45 Ways To Beat A Bad Mood.

We all have bad moods. But do you really want to stay there?

Here are 45 ways to beat the bad mood and get the real you back.

1. Go outside
2. Take three long deep breaths and imagine the stress leaving at each exhale.
3. Listen to  music.
4. Dance like nobody is watching.
5. Take a walk.
6. Eat an apple (There's just something about that crunch this time of year makes

me happy)
7. List ten things you are thankful for.
8. Look around your environment and find one thing you love.
9. Do something for someone else.
10. Write a thank you note to a loved one.
11. Get dressed up.
12. Or put on your softest pyjamas.
13. Go to bed early.
14 Take a bubble bath
15. Think of a loved one.
16. Buy yourself flowers
17. Put on your favorite perfume.
18. Watch a funny movie.
19. Find funny clips on Youtube.
20, Take some silly selfies.
21 Phone a friend.
22 Say a prayer.
23. Find an adorable picture of you as a little child.
24. Do 25 jumping jacks.
25. Run as fast as you can.
26. Skip in the leaves.
27. Clean out your inbox.
28. Clean off your desk.
29. Take a different route.
30. Look at pictures of puppies and kittens and babies of every species.
31. Change your perspective. How else could I look at this?
32. Have a warm drink.
33. Set three achievable goals and meet them.
34. Get creative: draw, paint, sew, create something.
35. Get off social media.
36. Smile.
37. Ride a swing.
38 Take a nap.
39, Meidtate for ten minutes.
40. Plan a trip
41. Plan to do something you have always wanted to do.
42. Play your favorite song and sing like crazy  in the car.
43. Do some basic yoga moves and stretches.
44. Work out til you sweat.
45. Our time here is limited. Do you really want to spend one more minute wasting it? The real you isn't a bad mood:

                                              

Monday's Course in Miracles

Today I will accept God's peace and joy in glad exchange for all substitutes I have made for happiness and peace. ACIM

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Many blessings,

Virginia

Watch on Wednesday: Stop Looking For Your Life Purpose

 We have been taught that there is some big life purpose out there for us to find.

Truth is, there isn't anything out there to be found.

I hope you enjoy this week's video.

A Thursday Thought

Choose Life

In her book, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Bonnie Ware lists not choosing happiness as one of the top five regrets.

I do believe happiness is a choice but is so much more than that. Our lives aren't meant to be all sunshine and roses. We all travel through dark times.  How does one choose happy in those moments?

We can fully appreciate the joy when we honor the uncomfortable feelings that ebb and flow. We can't run from grief or anxiety or anger  and expect to just be happy. Oh sure we can paste a smile on our face and start reciting affirmations in our head all day, but that doesn't bring joy. That just makes the feeling creep up in other ways, sometimes even as an illness.

Some of the most joyful moments in my life came after I met  pain head on.

I was the first person to enter the funeral home at my mothers wake. When I saw her in the coffin something primal jolted me and I ran out the door and down the street sobbing. My sister was waiting for me as I turned back. We comforted eachother and then had one of the most memorable belly laughs of my life.

The day my father died I remember riding a wave at the beach and feeling so free and joyful even though my heart was heavy and my eyes were puffed and red from all of the crying.

Perhaps the biggest regret isn't not choosing happiness but in not choosing life. When we choose life we open ourselves to it all and then the joy bursts open.

I just want them to be happy

                                                " I just want them to be happy."

Every parent's ultimate dream is for their children to be happy. The problem is we can't. We can love them to the moon and back. We can provide a loving and nurturing home. We can cart them to every activity their heart desires. We can feed them the most nutritious meals and talk and laugh with them. But make them happy? That we cannot do.

Happiness is an inside job. The only person's happiness we have any control over is our own.

In my 18 years of parenting, this fact has always stumped me. Yet it has helped me to pay closer attention to my own sense of joy. The irony of it all is when I am happy from the inside out and when I am paying close attention to my joy meter my children seem to sense it and are thus more joyful themselves.

So any time I notice one of my children is in a slump, before I jump into the worry, I stop and pay attention to my own inner landscape. It is my joy that ultimately keeps my family on track.

Blessings,
Virginia

Looking to find more joy in yourself and with your children, I would be honored to help. virginiamccormack05@gmail.com.