Managing your Mood: Tips for Staying Present | The School of Life

we keep forgetting this lesson even though it is quite literally written above us in the sky as if someone at the moment of creation knew that we would have trouble keeping it in mind we are made of moods our Spirits are constantly in motion like the Restless procession of weather fronts across a temperamental Sky therefore nothing can be stable for long a Serene Beauty beautiful day will almost inevitably be followed by an overcast one a still morning by a blustery afternoon a vicious storm by a Serene Sunset we keep striving for fixed positions as if

we were made of stone we say this is what I believe this is who I like this is what I want and then the universe laughs and gives us a headache a bad night indigestion a moment of euphoria an energetic libido a bout of conscience and everything is once more upended we should proceed more cautiously in the quiet of our minds so as not to alarm those around us we should caveat the majority of our ideological positions with a humble for now this job seems to make enormous sense for now I feel I've worked things

out for now this is who I am for now none of us are ever more than a few shifts and serotonin levels away from a transformation of heart there is in our changeability an almost comedic interplay between what we might crudely refer to as our bodies and our minds our higher faculties and our basic Plumbing we may feel that our perspectives on politics or love the quality of a book or our assessment of a friend are built on disinterested Solid Ground we feel sure that the nobler parts of us are guiding our ideas we don't

recognize the extent to which what we are convinced of at a given point is really the outcome of how much sleep we've had or what's happening to our blood sugar levels we'll solemnly declare that life isn't worth living long before it occurs to us that we may just urgently need to have a nap or reach for an orange juice keeping this at the front of our minds can help us to be more generous and accurate about those we're living among it may be as they tell us with utter conviction at midnight in the kitchen that

they do hate our guts or never want to see their mother again or it might just be that it's time to get to bed and a heavy meal so late was not a particularly good idea understanding that we are all a patchwork of moods can be a particular assistance in those States when we can't see a single sliver of blue in the inner Sky we should have the experience to know that even though we don't right at this moment have any idea what can shift our condition if we sit within the inner jet stream long

enough and wait something will eventually come along to push our Horrors away just as more somberly whenever we can no longer imagine any reasons why we were ever sad we should always remember the autum Gales we stumble because of our tendency to too quickly declare this is me and always will be it almost never is it's a heat wave a Squall a shower an Indian summer we want to be solid and we can only be air and water gas and Heat current and front we should take most of what we believe at any single moment

with wholehearted amused skepticism and carry with us always an umbrella