of the day in an instant.
Some
mood changes, especially when accompanied by depressed thoughts, are
pathological enough to require medical treatment, but most are not.
Just like our sudden memories, nocturnal dreams, and Freudian slips,
moods can be a sign that unconscious material is trying to make its
way into consciousness. We can be going along on a typical day;
someone says or does something innocuous, and suddenly we're in a fit
of anger, sadness or even fear. It is as though a mean-spirited
bug-a-boo has jumped on our back and won't let go. In Jungian lingo,
it's called “a complex.”
In
all likelihood, that innocuous act or statement, has bounced us back
to an earlier time, usually in childhood, and the mood is what we
felt at the time of the original event. In the current moment, the
mood may seem completely inconsistent with our surroundings, and feel
terribly uncomfortable—especially when we don't know the
precipitating factor. But, just as paying attention to our dreams is
important, so is paying attention to our moods. Instead of running
from them, self-medicating, or denying them, consciousness is served
by examining them. Usually, when we are able to sit with a mood for a
while, it will tell its secret. It's like good detective work in
which we track backward from the scene of the crime to identify the
motive. There may be a little jewel wrapped in the mood that reveals
more of our soul, and therefore enhances our conscious awareness.
Moods
are part of being human. Like imagination, inspiration, and
creativity, we want to be more, not less, in touch with them.
Allowing a mood to teach us what it knows helps us to integrate all
of who we are and thus become whole.
In
the Spirit,
Jane
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