Moods are nebulous, fleeting, inconsistent experiences that often defy identifying causes.
Your mood will change from week to week, day to day, hour to hour, moment to moment. To seek consistency in mood states is an exercise in futility (hell, I felt like crap before starting this post, but just by writing of the reality of mood states, my mood has begun to improve substantially. That's simply referred to as "acceptance").
Often you can't determine why a particular mood has afflicted you and all attempts at reversal seem futile. A mood is a state of being. Rejecting a mood is to essentially reject yourself.
Your moods are influenced by numerous factors, many completely outside your control.
We all find our moods influenced by the weather and seasonal changes. But the rising and falling of blood sugar levels can also affect mood, just as lack of sleep can result in a sluggish mood the next day, as well as chronic pain and menstruation can result in negative mood states. Mild levels of dehydration can affect mood and your body is constantly fighting off viruses and bacteria and, although you may not experience the symptoms of full blown sickness, you may experience a mood that feels tired, run down and drained.
Since we are intricately connected to the circadian rhythm of the earth, moon and sun, there is a natural drop in serotonin levels (neurochemicals that regulates sleep, appetite and mood) around midday. Years ago Mexican farmers had the right idea by taking a 'siesta' around midday to awake refreshed and able to resume work, and energy drink companies make billions off this midday phenomenon.
In addition, your mood can be altered through subconscious processes that are unavailable to conscious awareness. Hard-wiring from childhood experiences, not stored in consciously accessible memory circuits, can light-up if current external conditions are similar, resulting in emotional cues, such as that strange feeling of discomfort in which you simply cannot identify the source.
The idea that you should always be in a "positive" mood is another source of stress (a consequence of the inane and unrealistic "positive thinking" movement), demanding you be consistently positive, thereby, compounding and magnifying the negative mood you're currently experiencing, because you berate yourself for experiencing a negative mood even though you often don't have a clue as to why you're experiencing the negative mood in the first place. This is a form of vilifying yourself for being human because, make no mistake, changing moods and your awareness of those changes is a gift and a curse, unavailable to the rest of the natural world, but clearly the chief factor of your being human.
There are really only two ways of coping with your ever changing mood states: acceptance and rejection.
You have no difficulty accepting positive moods (and, like negative moods, often don't know why you feel positive), but negative moods are immediately rejected, only resulting in intensified negativity or a negative feedback loop.
By accepting a negative mood we can cognitively reframe or restructure the thoughts that emanate from that mood (since a negative mood is often attended by negative thought processes).
Essentially we can recognize that "this too, will pass," in the recognition that moods are nebulous and fleeting.
Often, this is all we can do...
Artwork by Mark Khaisman
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