Your Mood Is Your Business

My boyfriend has two teenagers and since we live together, his children are now like mine.  As I drive them to school in the morning, we listen to the radio stations of their choice and I noticed something.  The kids complain about something all the time: schoolwork, unfair teachers, “stupid” mathematical formulas, a passenger looking at them, or a sibling touching them.  Then we hear listeners of a radio station call in to complain about things that annoy them, sharing mostly trivial things.  I don’t think we are in any way intolerant people but it seems that complaining became a “normal” way of being.

My teens complain with such enthusiasm, as if it is cool to have something to complain about and not complaining is “so not right.”  What most of us don’t realize is that complaining puts us in a bad mood and tints our daily experiences.  Finding things to complain about sharpens our focus on things that annoy us, sets our sensors to notice only the oddness, unfairness, and wrongness and to miss all the great and fun things life has to offer.  

Your mood is your business.  No circumstances or individual can decide the state of your mood.  They could affect it, but you have the power to overturn it.  Ultimately, it is your choice whether you will be in a bad or a good mood, whether you will see everything as an inconvenience or advantage, as an “assault” or opportunity. 

It is cold and snowing outside.  What a wonderful opportunity to wear my new boots!