6 Morning Rituals to Improving Your Mood
Mood disorders—like depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder—are complex conditions. They can impair the quality of your life on many levels, including relationships, work, parenting, and health. Mood disorders deplete energy, joy, focus, and desire. They attack your self-esteem and sense of connectedness to others and to your environment. If you’re a spiritual person, a mood disorder can deplete your spiritual reserves, too.
In working with people who suffer from mood disorders, it has become clear to me that the symptoms of the illness often (mistakenly) become part of a person’s self-identity.
• For example, one of the symptoms of depression is fatigue. People with depression may come to believe they are “lazy,” identifying this symptom as a personal trait.
• A woman with an anxiety disorder may feel paralyzing panic in certain situations. When it happens, it feels like she’s going crazy. She may eventually come to label herself as crazy, when the panic is really just a symptom of the anxiety. Not a personal trait.
• A man with bipolar disorder can’t understand why he can feel on top of the world in the morning, and then feel like calling the suicide prevention hotline by evening. He asks himself, “Are these wild mood swings really me? Is this what I am?”
Sadly, the symptoms of mood disorders can veil a person’s true self —instead highlighting things like disturbing behaviors, racing thoughts, and overwhelming emotions.
You Are Not Your Mood
If you are a person with a mood disorder, you must remember: you are not your mood. The erratic behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are symptoms, sometimes masking your core self. You don’t have to let them define who you are.
You are a human being with a core self, with positive attributes, talents, and desires. It’s important to remember the YOU inside of you.
It’s simple: if you have a mood disorder, and you make decisions based on your feelings, your symptoms will undoubtedly worsen.
I tell my clients, “Don’t make decisions based on how you feel in the moment, but on how you want to feel about yourself at the end of the day.” Let this be your mantra.
* * *
Give that negative inner voice a healthy dose of tough love.
A mood disorder is a powerful beast, so be prepared to slay it with some “tough love.”
Successful self-treatment requires your ability to “push through” your symptoms, to overcome them and carry on.
Of course, there will be days when you just can’t. Be gentle with yourself on these days. But on other days, you may simply need an extra boost to get past your symptoms.
Mood disorders have a “voice.”
Yours may say, “But I don’t feel like ___ (making my bed, exercising, eating healthy food, going out with friends . . . ____.)” I’m sure you can fill in the blank.
Talk back to that voice with a “tough love” attitude that says, “Yes, I can!”
Symptoms of your mood disorder may hang around like a fly on a horse, but you can take some healthy “swats” at them by following the simple suggestions below.
* * *
Say “Good Morning” to These Mood Management Rituals
Here is a 6-point checklist of daily “To Do’s” that will help keep your mood in balance. Remember that medication is just one arm of the 2-pronged treatment for improved mood. The rest is up to you. (Use the “tough love” statements when you need an extra nudge!)
Here’s to YOU!
Pilar
"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face."
—Ben Williams
In working with people who suffer from mood disorders, it has become clear to me that the symptoms of the illness often (mistakenly) become part of a person’s self-identity.
• For example, one of the symptoms of depression is fatigue. People with depression may come to believe they are “lazy,” identifying this symptom as a personal trait.
• A woman with an anxiety disorder may feel paralyzing panic in certain situations. When it happens, it feels like she’s going crazy. She may eventually come to label herself as crazy, when the panic is really just a symptom of the anxiety. Not a personal trait.
• A man with bipolar disorder can’t understand why he can feel on top of the world in the morning, and then feel like calling the suicide prevention hotline by evening. He asks himself, “Are these wild mood swings really me? Is this what I am?”
Sadly, the symptoms of mood disorders can veil a person’s true self —instead highlighting things like disturbing behaviors, racing thoughts, and overwhelming emotions.
You Are Not Your Mood
If you are a person with a mood disorder, you must remember: you are not your mood. The erratic behaviors, thoughts, and emotions are symptoms, sometimes masking your core self. You don’t have to let them define who you are.
You are a human being with a core self, with positive attributes, talents, and desires. It’s important to remember the YOU inside of you.
It’s simple: if you have a mood disorder, and you make decisions based on your feelings, your symptoms will undoubtedly worsen.
I tell my clients, “Don’t make decisions based on how you feel in the moment, but on how you want to feel about yourself at the end of the day.” Let this be your mantra.
* * *
Give that negative inner voice a healthy dose of tough love.
A mood disorder is a powerful beast, so be prepared to slay it with some “tough love.”
Successful self-treatment requires your ability to “push through” your symptoms, to overcome them and carry on.
Of course, there will be days when you just can’t. Be gentle with yourself on these days. But on other days, you may simply need an extra boost to get past your symptoms.
Mood disorders have a “voice.”
Yours may say, “But I don’t feel like ___ (making my bed, exercising, eating healthy food, going out with friends . . . ____.)” I’m sure you can fill in the blank.
Talk back to that voice with a “tough love” attitude that says, “Yes, I can!”
Symptoms of your mood disorder may hang around like a fly on a horse, but you can take some healthy “swats” at them by following the simple suggestions below.
* * *
Say “Good Morning” to These Mood Management Rituals
Here is a 6-point checklist of daily “To Do’s” that will help keep your mood in balance. Remember that medication is just one arm of the 2-pronged treatment for improved mood. The rest is up to you. (Use the “tough love” statements when you need an extra nudge!)
- Rise and shine when working people get up. As important as sleep is, so is getting up in the morning at a reasonable time. Wake up at around the same time each day, even on weekend. Staying in bed has too many bad associations attached to your mood disorder. Get yourself out of bed, and get going.
~ Tough Love: If you want to stay in bed because you don’t feel like facing the day, GET UP ANYWAY! If you find you can’t quite push through this feeling, then tell yourself, “I am choosing to contribute to my down mood by staying in bed. Yep. I want to be more depressed than I already am!” (Get up and out of bed!) - Exercise 20 minutes each morning. I suggest you do this within an hour of rising. Everyone (mood disorder or not), finds it easier to stay committed to exercise when they do it first thing in the morning. Exercise for at least 20 minutes. Make it enjoyable, and do something you like. I love walking or weight lifting while I’m plugged into my iPod. The benefits of exercise are enormous; it’ll get those “feel good” chemicals pumping in your brain. Tough Love: No motivation to get moving? If you decide not to exercise because you just don’t feel like it, then say to yourself: “I am choosing to pile onto my mood problems by not exercising. Yep. This is what I choose to do to myself.” (Get moving!)
- Get some sunlight. Sunlight has benefits, too! It is good to start the day with some sun on your face, weather permitting. Like splashing cold water on your face, it’ll wake you up and help energize you. Feel the sun’s warmth . . . let it penetrate your skin for a few moments. (No “tough love” statement needed here. This part’s easy, and most people can’t wait to do this one!)
- Make your bed. When your mood disorder gets the best of you, it can be hard to do those things that keep your home feeling “homey.” A depressed person can easily create a depressed home. When you don’t make your bed in the morning, slowly the untidiness accumulates. Clothes carpet the floor, dishes fill the sink, and soon your mood “sinks,” too. Keep in mind it takes less than one minute to make your bed, and this simple act may help ward off hours of lowered mood. Tough Love: “I am choosing to feel worse by not making my bed. I know this is a sure way to fall into other “untidiness” behaviors throughout the day. By the end of my day, I’ll probably be feeling more crummy than I do now.” (Make that bed!)
- Eat protein with breakfast. Like it or not, a Starbucks triple shot mocha frap with a maple nut scone may make you happy while you’re munching on it, but this kind of breakfast meal won’t help keep your mood in balance. For breakfast, include protein and keep sugar intake low. Your brain needs amino acids, because neurotransmitters are made up of protein. (Neurotransmitters are the brain chemicals that motivate or sedate, focus or frustrate. Their complex interaction is what shifts your mood and literally “changes your mind.”) Eating the right breakfast gives your brain nutrients it needs to jump-start a good day. Tough Love: Tempted to choose an unhealthy, sugary, low-nutrition breakfast? Tell yourself, “I know that the taste of this carb-laden sugar-blast will brings me a few moments of pleasure, but at the expense of feeling good about myself.” (Eat a good breakfast!)
- Smiling Meditation. For 5 minutes, sit in a chair with eyes shut. Focus on your breathing with a slight smile on your face. (If you have forgotten, this is when you can feel the sides of your mouth being pulled upward.) Seriously: Sit in a chair where you won’t be disturbed, and close your eyes. Focus your attention on nothing more than the inhale and exhale of your breath, and smile. It’s as simple as that. Vary this exercise by moving your attention from your breath to the physical sensation of smiling. “Do I notice anything different?” is a question you can ask yourself when you’re done. (No tough love on this one. Just do it!)
Here’s to YOU!
Pilar
"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face."
—Ben Williams