Tuning in the Grumpy Morning Blues

It’s Monday. Getting up is already hard and then things don’t perk up. And before you know it, you are in the middle of the grumpy morning blues. You are in the mood of sighs and wailing. As any musical tune, it can carry you along: listen out for the solo of despair or possibly the chorus of moaning.

Naturally, I do not mean those with serious conditions. Or who are affected by a real crisis. I speak for myself or maybe others who suddenly notice that they are humming their day away in D-minor.

Crescendo

Sad tunes invite sound clouds of sadness. On top of any minor domestic mishaps, you tune into the global news which are always bad (Weird that this what we chose to start our days with). Beware of the crescendo: you might get your family members to join your ballade of complaints. Naturally, you can invite any number of acquaintances to join the choir by texting downcast exchanges, grunting at other dog walkers, or emailing colleagues about unloved projects.

I suspect it is healthy to air grievances and moaning is important. We might as well explode if we keep all negative feelings always in. There cannot be light without shadow. By all means, stir around in the dark side and walk the caverns of loss, betrayal, disappointment, etc. The list is endless. The human heart is an intriguing labyrinth.

Pause

However, I advise that after a particularly long and heartfelt sigh, just when you need to catch your breath, you hit the pause button.

While it was fun to mope, surely not all is lost just yet? To start with: as long as you can complain, you are still alive. Many are not.

Before you spread your cloud of sadness any further, maybe sit down and poke gently inside. That’s when I write ALL the things that bother me today. No matter how big or small, they can be ridiculous, embarrassing, or world changing.

Score

Even while writing my List of Bother I start to feel better. Often I am feeling overwhelmed by overlapping bits and pieces. And by writing them down, I realise that some things are out of my control: „Earthquake in Turkey“. Some are past „I was really tired“ or fixed „I could not find my favourite shirt“.

Some have been hanging around on my To-Do List for a while and now reached the urgency to bother me: „Need to call Y“. That is actually not impossible to do.

And then there are some bits that are awkward and that I might not even have realised that they bothered me until I stopped to inspect my score, „Should not have said this to X“. Those might need extra soul searching. As we all know, they are best to be addressed, but maybe we can ignore them another day…

No matter what the outcome of this list, I feel better by taking the time to listen in at the voices, tunes and themes in my grumpy blues.

Taking notes

I can listen carefully and that is enough for some tunes to fade right away. For them it was enough just to be heard.

By separating the different voices, I can accept some: they are going to stay and that is fine, too. Like church bells ringing or the sound of traffic. Out of my control.

Yet others I need to spend some effort in addressing the source of the noise. But at least I have a better understanding what they are.

It certainly can be unpleasant to listen to those tunes closely. However, if ignoring does not work and they keep pestering me, I need to stop to listen to them.

New Sound

And I do not need complete silence, if I reduce the volume only by a little, it might already be just right to sound in harmony with the overall tune of our life!

Keep listening to yourself!