Thursday, July 5, 2012

a Tigger having an Eeyore afternoon


I posted most of this a little over a year ago – but I’ve had an Eeyore sort of afternoon that led me to revisit the thoughts – with a few additional comments.

If you know Winnie the Pooh then you likely know the difference between Eeyore and Tigger.  Eeyore is pessimistic, depressed, and deflated. He has no self confidence and doesn’t think he does anything right. Tigger is energetic, joyful, enthusiastic, and positive.  For Tigger every day is a new adventure filled with promise, potential, possibility and fun!

Eeyore’s favorite book of the Bible is Lamentations:

People have heard my groaning, 
   
but there is no one to comfort me.
Lamentations 1: 21

Tigger loves passages like those in Psalm 66:

Shout for joy to God, all the earth! 
 
Sing the glory of His name; 
   
make His praise glorious.

Come and see what God has done, 
   
His awesome deeds for mankind!
Psalm 66: 1, 2 and 5

Tigger even has his own song:

A wonderful thing is a Tigger;
A Tigger's a wonderful thing.
Their tops are made out of rubber,
their bottoms are made out of spring
They're bouncy, bouncy, bouncy, bouncy,
fun, fun, fun, fun, fun,
The most wonderful thing
about Tiggers is:
I'm the only one!

Most of the time I am a Tigger (though certainly not the only one) in fact my persistent Tiggerness can be annoying (or so I’m told) especially when I over-Tigger around perceived Eeyores.

This afternoon – after a frustrating lunch workout Session (the squat machine owns me) I found myself in a terrible mood -  I became an Eeyore and it lasted all afternoon – in fact tonight’s rain is finally improving the mood a bit.  This is an atypical feeling for a natural Tigger.

When I first posted this I asked people if they were Tiggers or Eeyores but the question on my mind tonight is this:  When a Tigger dips into an Eeyore mood what should they do to get out of it?

PS – to face what the church in Smyrna faced and remain faithful there must have been a lot of Tigger in them – there’s the sevenletters connection!  

3 comments:

  1. I too am a Tigger, and have been known to try to Tiggerize everyone around me. Which I too am told is quite annoying. I do have the occasional Eeyore kind of day. As for what gets me out of that mood, usually I need one or of all of the following, a NCIS or Criminal Minds I haven't seen more than 25 times, a diet coke, and some bible time. I know I should have put Bible first, just being honest. Oh, to be totally honest sometimes there may be a quick trip through the Krispy Kreme drive thru.

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  2. I think the foolproof way to restore Tiggerness is to hang around a bunch of Eeyores--they're so negative that you start to feel positive again! This method also works for insomnia. Marry someone who can't sleep AT ALL, and you'll begin to think you're actually a great sleeper. Hmm...now that I think about it, works for political extremism, too. Hang out with those far to the left/right of you, and you'll swing moderate.

    I should write a book about this phenomenon, I think.

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  3. When Harrison was in his twenties his Mom was dying of cancer . She was in south Alabama and he here in Birmingham. He longed to be with her as he knew time was fleeting. Because of his new job as perfusionist he had no vacation and was on call every weekend. Needless to say he became an Eeyore. Thankfully his wise mother even in her suffering told him he needed to think about others instead of himself. He joined Big Brothers Big Sisters and had a little brother Jason for many years. In fact, he had Jason after we married and until he was in his twenties. His wise Mom knew he needed someone else to think about instead of having a pity party. When I am down I prescribe to the scripture of Phillipians 4:8 and do my best to dwell on things which are lovely, worthy of praise, etc. This can be great music , talking to an uplifting friend, going for a walk at the park and soaking in God's beauty, dancing in my living room like no one can see and I am young, and counting my blessings by writing even simple ones like I woke up today which many days I take for granted or that my car started. Above are examples of what helped us. Bottom line we all have a dry taste in our mouth every now and then it helps us to appreciate a good drink of water and prepares us to have empathy for those who thirst often.

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