For a little while ago I started thinking about the “rollercoaster of moods”, and that not everybody experiences it. I know some people that have few swings and people that never stands still in an emotion, like me. I wondered why it was like this.

Yes, the statements about bipolar disorders and similar mental diseases and sicknesses came to mind, but I felt that was a little vague of an explanation even though its many of the medical terms and such and such. The theories of taoism and chinese cultural understanding fell in a more logical thought pattern for me.

We are all familiar with the consept of kontrasts (white – black, big – smal etc.) and that where there is happiness there will exist sadness, where there is hate there will exist love and so on. So I started playing with the idea of that if I am over-enthusiastic I will experience the opposite some time after, if I am over-happy I will become über depressed, if I am over-caring I will become careless and so on. As Yin/Yang would place this; where the top is high, the bottom is equally low.

So in other words, if I don’t start the top-end I won’t have a reason to experience the bottom-end, but being completly neutral resulted in no happiness and no sadness. I fell on the conclusion of that there is no reason to smile or laugh if it is just to please someones hope of reaction, nore the opposite, laugh to get a reaction. The same goes for the negative sides, why be mad or sad just because someone else is it? So I decided to start being completly honest about my reactions and not follow what I think others would like me to react. I tried to match this up with my friends who did not have so drastic mood-swings and it actually fitted in. I found that they don’t laugh to please anyone else, and so with their cries. If they think something is funny they will laugh and so with their cries if something is sad. This thought brought me often the word  “Focus”.

I think that most moods swings happen when one place its focus wrong. I have some weeks now been doing the “Shong” Qigong routine. This routine gives you a picture of where your focus should lie, by striking over where it sholdn’t be. The Shong routine is the image to the right. Below you will find instuctions and an explanation of the different lines.

Instuctions:

• Draw the sign in the air with your arms.
• Follow the numbers as illustrated. Odds (1,3) are the left arm, evens (2,4) are the right arm. Allways start with left arm.
• Breating: Inhale when you are positioning your arm to draw a line, exhale while drawing the line.
• Do this in slow motion everyday for as long as you feel it is usefull for you.

Explanation :

1. this line represents the spritual aspects of life.
2. this bow represents the emosional and social aspect.
3. this line represents the material and physical things in life.
4. this is the striking line that represents where your focus should be.

Now, what is the center focus? as the theory of this Qigong routine goes, the focus should be your reason of being on this planet, your mission. I haven’t heard the whole story behind this, but I think that line 1, 2 and 3 are the aspects of our cultural habbits that distracts us from our mission. Not to say that having nice things and lots of friends and other partners is wrong, but is it clever to focus your center on aspects that most likly will fade after a while?

If you lay all your happiness on your partner in life or a close friend, and let that person controll your smiles and cries through their mood, responses and reactions. What would happen if that person suddenly left your life?

Or an even better example: What if you lay most of your daily activities on the television, lets the TV controll your mood, happiness and cries, spend most of your time in front of the “box of entertainment”. How would you feel or what would you do if the TV suddenly didn’t work?

I guess that both scenarios would result in long time unhappiness for the most of us. I don’t remember where I heard this next line but its a great one: “If you own more than 7 items, your items end up owning you”. Thats a thought-starter for me. I think Yin/Yang would place this situation something like this: if You own everything, then you will own nothing.

So my final conclusion on this topic is; Smile and cry when its natural for one self, find the right focus and walk the line that has been drawn, to every high there’s an equal low so do not push anything over the top or under, then one would have no reason to have unstable moodswings.

Thank you for reading this post!

I really hope you do the “Shong” Qigong routine if you feel your mood is a swinger, or if you’d like to correct your focus in life.