Mood Tracker

Given that I'm prone to mercurial moods and emotional flights of fancy when under stress, my ONE New Year's resolution was just to get healthy. I left it vague on purpose; so as not to stress myself out with a list of things I must do by December 31st.

I have not mentioned my New Year's resolution since my past experiences have proven that the mere act of mentioning them, dooms them to failure.

BUT, so far this year:

• I've lost all of my stress weight (which has caused a conundrum since I had to buy new clothes and I hate shopping...)...
• I've been running and doing yoga regularly for 3 months and have recently gotten a glimpse of the elusive 'runner's high'...my goal is to do a 10k this summer but I'll be happy with a 5k.
• I'm actually eating fruit almost daily and drinking water...still avoiding vegetables, though
• Cut out alcohol and coffee, for the most part (well, I still like a glass or two of wine in social situations, and limit my coffee toa couple of cups in the a.m. I'm just not using either as a stress reliever or a.m. charger anymore...).
• Breathing more (very helpful to living), "this, too, shall pass..."
• I'm painting and drawing again and reveling the escape into my right brain
• Making the time to do...nothing...alone...and not feel guilty about it. After all, I read that creativity needs at least 90 minutes of stewing time to become fruitful...so my 'doing nothing' is really part of that process...

All of these changes have had a remarkable, positive affect on my daily mood. While the Irish and Italian in me will never be a calm mix, I am finding equanimity and peace in life's mundane and not-so-mundane experiences. This has caused quite a disturbance at home. My son keeps asking me, "Mom! Why are you singing and listening to music OUT LOUD, while cleaning my room?!" He seemed quite distressed!

"I just feel happy and want to live with open doors..."

"What are you so happy about?" he accused. I guess he's used to that nagging, cranky, grumbling woman who simply throws clean clothes into his room, quickly shutting the door behind them. :P

This made me pause, my mind, wonderfully blank. "Um, I don't think I'm happy about anything..."

He just rolled his eyes and went back to his xBox ways, as a normal teenager should do...and I basked in the fact that I can keep his bedroom door open AND see his floor at the same time. Hell, that's a sure way to lift any parent-of -a-teenager's mood.