The difference between our emotions and moods
Here’s a possible scenario, you start your day with your daily mindful practise. You do your ritual, you journal, you do Yoga, you meditate or whatever you do to become a more evolved human. You practise diligently to be more conscious and present and yet, sometimes you just can’t shrug off that ‘meh’ feeling. Worse, you feel like all your practises are a waste of time.
Welcome to your MOODS.
But first things first. Don’t give up on your daily practises. Give them a break and return to them when you are ready!
It’s ok to step out of our rituals from time to time. We need them to grow and evolve and may think they are useless because WE feel ‘meh’.
It’s not the practices. It’s our moods.
You see, we are more emotional than rational creatures. We would like to think we are rational and thought through, but we are more emotional. Though we can think things through, this ability can be short-circuited by our emotions or moods. For the definition and example of emotions, click here.
In recent conversations with various friends, I noticed a common theme. That their daily rituals are not helping them. At first, I thought something was missing in their daily rituals. But it then struck me, they had succumbed to a mood. And trying to do our daily rituals with a mood that doesn’t support them has two consequences; we think our rituals are not working and abandon them or look for another ritual that we think we are missing.
What we need to do instead, is listen to our moods and do what is necessary.
You see, we are cyclical creatures. We have ups and downs. Highs and lows. I was talking to a friend midweek this week who mentioned she was having a rough week. Because I had caught up with her last weekend, my reply to her was that she had a good couple of weeks, it was natural to experience a ‘low’ this week.
Our chemistry cannot support us being ‘high’ all the time. It takes up too much energy. Our chemical and neurotransmitter factory can only support us to a limit. Riding the ‘mood wave’ is part of our self-awareness. And the daily rituals that most of us practise are to help reduce the oscillations between our highs and lows. So that our highs are not too high and lows are not too low.
Making for a more deliberate and chemically balanced system.
So, what do we have to do to be more balanced, and reduce the oscillations?
First the difference between emotions and moods. Emotions are triggered. We feel an emotion(s) through an event (trigger). If I am kept waiting at the hospital, I experience the emotion of impatience. When I am cut off on the road by a dangerous driver, I experience the emotion of anger. An event triggers our emotions. When the event is ‘solved’ the emotion ‘leaves’ us.
Moods on the other hand are longer-term emotions. Any emotion that we experience over a longer term is a mood. They become the filter through which we see and experience the world. And if you took the time to check in on yourself, you will know the moods that you experience regularly. Some could be moods that support you and some not.
The emotion of doubt as a mood can make you unsure about yourself (self-doubt) or your situation. Just as the emotion of apathy as a mood can make you feel passive about ‘everything’.
Take me for example. I am generally in the mood of optimism. I think the world is a great place and that most things are possible. But when I am in my ‘low’ wave, I think that the world could end the next day and most things are pointless. When I ‘notice’ this, I make compensations for all my activities for the days that my ‘low’ mood visits me. Because I know that this mood will pass with time and that I need to ride the ‘mood wave’.
Certain moods, like hopelessness over the long term can lead to depression. Because the ‘up’ wave doesn’t happen. But this is beyond my article’s scope.
Suffice to say that moods are a great indicator of the ‘weather’ of our mental environment. Reading our moods is important because it impacts our outcomes. And both our emotions and moods are there for a reason and they ‘leave us’ when their job is done.
Know yourself to maximise your outcomes.
As always, you can reach me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com