I have one of those 3″ x 6″ plastic mood-visuals hanging on my refrigerator. It comes with a little red cut out square that you place over the face that illustrates the mood you’re feeling. 

 

One thing I’ve noticed about this little mood chart is that out of the 30 moods on offer, 25 are negative and only 5 are positive. What does that say about us?

 

Here’s a sample of the negative choices 

 

Exhausted

Confused

Guilty

Angry

Hysterical

Frustrated

Sad

Embarrassed 

Disgusted

Frightened

Enraged

Anxious

Lonely

Jealous

Overwhelmed

 

Here are the five positive choices

Happy

Ecstatic

Confident

Lovestruck

Hopeful

 

I have two thoughts about this and I’m going to share both with you. 

 

1) We are so ingrained to see the fly in the ointment. Is it so hard for us to name positive emotions that they only gave us five? Do we spend so little time feeling positive that the words don’t come more quickly to us? 

 

2) I can go through each of these negative emotions and tie it to diabetes. For instance:

 

Exhausted – After 1 billion blood sugar tests it gets a little tiring!

Confused – This isn’t the number I usually get when I eat that!

Guilty – A night of eating everything I love that just gets away from me

Angry – Stopped by security at the airport because of my insulin pen!

Hysterical – Stopped by security at the airport because of my insulin pen!

Frustrated – Having to eat just because I’m low. Damn!

Sad – I may really not make it to 80

Embarrassed – Shooting up in front of people I don’t know

Disgusted – Leaving blood trails on my newly renovated white kitchen cabinets 

Frightened – What will they find in my lab tests this time?

Enraged – This disease costs a shit-load of money

Anxious – Left the house without testing and have no idea where my sugar is

Lonely – No one else knows what this is like!

Jealous – Of everyone else’s freedom

Overwhelmed – I feel lousy yet I still have to get up to test my blood sugar, see if I have to refill my meds, god, I got it wrong again?

 

That said, I can go through each of the positive emotions and also relate it to diabetes:

 

Happy – I’m in great shape overall and better shape than if I didn’t have diabetes

Ecstatic – Just started blogging for the Huffington Post as a patient-expert

Confident – I’m generally on top of things

Lovestruck – My partner couldn’t be more supportive 

Hopeful – This will continue to get easier to live with

 

But I’d add a few more positives to my mood meter:

 

Peaceful – Just had my labs done, everything’s OK

Contented – Overall, I love my life 

Excited – Going to the AADE to present this August

Joyful – I’ve found my passion and am in my ‘element’ as Ken Robinson says

Grateful – For everything I have: partner, home, work, friends, family, chocolate

Delighted – Lovely surprises come on a regular basis these days

Proud – While I thank my lucky stars, I did a lot to get here

 

The truth is we can look down and we can look up. I rarely change where my square hangs – it’s usually on “happy”. For even when I’m not happy, I’ve noticed that glancing at my happy square, makes me feel happier and think of something to be happy about.

 

Just an observation, make of it what you will.