It can be fun to stay alert to what thoughts and images pass through the mind. They can slip through so quickly that it is not easy to recognize them all, much less actually list them or note them. Certainly too rapidly to consider them carefully. Generally, a mood, an attitude, a necessary task that doesn't seem very positive can be viewed a bit dispassionately, maybe with a bit of internal questioning. Have I seen this feeling before? Is it pleasant? Helpful? How do I wish I felt? Why isn't it possible for me to feel that better way?
If I decide that the weather, or not winning the lottery or whatever is just plain crummy, rotten, disastrous, can I put my attention on anything else I have or am, that is more to my liking? With a headache or a big bill blotting out everything else, I may still be able to see how that big negative is hogging up my thinking. Sometimes, it helps not to think or question or repeat my dissatisfactions but to see if I can sit and silently sulk, soundlessly stew in the difficulty du jour. Generally, the mind is such that welcoming the dissatisfaction, trying to increase the amount of misery or anger I feel results in the negative receding. It is often as though the negative doesn't want attention, shies away from the light of day.
If I sit attentively and feel various stances suggest themselves, a cheerful one or a business-like one or a productive one may emerge and make itself known. I may have been told that I am a jerk, or stupid or totally pathetic but as I sit and see different emotional outfits for the day offer themselves, I more or less automatically slip into a humorous one or a helpfully neutral one. I don't need to cheerlead or summon lusty yells. A curiosity about what will come next, a doubt that I need to feel down, an impatience with still feeling the same old dumps - any of those will do.
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