Julie Smith

when dealing with mood it is essential to remember that it’s not all in your head. It’s also in your body state, your relationships, your past and present, your living conditions and lifestyle. It’s in everything you do and don’t do, in your diet and your thoughts, your movements and memories. How you feel is not simply a product of your brain.

When I am feeling this, what am I thinking about?
When I am feeling this, what state is my body in?
How was I looking after myself in the days or hours leading up to this feeling?
Is this an emotion or just physical discomfort from an unmet need?

It’s in everything you do and don’t do, in your diet and your thoughts, your movements and memories. How you feel is not simply a product of your brain.

Not all low mood is unidentified dehydration, but when dealing with mood it is essential to remember that it’s not all in your head.
It’s also in your body state, your relationships, your past and present, your living conditions and lifestyle.
It’s in everything you do and don’t do, in your diet and your thoughts, your movements and memories.

Not all low mood is unidentified dehydration, but when dealing with mood it is essential to remember that it’s not all in your head.
It’s also in your body state, your relationships, your past and present, your living conditions and lifestyle.
It’s in everything you do and don’t do, in your diet and your thoughts, your movements and memories.

Low mood gives you the urge to do the things that make mood worse.

Spending time with negative thoughts makes it highly likely that I will feel low in mood.
But feeling low in mood also makes me more vulnerable to having more negative thoughts.
This shows us how we get stuck in cycles of low mood.
But it also shows us the way out.

For example, you walk out of an exam feeling deflated, low in mood and lacking in confidence.
Emotional reasoning tells you this means you must have failed.
You may have performed OK in the exam, but your brain takes information from how you feel and you’re not feeling like a winner right now.
The low mood could have been created by the stress followed by exhaustion, but the feeling is influencing how you then interpret your situation.

In evolutionary terms, it makes sense that when you feel vulnerable, you keep an extra lookout for signs of threat.
But when you are trying to come back from a dark place, the mental filter is something to be aware of.

For example, if you feel you must never fail, you are setting yourself up for a rollercoaster of emotions and a struggle with mood when you make a mistake or encounter a setback.
We can strive for success and accept failures along the way.
But
when we set ourselves unrealistic expectations, we become trapped by them.
That means we suffer whenever there is any sign that we may not be living up to them.

So watch out for those musts and shoulds.
When you are already struggling with mood, expecting yourself to do, be and have everything that you are when you’re at your best is not realistic or helpful.