I woke up grumpy yesterday. Not just fleetingly mad, but kind of a bone deep anger at the world. Not that there was much a of a reason for it. I have a pretty fantastic life if I may say so. But I had slept terribly, the baby had kicked me most of the night, I had nightmares, two of my 3 kids had been up several times. I didn’t have a good lunch planned, I am in the awkward stage of pregnancy where clothing looks weird, and it was so foggy out I could hardly see my ugly min-van. You get the drift, everything was not good because that was my dominating mood.
But then I remembered the promise I had made to myself and to the #Nerdlution – to focus on the small happy moments and take pictures of them. To stop and smell the happy rather than rush through the day. So I took a deep breath and tried to look for the happy. Maybe not as serendipitous as just finding it but I had promised myself I would be happy so I was going to find my happy. At first it seemed super forced, like a fake smile, but then I felt the tension start to leave my shoulders. Sure Ida was making the stuffed puppy play it’s annoying Christmas jingle for the 10th time, but every time she hit that button, Oskar wiggled his butt. Sure, Thea was being wild and crazy, but she was playing with her younger siblings the best way she knew how. Sure, my classroom was filled with piles of work to be done but it meant that almost all of the students had done their work. And sure, I stuffed myself into a skirt and tried to look decent, but this 4th baby of ours is a miracle baby and this will be the last time I ever get to be pregnant. Stop and smell the happy.
Could I have snapped out of my mood by myself? Sure, but it was the knowing of the promise I had made publicly to #Nerdlution that made me do it more forcefully. I couldn’t already break my promise after 2 days after all. So today, when I woke up even more tired, even more sore, even more stressed, I knew I had to find my happy again, and I am ok with that. I know I will because I promised it to myself.
Won’t you join the revolution? (It is not too late to make yourself a promise…)
Pernille Ripp 
I hear you! I’ve been loving the forced focus for the past few days. Good way to move you to a good place 🙂
Fight for joy
I like to say “be still.”
Yup – need some stillness. I have 4 children. All grown now, but it’s the stillness and deep breathing that bring me back to a calming peace and that, my friend, is pure bliss. 🙂