Day 56: Feeling Completely

Day 56: “Feeling Completely”

Today is a good day. I’m in a good mood, for no reason at all — or maybe for a lot of reasons.

I’ve recently been thinking a lot about how our environment can affect our moods greatly — whether it be the weather, people yelling at each other on the street, cars honking, or a baby smiling at you. For each person, it’s always slightly different.

Me? I love waking up early on a beautiful Saturday morning, buying food and wine for a picnic, finding a spot in a park to lay down, watching clouds and sharing stories or ideas with those close to me.

That’s an example of a perfect day. But of course, we can’t have those days everyday. And environments aren’t the only thing that can set our moods.

Most of the time, our days are filled with responsibilities and obligations. Productive people have either a mental or physical to-do list for each day. This is not to say that responsibility and obligations are bothersome things — sometimes they are, but not always, and they don’t have to be. It depends on our mood and our perception.

Today, my responsibilities and obligations don’t feel overwhelming and bothersome. Analyzing it further makes me think that this feeling is because of a whole lot of reasons.

Whenever I want to be productive and start the day off right, I always do 50 pushups and make my bed. Not super super neat, just reposition the pillows and lay out the blanket evenly over the top.

In Shenzhen, my habit is heading to Moocup Coffee Shop and sitting at one of their sofa chairs and ordering a cup of tea. The past few days, I have found myself spending roughly 5 hours here, staying hydrated with a free cup refill every half hour or so.

Mentally, I feel ready to study and learn from reading a ton of articles and watching video essays. I have goals for the next week, for the next month, for the summer. Emotionally, I am happy today from FaceTiming friends back home and catching up on recent events. I know I have people who care about me and who I can always rely on.

Habitually, by putting in my earphones after setting up my computer in the cafe, I can listen to music that motivates me and puts me in a good mood. By going on a run, I can get blood pumping through my body, clear my mind of unnecessary stress, and feel confidence for the rest of the day. Motion creates emotion.

Most of the time, our attitude and mood can be within our control.

But of course, it isn’t always something we can always control.

Some days we feel slightly off, some days we feel crushingly sad, some days we feel unbelievably frustrated.

I guess we should just make the most of the days when we feel good and productive — and we should take those sad and frustrating days to feel those emotions completely.

Eventually…

“You let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely—but eventually be able to say, ‘All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I’m not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I’m going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I’m going to experience them as well.'”

— Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albom