Emotional Thermostat

Just Musing about in my mind the other day and I got to thinking about who controls my moods. Is it me? It seems for a good part of my life it wasn't. I might be in a perfectly fine mood, having a good day and then someone who is having a melt down shows up and my day is ruined. ??? Surely no one else does this. Right?

Or how deeply am I affected by the general outlook, such as "there's a recession coming and its going to be BAD" or "Things are terrible and the only hope you have is to elect our party to office, we will save you from the horrible mess we are in now" or the news paper, which I firmly believe should be called the "bad news paper" because that's all they are interested in printing, "if it bleeds it leads". Interviewing people who have just lost a son or daughter to some horrific fate and asking "how do you feel?" Are you kidding me? Or the comprehensive coverage of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. . . give me a break, this is news? I don't really think so, but my question is how much does it affect my mood? Does it frighten me, make me feel confused, hopeless, or just disinterested?

Or the people in my living space. How does their mood affect my own? There is an old idea that women who live in close quarters cycles sync up, if this is true we must be affecting each other all the time. I live and love a man who has a lot of anger issues. How does that affect me?

I was mulling over all these things when I was turning down the thermostat for the night and after I went to bed I realized that my moods must have a thermostat too, but who has been setting the controls? When I react to someone else's mood by changing my own they are setting my mood, but when I simply see their mood for what it is and who's it is, my mood stays the same (I'm setting my emotional thermostat). I know this is probably very elementary and I maybe should have gotten it 50 years ago, but the point is I DIDN'T. I'm getting it now and I'm just so grateful. So every day now I set the intention of remembering. . . I control my emotional thermostat. When I am down it is because I have chosen to be down for a reason (like maybe to deal with old tramas,etc.) and that is perfectly fine. And when I am up it is because I have chosen to be up, no matter what kind of energy field might surround me. Guess it all comes down to personal responsibility, doesn't it?

January???????????

I lost most of January!!!! Tiff and the boys came on New Years Eve for 2 weeks. Jim and Lauren got sick JAN 1.... We spent the next 12 days trying to prevent anyone else from catching it, especially Tiff and the boys. Washed hands till they were raw, sprayed everything with lysol, etc. etc. Made it for 12 days and then Jimmy started in with symptoms. Mostly it was an awful head cold and cough. Jimmy said "I got the coughs". Then he woke up with that barky cough that can only mean the croup. Got him to a dr. and got medicine and a shot. Had to keep him confined to our bedroom so we could effectively run the vaporiser. After the first day he was a real champ, and stopped complaining. Tiff and I took turns with Jimmy and Jim and Tiff took turns with Kellen, as we hoped Jim was no longer contagious and wouldn't infect the baby. Anyway the up shot was the Dr. said no traveling for another week. So they were here 3 weeks after which we were sending her home with a recovering 2 year old, 2 month old baby and Mom coming down with said cold. They made it fine anyway, and she didn't get as sick as the rest of us. As for us we still sound a little like a TB ward with coughs coming from one room or another. I have only begun to feel like a human being again this week. Now we are trying to get the house back in some kind of order, after no cleaning for practically a month. Things are looking up though, and my sister is coming next week to celebrate our birthdays together. Looking forward to having some fun with her.

Have a couple of things I want to post about and will soon, I promise.