We all do it, we all get into a bad mood. As the British rapper, Tricky said, “Sometimes I’m in a bad mood, sometimes I’m in a good mood. It’s like everyone else.” There are many reasons why we get into a bad mood, maybe someone upset you with something they said, maybe your day hasn’t gone quite as you planned it, or maybe as many of your parents might attest to, your kids have been running riot outing you in a bad mood. Adam Sandler once said, “Now that I’m a parent, I understand why my father was in a bad mood a lot.” My point is we all get into bad moods, the thing is we don’t want to stay in that mood, we don’t want to let those ill feelings fester, it’s just not nice. So, the question is how do we get out of our bad moods? I would like to share 3 reasons to help you get rid of your bad moods.

  1. Acknowledge your feelings

    Some people may encourage you to ignore a bad mood or difficult feelings, but that’s actually not healthy in the long run. “Burying and suppressing feelings is hard, so hard that it often doesn’t work,” says Amanda Fialk, a licensed clinical social worker and chief of clinical services for The Dorm, a treatment centre with locations in New York City and Washington, D.C. When you don’t recognise your bad moods you run the risk of a higher chance of harmful and dangerous habits, loneliness and physical pain.

    Instead of trying to bury your negative emotion, realize what you’re feeling. Give the emotion or mood a name. It can be as simple as saying, “I’m in a bad mood” or “I’m angry right now.”
  2. Keep things in perspective

    Often when we are in a bad mood and we feel as if the whole world is out to get us, it’s easy to lose sight of all the goodness in our lives. Whenever we start to think like the victim immediately think about the things you do have like, your home, your family that loves you, a job, food to eat, a healthy body. The list really could be endless if you really think about it. Michael McDonald remarked, “When I get in a bad mood about anything, I realize, Hey, I’m still working. It could always be a lot worse”.
  3. Move

    Exercising is a great way to get yourself feeling better. When we exercise the pleasure chemical, serotonin, gets released into our brains thus helping us to feel a whole lot better. This is one of my favourite things to do when I’m in a bad mood. I just try not to throw the weights at someone before I start feeling better. The world-renowned pop star, Cher agrees, she said, “Nothing lifts me out of a bad mood better than a hard workout on my treadmill. It never fails. Exercise is nothing short of a miracle.”

There are many other ways to help you lift yourself out of a bad mood, but these are the methods I like to use and have worked so effectively for me. Ultimately at the end of the day, it’s your choice to stay in a bad mood or to change it and be happy.

Your friend, Raynor