Humans are very complex beings psychologically. We all have a variety of what we call "moods", which are directly influenced by everything around us--from the air temperature to the moods of those around us to our siblings' INCESSANT SNORING! The tricky thing about moods, however, is controlling them. It seems impossible at many times, espescially when we're in a bad mood. It's so much easier to shift from good to bad than from bad to good. Think about it: you can be so happy when you arrive to work...it's a beautiful day. The sun's shining with a nice cool breeze. The air smells crisp. You had the best night's sleep since you were a baby (because you're snoring brother whom sleeps on the top bunk spent the night out). But some asshole customer who's had a bad day thusfar (as described in Interacting with Others) gives you the worst attitue for starters. Then, when you can't help him for some reason obviously out of your control, like you can't take a Wherenberg Theaters coupon for a free popcorn because you work at AMC theaters or something. Well, he gets even more pissed (because bad moods tend to get worse seemingly) and thus gets more unpleasant. Then he yells at you and calls you names and stuff, but you can't retort because you're on the clock. So now you have pent-up angst, and it puts you in a bad mood, which affects you the entire day.

Well, it wouldn't be so bad if you could just snap out of it. But it really feels like you can't. When you feel like shit (at least when I do), it seems to feel worse than it actually is, and it negifies (yes, negifies--meaning "to place a negative connotation on") most everything around you. But if only you could cheer yourself up. If only you could tell yourself (and believe) that it's not that bad and you shouldn't feel that way about it and that it'll only bring you down to let it get to you. Unfortunately, it's not that easy. But why isn't it? Shouldn't you be able to feel how you want about things? Shouldn't you be able to put yourself into a good mood? Of course you should, and I believe you can.

ITo me, in order to feel more complete in our lives, we need the bad moods. They actually bring us this certain satisfaction when inappropriate things happen to us. It's psychologically healthy to experience negative moods in their fullest, whether that be balling until you can't breathe without tasting your tears, or beating the crap out of something (misplacing your anger, of course, rather than hurting others. Then again, that may not satisfy your angst), or just feeling negative for a while.

In my experiences, it seems as if I don't want people to cheer me up. It's like I give myself excuses to not let them rid me of my bad mood, and many times I see this in others when I try to cheer them up. They tell you you're not funny and turn away angrily when you stick a fry up your nose to make them laugh. You try to give them a little gift only to have it snatched and thrown across the room. You try to give them a comforting hug only for them to say "Please, just don't touch me," even though you're only trying to help them. It's like we are trying to not cheer up, which only leads me to believe that we as a species have gotten so used to negative energy that we accept that easier than positive energy. It almost seems as if we rather enjoy the misery of a bad mood.

How easy would it be to step back from many of the situations that negify our lives, take a deep breathe, and get on with it? It's a lot easier than we allow ourselves to believe, but we don't seem to want to do it. It would end our misery, possibly before we feel it. We could so easily get on with our day, and in a better mood, by just allowing ourselves to cheer up. However we dwell over minute problems that aren't even a big deal to our lives, giving us the subconcious notion that that's how we're supposed to feel and that if we don't we are in the wrong. One person in particular used to try to cheer me up by telling me that it wasn't so bad, to "put it in perspective". I hated that. It seemed like she was telling me that I wasn't allowed to feel that way towards it--like I was wrong to do so. And I just wanted to feel the negativity even more (I guess because I felt restricted). And when people tell me it could be worse or compare their problems to mine in effort to make me feel better, I just get angry. I don't want to know that it could be worse. I already do know. But at the moment, I feel bad about this. And I don't want to hear about your problems right now. You have the strength to deal with certain problems, and I obviously have a different strength, and I don't want you to tell me what you're going through, because it's just saying "I'm stronger than you!" (so it seems.) But you know, when you take what they say and "put it into perspective", it makes so much more sense than getting all bent out of shape due to running your car into a stone wall.

As was said in The Matrix, we define our reality through pain and suffering. As unfortunate that sounds, it seems to be quite the truth at this point in time. We negify things over minute problems, problems that don't really threaten our well-being or lives in the least. Then we stay in that mood only to make every situation that much more negative, just to satisfy your feelings of angst. But in the long run, you'll find (as I have) that it is much more satisfying to "put it into perspective" and allow yourself to cheer up and be happy.