How often do you “choose” your mood?
Can you really “change” your mood?
Most days I am inclined to answer NO!

This smiling face, however, works for me every time!!!

The ugly mood trap sets in for me after so many hits & triggers from the negative side of life. Perhaps I am a bit too insecure or perhaps just too sensitive to the competing interests of the moment.

Recently I have embraced MINDFULNESS practices to the challenges of my daily struggle. It is a more honest version of what I use to call PRAYING. I say more honest because Mindfulness recognizes the feeling of the moment without replacing it with guilt or blame. It lets that feeling breathe and be named. It releases the struggle behind the feeling rather than calling on magical thinking to rescue and banish the evil of the moment.

Perhaps my Christian roots ruined prayer for me, so if this is still prayer I can not name it as such. I only know that my walk in the moment mid the pain and hurt around me requires honest words and thoughts, ones saturated with the FEELING appropriate to the tears and fears they represent. Without that honesty, I can not tend to the process of healing, for myself or those I serve.