photo credit: See-ming Lee SML

What do you do when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?

I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells. Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It’s a way of looking at life through the wrong end of a telescope. And that enables you to laugh at life’s realities.

— Dr. Seuss

Some days it doesn’t take much to steal away your morning cheer.  (Yeah, yeah, that’s IF you had any to begin with – some of us just wake up grumpy … something about morning does that to us.) In a recent Family Circus comic strip the Mom wakes up with a glorious stretch and a song in her heart only to be bombarded by:

• My throat hurts… cough, cough.
• We’re out of milk.
• Your cell phone battery is dead!
• The toilet’s backed up.
• More bad news from DC…

And so slumps her mood, from glad to sad… down, down, down into a grumpy, grayness in what, a nano second?  Ta-da! Gloom rules.

Why Dump the Slump?

Some of you may be asking, “Why would I want to dump a perfectly good grumpy slump???” Because glad makes the day dance, projects march and helpers help.  It greases the skids, primes the pump, makes tasks easy as pie, carries the day, charms the birds out of the trees… Oh heck, do it because I say so!

How Shall We Dump ’Em?

(First we kill them with clichés!)Slumps are the stuff of life that drags us down, don’t fight me on this, just take my word for it.  Lifting ourselves up by our boot straps, that’s the rub, the crux of the matter.  Can we get from sad to glad in a nano second?

I’m thinking, I’m thinking!

Yes, I think we can and here’s my three step instruction sheet:

Ellie’s Three Stepper-Slump Dumper

How to deflate a grumpy slump in a nano-second or three

1.  Notice!

First off, it helps to realize that we’ve kerplopped into the gray funk of a slump.  It’s so easy to just stew about in it without realizing we’ve crossed over.  Once we catch on to a grumpy slump, that’s when it’s time to take the bull by the tail and do something about it.

2.  Do something silly!

Let’s see, you could:

• Do the  Hip Hop version of the Chicken Dance
• Or, ala Lawrence Welk if you’re more of a traditionalist
• Or you could think up some silly knock-knock jokes, or you could just use these:

• Sing a silly song

How about this one, sung to the tune of God Bless America…

God, bless my underwear
My only pair.
Stand beside them,
And guide them,
As they sit in a heap by the chair.
From the washer,
To the clothesline,
To my dresser drawer,
To my rear!
God, bless my underwear,
My only pair.
God, bless my underwear,
Or I’ll be bare.

[Double Groan!]

3.  Do Your A-B-Cs!

Nothing affects our mood quite like self-talk.  What we say to ourselves – especially when we’re not listening – has profound impact.  So listen up and notice the messages you’re giving yourself and, if needs be, change them!  Here’s a short version of how to do your A-B-C’s:

• Notice when you interpret something as an Adversity.
• Turn up your self-talk volume – hear your negative Beliefs loud and clear.
• And then ask yourself:  What are the Consequences of acting as if those beliefs were true?
• If you don’t like and don’t want the Consequences, then Distract yourself so you can Dispute the Belief.
• And replace it with an Energizing new self-talk message!

(Yes there’s a D-E in your A-B-C’s, deal with it!)
Want to know more? See my previous post, Optimism is as Easy as A-B-C.

Does my three stepper slump-dumper seem too good to be true?  Actually, it’s a good and well researched process… first you need to get grounded (notice), then you need to change your state of mind (being silly), and then you need to “adopt a different state of mind”(A-B-C-D-E’s, especially your own energizing self-talk).  It’s worth a try and according to Dr. Seuss:

…If you never did you should. These things are fun and fun is good.

Or I suppose you could go back to bed on the off chance that when you wake up next time it’ll be on the other side of the bed?

What do you do when you wake up on the wrong side of the bed?  Share the wealth, tell us your version of how to dump the slumps.