Beating The Blues

I tend to be a moody person. Someone whom they might say is "emotionally sensitive". I notice when I feel good and when I don't and I've done a lot of soul searching and therapy because I’m “emotionally sensitive”. In my career as a bodyworker, I’ve also learned enough about the body that once I notice, acknowledge and am ready to change my mood, I’ve got the tools to do so.

Now the mind is tricky. When we start to feel like we’re in neutral, our minds create all sorts of strange reasons for it. I tend to start believing that I’m not creative or intelligent. Maybe I’m not passionate or my life would only be good if….usually if… someone else would stop being such a moron. It’s a sneaky sort of thing, our state of mind. We try to ignore how we feel because it usually “means” something we don’t want to acknowledge or feel we can’t change. Everyone finds their own ways of ignoring what these feelings “mean”- some healthy, some which leaves evidence in the form of pink lace panties on the lamp shade. Here’s an interesting thought, what if those feelings don’t mean anything but that your body isn’t getting something it needs to be happy. What if it’s not personal or someone else’s fault? That’s the first hurdle to feeling good: acknowledging and staying objective about the fantasies our minds create about our lives and personhood.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes you’re happy about life, even though nothing has changed? Your boss is still…your boss, you still don’t have the Mustang convertible you’ve always wanted, and the grass still needs to be cut. But life doesn’t look so bad all in all. Have you ever noticed that?

Every so often I stay in a hotel room that has those heat lamps over the toilet. I LOVE those! I sit there and bask in the warmth knowing full well I look ridiculous basking in the warmth on a hotel toilet. I don’t care. The heat is warm and I’m going to enjoy it until the timer runs out; one of my guilty pleasures, to be sure. The reason those lamps feel so good is because they are full spectrum. They mimic sunlight which is something that boosts our happy chemicals that influence self-image, inspiration and feelings of marvelousness.

Fall is coming, and with it, darker days. Today I realized that although I know my life is good, I’m feeling uninspired about everything. I can’t find a topic to finish my newsletter this week and don’t really care. The first thing I did was text a friend that I felt uninspired and asked for advice. They didn’t answer. However, it started me thinking. I put on some Steve Miller Band- music is one of the best ways I know of to temporarily influence state of mind. Feeling a little better, I noticed that it was dark out, leading into fall, and I was feeling like that mushroom joke about living in the dark. I remembered I had a full spectrum lightbulb (I use Blues Buster) I had bought last year and changed out the bulb in my lamp. Bam, pow, OMG, I was basking in the sun again and the creativity was flowing. Research shows that we need a minimum of 20 minutes of sunlight a day to keep our Vitamin D and serotonin high, which strongly influences mood. I forgot because I felt lousy and temporarily “knew” I was a loser.

So what if successful and happy people don’t have their lives totally together? What if they get what their body needs to stay feeling well and happy? What if one of the answers to a good life is happy music and a full spectrum lightbulb? Who would have thunk it?