Thursday, December 21, 2017

Overcoming the Grump

Lately I’ve been in major grump-mode. (Side note: if you know me personally, you may be
asking yourself, “What exactly do you mean by ‘lately’?”)  The grump could easily be
blamed on hormones, the “magic” of the season, illnesses at home or any other variety
of things.  The truth is, I choose my grump.  

Every day and in every moment, I can choose to be kind, not take things personally,
and try to be someone others would want to interact with. Making that choice, though is
hard.  It’s hard when you are tired, when you didn’t work out, when you didn’t meditate,
when you ate crap all day long… it can be hard for any number of reasons.

However, because I make the choices I make, I often suffer.  I forget that I am in control
of myself and I allow myself to be led through the day by my tiredness, my irritation, and
my reactions to others.  

The thing is, I also forget that I will get back from the world exactly what I’m putting into it.  
If I’m putting out my grump-factor, why in the world would it get returned to me as friendliness
unless the person I’m interacting with is SO friendly that they can overcome the grump they’re
faced with.  (When you work with thirteen-year-olds, that is quite unlikely, by the way.) 

So, today, I’m home with sick kids missing the last day of school before break begins and I’m
reflecting on my grump-factor from the week.  How much better could the week have been if I
had overcome the grump in myself, even if it was forced? How much of a difference could my
attitude have made for many other people? How could I have changed my own experience of
the week? What if I actually acted as someone that I wanted to interact with?

Now that I’ve asked these questions of myself and answered them, it’s time to let myself off
the hook and move on.  Dwelling will not change anything, but choosing something different,
or at least trying to, could change everything.

So, that’s what I’m working for today.  Now that I’ve had the entire day to feed my soul with
cuddles, snotty smiles, reading, tea and pajamas, it’s time to turn on the intention and turn
down the grump.  

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