Crushing the Cranky

'choosing your mood is one of lifes super powers'

Apparently for breakfast this morning I ate a bowl of 'Cranky Cow' oats followed by a large cup of 'Don't push me!' coffee. 

Wow, I am in a BAD mood. EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is annoying me. 

My child does not know how close I was to sending him to his room for drinking milk....... and breathing loudly at the same time! Obviously this kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated!

Hmmmm.... perhaps I need have a little look at my own good self and figure out how to untie the cranky knot I can feel in my gut before I ruin everyone's day.

So what to do? Here is a list of things I am trying, in real time. I will let you know how I go. My approach is going to be from no effort (hope this one works) upwards until I have sorted my cranky mind out.

1. Breathe slowly and count backwards from 10: Lets see..... can still feel cranky knot. Am not likely to lash out in the next ten seconds, but all bets are off after that. Probably good for emergency cranky intervention, but not longer term mood alteration.
2. Make a masking tape line of the floor and step over it: Could not immediately find masking tape which was frustrating, ended up just putting a ruler on the floor and stepping over it. Imagined that I was crossing the line between a good mood and a bad one. Strangely enough, I do feel a bit happier. My brain is weird.
3. Cutting out the caffeine: It strikes me that perhaps my mood and the knotty feeling inside might be related to too much caffeine this morning. Can't give you immediate results on this one, but am cutting it out for the day. Might make me serene:)
4. Put on some music: Just opened Pandora on my iphone (best app in the world) and switched to the 'Pop' channel. Can do this because no one is home I have to pretend I have good music taste for. Wait....wait.... think I might have just smiled. :)
5. For the first time ever.... I am trying laughing yoga: Or my version of it. Hope my kids don't hear me. (after) Well that was strange. I was really expecting fake laughter to merge into real laughter after time. Did. not. happen. Maybe this is better when you are watching other people fake laugh as well. In the end, it became apparent that making the 'ha ha ha ha' sound was helping with my breathing though so I kept it up regardless. Do feel better after some rounds of salute to the sun. 

After completing the above, I would describe my mood as optimistically neutral. I can work with that. Might even be able to watch my kids eat lunch without having a melt down.

I would love to hear your approaches to mood improvement, after all, choosing your mood is one of lifes super powers.