Address Your Mood Swings With Yoga

How is your mood today? Well, moodiness is something we all go through every minute, every hour and every day. Is moodiness bad? To understand it, let us try to understand what mood really means. ‘Mood’ dictionary meaning is “temporary state of mind or feeling”. This can be good, bad and neutral, defining your mental health (mind). Moods are mere tip of that iceberg where many emotions, feelings, thoughts, beliefs, fears operate in the layers of mountain called ‘inner self’ which is different for all. Through regular oscillation in mood, typically called as mood swings, you create your overall personality and your mental state. If it is a bad mood, for a minute or a day, it causes suffering and pain, and if it is good, everything around becomes beautiful. What if you can control this oscillation? What if you are the master of your own mood? Rather than mood governing your inner self to extreme right or left, you maintain its center. Looks impossible? Try Yoga, try breathing.

In India, our sages have known it for thousands of years that breathing is a portal to transform stress and anxiety, to calmness and stability. Breathing right helps you to navigate through the waters of your mind and emotions. If you carefully observe, our emotions always change our breathing pattern. That means Breathing and Emotions are tied to each other. You change one and you affect the other in this Breathe-Emotion loop.

Aspect 1 of Loop. (Emotion affecting Breath)
Until now, we have been regulating this loop in the order of – Emotion affecting Breath. In times of fear and anxiety, you breathe short, in moments of deep sorrow, you breathe shallow, in happy moments, you breathe even and in times of calmness, you breathe deeper.

Aspect 2 of Loop. (Breath affecting Emotion)
If we reverse the order through Yoga’s breathing techniques, it will change the occurrence too. That means the next time you are in a bad mood (surrounded with emotions), pay attention to your breathing pattern. As you begin to breathe slowly and deeply, you will begin to feel less stressed, less uneasy and more relaxed.

It is said – “You cannot control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside”. Try this with different breathing techniques of Yoga and for this, you do not have to go in isolation with your Yoga mat. You can become calmer, still and present by consciously observing your inhale/exhale during the day on intervals. Next time when your mind creates ripples, thoughts surround you or you step ahead to the roller coaster ride of moods, take a pause – and divert your complete attention to your breath. Regular practice would have empowering and everlasting results on your mental, emotional and physical health too.

So next time, when somebody asks you “How is the mood”? – You will have your answer 😊