Mood Index

Unharnessed, I’m sure the food I eat is directly related to my mood. This past week was laced with bad food choices. Pasta. Bread. Cereal. Ice Cream. Carbohydrate Frenzy. Let this be an index for how bad my week was.

Tonight, dinner will be at a friend’s – a meal of fresh Atlantic salmon (bought yesterday at Whole Paycheck), over a savory quinoa and vegetables roasted in a balsamic reduction. Doesn’t get much healthier than that. I suppose we could have kale chips as an appetizer. That would be supreme-o healthy. So, like it or not, the Food-Mood Index will be ratcheted high and I’ll have no choice but to feel better.

Another indicator of my well-being is the Body-Mood Index. Right now there is a fever blister the size of a cantaloupe (it feels that big) hanging off my lower lip. Sometimes I break out in hives. Other times I sweat profusely. Or wake up with a headache. Of course there’s the ubiquitous muscle tension. Sometimes I get an itch that has no perceivable origin except whatever is “getting under my skin,” and I might scratch that thing raw.

Finally, there is what I’ll call the Sensorimotor-Mood Index. Depression leads to sluggishness. Anxiety leads to hyperactivity. Overwhelmed leads to tiredness. On Thursday, all of my indices were off the charts. I lay down on the bed and said to the death gods, “ok, come get me.” (Not suicidal – just offering myself for the taking.) Three hours later, I was still awake, still alive, so I got up and slogged into the kitchen for ice cream.

I have no words of wisdom regarding all of this. I’m just watching, trying to notice. If I pay attention to what my body is doing, who knows what I’ll discover.

To keep the body in good health is a duty... otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.  - Buddha

Hungrily, painfully and sluggishly yours -