"Really?," she said, her questioning reaction clearly showing on her expressive face.
"Yep, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and today. I've been feeling good."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," she agreed, following a bit more thought.
Well, perhaps Skip isn't 100% sold on my good mood over the last few days, but since my post about using relaxation as an anti-crank technique, I have been feeling good.
- I determined my calming phrase will be "be cool, my babies!," a quote we stole from Conan O'Brien, oft repeated here at home. Curiously, I've used this on Skip to calm her as well as using it on myself.
- When I got cranky during the bedtime routine last night, I felt myself beginning to have an extreme reaction and was able to reel myself back in before going into a full-bore crank out. I reminded myself that the language I was using in my head just exaggerated the cranky reaction, helping me to "dial it down."
- I tried Wii Fit yoga. Turns out the yoga moves won't work for me because they aggravate my already painful shoulders, but I did find some balance games that were fun, such as ski slalom. I sucked at it, but I found it fun enough that I'd enjoy playing it and getting better.
- I've avoided crankiness in some situations tailor-made for it. Often times when Skip feels stressed, I get cranky. She was feeling stressed in advance of our trip to Cape Cod on Saturday. I'd anticipated this and was prepped with "be cool, my babies!" to help take the edge off. I was able to be the calming force instead of amplifying the stress and never did fall out of my good mood.
Yep, feeling pretty good.
10 comments:
I love the title of this blog! Why didn't I find you earlier? I have really wanted to know what it felt like to be married to a person with MS. I want to know what my ex husband was going through, what it felt like on the other side of MS, to be the observer to their sufferings, and how he felt dealing with a wife who shut down and retreated into herself.
Forgot to add that I will now be adding you to my list of beautiful bloggers. Hope the shame doesn't burn too much! But I think there is a cream out there to ease the burn.
You are a stronger person than I, not for dealing with the crankiness, but for playing a game you even have the slightest thought you may suck at! If I'm not confident I can't master it, I don't play! Oh yeah, good work on the decrankification as well.
Andy
Blindbeard - Greetings! I've been browsing your blog and have enjoyed it. No shame being on your blogroll! This is good incentive for me to get around to adding you to mine as well.
Andy - glad to see your comment. Welcome back from your travels. There are some games I know I will always suck at, Pictionary for example (no artistic talent), that I will never play as there's no pleasure. the Wii Fit slalom game I figured I could become at least mediocre at so figured I'd keep at it. Decrankification - great word!
My next life I want to be the person in charge of making up words for things, how cool would that be?
Hey Cranky
Nothing says I Love You more than, "really? I hadn't noticed your improved behaviour". Don't worry, "M" does it to me on occasion. I still haven't learned to take it real well.I guess its important to focus on the fact that I feel I have made change, even if others don't quite pick up on it yet, such is the same with weight loss.
I watched Conan last night ...he wasn't doing very well, but I attribute that to poor writing.
Thanks for stopping by, "L"! Love to hear from you.
Wish I had some weight loss for people to not notice.
That's a good point.
Gitter dun!
LOVE it! Hard to be cranky saying "be cool my babies" in silly, high pitched Conan voice :-D
I think I am going to steal that and make it a STFU cue for my two dogs who are forever quarreling which, of course, makes me cranky ;-)
L - yes, dammit, I do need to gitter dun.
Barrie - you've got exactly - we do try to imitate Conan's silly delivery. Good luck on the dogs!
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