Getting out of the Grumpies: Notice, Get Curious, Play.

@flickr/11950mike

It’s been a grumpy four or five hours. I’ve had grumpy thoughts like these buzzing around my head:

• It’s grey and drizzly and damp and chilly, again.
• My throat is starting to hurt, a cold is trying to take hold.
• I have a trip to the dentist’s tomorrow, and I’m worried that I’ll be spending some time in the chair.
• I’m plugging away at some must-do projects that aren’t necessarily the things I love to do
• I can’t believe that I’ve not yet accomplished (and accumulated) what I think I “should” have.

Going around in loop-de-loops was just making me more and more miserable.

And then I remembered:

I’m a Treasure Hunter!!

I know how to get out of the Grumpies!!

I’ve been so busy this last year with creating Time Native (and this past few weeks finishing up the ebook), that I’ve set aside all of the tools of the Treasure Hunter. Dumb Dumb Dumb!

Here’s how easy it was for me to get out of my five-hour funk:

I noticed that I was miserable.

I got curious about what was going on (that list up above became pretty obvious).

I got curious about something else:

Where’s the Treasure?

That was it! I got curious about something else.

I asked a different question.

Where’s the Treasure?

And immediately my misery lifted, my breathing deepened, my muscles relaxed and I began to smile. Neurotransmitters started flowing and a big smile lit up my face.

I remembered that I have a great life, wonderful friends, and am doing work that’s deeply meaningful and makes a difference a real difference in the world.

Tonight, all that question really did was to get me to look around, to get outside of my head. I stopped processing internally, and started focusing on the world around me. I was just looking around, seeing my kitchen, the table, the living room. Simple as it sounds, that was enough.

My friend Dr. Andre Golard talks about the neuroscience of switching your attention and focus inwardly to your thoughts or externally to sensations and the world outside of you. Call it magic, call it meditation, call it science, it worked.

So, when you next notice that you’re miserable . . .

and that you’ve been miserable for a while . . .

and you’d prefer not to be miserable . . .

Here’s what you can do:

1. Really notice it. Don’t shrug it off. You noticed something, stick with it.
2. Get curious about what’s going on. Could it be the weather, or a cold? Hunger, thirst or exhaustion? Do you need exercise? Are there stressors in your life, or did something upset or anger you without you noticing it? Just get curious about what’s going on.
3. Get curious about something else, like wondering where the treasure may be. Or what you really want. –or– 3 1/2. Play. Get up and do something different. Try getting extra grumpy make it a game. Just change things up.

There are lots of ideas in this website to help you discover this–the bottom line is, Treasure Hunts are a great way to bring back lightness and play!