Shift your mood and find your gratitude

I had gotten off a call with a friend. I felt so much warmth between us on the call that it was almost palpable. He told me that he had seen this photo of me, as it had been posted on FaceBook. He mentioned it as he was speaking about history – my history and his, the history we have together. He is a colleague on a training program we have been following together these last 18 months. He spoke about how we are both growing and healing – even in the time that we have known each other. It was good to hear all that.  Our call had gone deep and I was aware that somewhere inside me, I also felt a bit sad. It felt like a good kind of sadness.

This photo holds a lot for me – it was taken right after a particularly challenging time in my life . A few weeks before I had a had a nasty cycling accident, that had left me shaken up and depressed.

That weekend of the photo was itself very memorable. For one thing we were on the beautiful Gower coast in Pembrokeshire on an August Bank Holiday. We had great company, fantastic weather and amazing nature. What more can you ask for!

 

After the call, I remembered what had been going on right before that weekend, many many years before. I remembered how I had stumbled into a nightly gratitude practice after my accident. This turned out to be the perfect antidote to dealing with the shock and depression of my accident. Looking back, it seems strange that I was so depressed. After all, the accident could easily have been much worse. I was definitely still alive and without any major injury. I realize now, that the depression was probably the way I dealt with the shock of the accident.

I feel lucky that I found this practice from ‘first principles’. It was a long time ago and not much energy was put into positive psychology in those days.  At the time it made sense to see how many positive things had happened in the day, and there were always a lot ! It gave me the grace to get things back into perspective. Life was good and I was indeed lucky to be alive.

As I got off the call and had these reflections, I noticed that my energy changed radically. I wasn’t pushing anything away. I hadn’t changed anything. I hadn’t pushed away the sad feelings, but my energy was different now.

What struck me the most is how easy it was to shift my awareness to something positive. I was still feeling tired but the darker mood had definitely moved on. I also realised that this type of mood-shifter is a useful tool that I had never thought of before.

I am wondering if you have used this kind of mood shifter? What works for you when something has just brought you down?

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.