If you are one of those few who read the title correctly (“Phases Of The Mood”), and think there’s a typo there, let me tell you: that is not a typo. 🙂
We have all heard of the phases of the Moon. The Moon waxes and wanes as it revolves around the Earth in a 29-day cycle. And as it does so, some days it shines brightly in the sky, some days not so much. And some days, not at all.
Indulging in a little bit of personification here, but recently, I was looking at the crescent Moon, and it made me wonder: Does the Moon doubt itself on those days when it shines less brightly, or not at all? Must it feel like an imposter, that on the rare days when it does shine with all its might, it’s just a random fluke?
We are all like the Moon in a way, isn’t it? Some days, we are high on energy. We feel good, and we light up our surroundings. While on some other days, we feel low, and can’t “shine” as brightly. We question whether we are good for anything. We have self-doubt.
But as I continued to admire the Moon, even in its crescent form, I realized something: the Moon may shine less brightly on some days, but it’s still the very same Moon that shines as brightly as it does on the Full Moon nights!
The Moon is what it is – it remains whole, whether it shines brightly, or not at all. It doesn’t change one bit, no matter how much it is glowing on a particular day. It’s only a matter of circumstances – being in a certain place at a certain time – that affects how bright it appears. And actually, it’s not even about the Moon itself if you think about it. It is about where the observer is in relation to the Moon. If one could leave Earth and be in the right place, they would see a Full Moon every night!
So, on those days, when we are feeling low, or inadequate, or having self-doubts, it would do us well to remember that just like it's simply the phases of the Moon, and nothing more, that affect how brightly the Moon glows that night, we also go through our own phases of the mood.
We remain the very same radiant being who has illuminated their surroundings earlier. If somebody tells us that our light is no longer the same as before, maybe they are just catching us in a bad phase. A matter of circumstances. Maybe our current disposition is just an intermediate step on our way to full glow. A phase of our mood. Or perhaps the observer themselves is not at the right viewpoint to see our full potential.
It is totally okay to go through these phases of the mood. The thing to keep in mind is that the whole of us is still there. Not glowing as brightly on some days doesn’t mean we are any less of a person than what we were earlier.
And just like it’s a given that the Full Moon will eventually come around, we too will once again shine with all our light soon enough.
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Credits: Photo by Marcus Dall Col on Unsplash
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