This is Only Temporary If I Want It to Be

The past few days seem to feel like they all run together. I've noticed myself thinking differently, which has made my mental state weird. I find myself being really judgmental. I am scrolling through my Facebook, rolling my eyes at posts by friends. People being happy about their lives. Engagements, baby announcements, vacations, etc. Why do I care what's going on? I'm sick of seeing stuff about their happy lives.

As my boyfriend and I were driving to our softball league game, I was telling him about a post I saw and talking trash about it. He said to me, "Why can't you be happy for them?" Then it hit me. My attitude sucks. I need to change it. Why can't I be happy for them? Some of these are from good friends, I should be happy for them. Maybe I need a break from social media. Maybe I need to find out what is going on with me, to stop taking it out on my friends. 

We know gossip is all around us. Everyone has that one friend you know is going to start the conversation of with something they saw on Instagram, or Facebook. At what point do westop doing this? If we're surrounded by it and find ourselves starting to talk like this, then we have already been infected by the disease. The contagious disease of judging people.

After my boyfriend brought up what I said, I started looking for what is different for me lately. Is it something out of my routine? Have I been sleeping okay and I'm just cranky? Have I ran lately? What am I eating? Or am I stressed about stuff? So after browsing through these questions in my head, I came to the conclusion that it was all of the above. I have so much stuff going on in my life that I let it get the best of me, and took it out on someone else. Dumb right? It happens to all of us. 

So what do I need to do about it to fix it? I can start a mood journal and write down how I feel or the ups and downs during the day. Then after a few days I can reflect on what was going on that day to make me feel bad, mad, or sad. I can use my tools from therapy to cope with these feelings and mentally think of positive things in my life to change my focus on good things. I can talk to a friend about what's going on with me, why I'm feeling like I do. 

Needless to say, we all have bad days, even bad weeks. But we can rise above it. We can be happy for people when we're not happy at the moment. It's about being self-less. It's about taking the spotlight off of yourself and caring about what is going on that is special in your friends lives. Because one day that will be you. You will have something awesome happen and you would want the same joy shared with your friends. Remember, if you are having a bad day, it's only a day. The same for a bad week. It's only temporary, if you make it temporary. Share the joy in your life with people you love, and do the same for them. 

-DC