One early morning I got a chance to exercise my mind over mood theory in an Army PT run.
An Army PT run, or physical training run, is a 40 member jog for several miles.
One person calls cadence, that would be the song that we will all sing, and the rest of us repeat what the cadence caller, the lead singer, is singing.
Well on fine Army morning I would test my "mind over mood" theory.
It was just after 6 a.m. on a rainy morning and we were in platoon formation and ready to run. That's when about 40 of us are all running in four rows of about 10 men per row.
We all run step for step, stride for stride, the same foot hits the ground at the same time while we sing. And just as we got into rhythm...
The weather started out with a light drizzle and then it started to rain hard.
Did we turn around ? No..
We just kept singing...
Did we get under dry shelter ? No...
We just kept singing...
And as the sky grew darker and the rains poured from the heavens a I thought to myself,
"Yeah Blalock, this sucks-- "
And while the rains graced us with soggy shorts and squeaky shoes the cadence caller began singing louder and louder.
As I focused on the cadence I began to forget about my current situation.
It was surreal. I thought to myself, "Hey Blalock, you are supposed to be miserable, but you're not."
The answer was in the singing. There is something about singing that makes us forget about our current situation and makes us feel good.
I simply switched my mind.
After a while it seemed more like a game.
Though the external conditions told me that I was supposed to be cold and miserable the singing, or cadence, shifted my brain into another level.
It showed my that this was just that -- external.
I changed my "internal" state by singing.
This singing made me forget about the cold and the rain.
Mind over mood is mind over emotions, control your emotions.
Ensure that you say "Congratulations on a job well done".....
....to YOURSELF.
Validate yourself, congratulate yourself, reward yourself...
BEFORE your accomplishment has materialized.
Congrats on getting the new job, the new look, the new business, the increased income, the new you.
If this drives you then use it.
A simple mind shift. When you change your mind you change your emotion thus you change your reality.
Remember: whatever you give strong emotion to becomes an imprint on your mind and your mind will give you more of that over and over again.
If you do not like what you are experiencing give it less emotion and give what you want more or stronger emotion... just like I did. It's simply "mind over mood."