There’s no knowing how the day will go. Even with a forecast read ahead of time, moods can be unpredictable buggers. Early morning sunshine helps swerve the curve upward. Some days, grey ones, with a pressure from above by clouds and within by…oh, just things, cause a trembling and stillness that makes you want to dive back into bed and burrow for your life beneath the covers.
The choices you make each day, the words you deliberate over, the conversations in your head that you restrain yourself from having; all these steer the way the day goes. A choice to get up, first. A choice to move forward and keep moving forward. A choice between what you want to eat and what you actually DO eat. A smile or a frown can turn the day around. One moment you’re feeling isolated, old news, no fun. Suddenly, something changes! A choice you make, perhaps, or a gift bestowed by someone else’s choice; no matter. The day brightens, hopefully. Sometimes, it dims.
Often, I’ve found that faking it is the best way of making it. If I’m not actually IN a good mood, and choose to pretend that I am, I often find that as the day progresses, that mask I’ve deliberately placed and embraced becomes an indelible part of me: my fake good mood becomes a REAL good mood. It’s something I should practice more. Every smile I bestow may come back to me, you see—swelling as it blooms and land upon me with a sound like a bell.
It’s strange to think that the moods we choose have so much effect on others. If you’re greeted in the morning as you rise and go about your day, or hugged or smiled at, of COURSE your days will blossom eagerly. If you’re grumped at, brushed by, ignored, it’s no wonder that you may grumble down and pass along the misery. We all affect each other and we all affect ourselves. Why not choose the impression we make? After all, it’s bound to come back. What goes around comes around, after all.