The Bad Mood

[rva_jeremy]

One of the things I've been struggling with is how to deal positively with a negative or "grumpy" disposition.  To the extent I'm able to, I've taken these feelings into meditation.  I have faith they will yield fruit in the long run.  However, it still boggles my mind.

Sometimes it's easy to accept things, move on, and voilla! one's attitude is changed.  But it's just not always that easy.  And I'm afraid that it gets in the way of my day-to-day in a destructive way.

I used to think that "bad moods" were just the result of people not taking responsibility for themselves and their mindsets, or worse: that they were experiences we indulged to create victim mentalities that foist responsibility on others.  Now I'm not so sure; I don't seem to be able to sit with this long enough or deep enough to make any sort of semblance of sense out of it.  I'm in the dark, and it's just really lonely to feel this disconnected due to nothing else but affect.

What I'm looking for, it occurs to me, is a strategy to deal with this.  Is that even useful or appropriate, from a spiritual point of view?  Should I just tough it out, feel it completely, and accept whatever experiences, actions, and feelings it elicits?

I know there's no right answers here, I guess I'll pass the mic.

[The_Tired_Philosopher]

Well, I'll...Help as best I can regarding my own experience with the Bad Mood.

I'm Italian, and Sicilian, raised by two very angry parents, and have my own deep level of hatred inside of me.  Meeting those moments, sometimes hours of hatred and loathing is rough.  It took time, but I started by accepting it.

This in tie led to anger feeling good to me actually, a weird...Side effect of utter acceptance of a faculty of emotion I possess.

After that, I began accepting that I have accepted this thing about me and want to be different now.  The anger followed suit with me.  I know that this is akin to saying, "I accepted it and it accepted my desire of it."  Which is honestly no strategy and very vague.  So to give you some in depth aid, I point you to the Law of Attraction.

Supplemented with the Law of One teachings by Ra regarding how to balance emotions to be unswayed by them, and how to meet your thoughts to, in time, change the way they occur.

Your thoughts are habitual.  How do you change a habit?  21 days or 3 weeks of consciously attempting to change them.  21 days of trying to change how you are?  Sounds brutal for some, it did to me.  May I just promise you this, for me, doing this for my thoughts was more brutal than doing this for my words or actions.  Words are easy, they require effort to form.  Actions even more so, they're easy to control.  Your thoughts however, they're effortless to have.  So basically the exact opposite amount of consideration was needed to change them, A LOT OF EFFORT.

Ra says to not halt or stop thoughts you do not want in mid-thought for all things have existence and should be met with acceptance.  Instead, see that thought, thank and forgive it, then try to do better tomorrow.

At the end of each day, go over those thoughts you did not desire to have, thank them, forgive them, and attempt to not think them tomorrow, instead placing something new in their place, a new habit, a new manner of thinking.

I honestly call this 'setting up a mental configuration', or essentially, your brain is a network of neurons that are 'habits' configured together.  You need to adjust that entire configuration, your mental configuration, to be more as you desire it to be.

Which requires you know what you desire it to be, and know this knowledge to be true and not superficial (or it can be superficial if you're super serious about it like I was in testing out Work in Consciousness, worked for me, with bad side effects. . .)  After you 'know thyself' you must 'discipline thyself', discipline of the personality is akin to discipline in general regarding the quieting of emotions and performing of what you deem needs be done.  In the military, it's following orders.  In STO Work in Consciousness, it's giving Unconditional Love.

Both require the exact same type of discipline, just one is conditioned and ingrained socially for social reasons (or militarily), the other is a personal choice.

Once you've reconfigured your thought habits through discipline of the personality and conscientiousness with your thoughts, words, actions, and intensity provided to them, it becomes a literal game of sorts, where life is at a set difficulty slowly going up as you polarize with various available outcomes that you can aim towards (I won't say drive towards, it's not as easy as controlling your life outcomes).

Or of course you can just perform the Law of Attraction without the vital ingredient of Love, it just comes down to choosing to take up the faculty of 'directing my own change' or essentially, 'creating thyself'.

[upensmoke]

One of the things I've been struggling with is how to deal positively with a negative or "grumpy" disposition.  To the extent I'm able to, I've taken these feelings into meditation.  I have faith they will yield fruit in the long run.  However, it still boggles my mind.

Sometimes it's easy to accept things, move on, and voilla! one's attitude is changed.  But it's just not always that easy.  And I'm afraid that it gets in the way of my day-to-day in a destructive way.

I used to think that "bad moods" were just the result of people not taking responsibility for themselves and their mindsets, or worse: that they were experiences we indulged to create victim mentalities that foist responsibility on others.  Now I'm not so sure; I don't seem to be able to sit with this long enough or deep enough to make any sort of semblance of sense out of it.  I'm in the dark, and it's just really lonely to feel this disconnected due to nothing else but affect.

What I'm looking for, it occurs to me, is a strategy to deal with this.  Is that even useful or appropriate, from a spiritual point of view?  Should I just tough it out, feel it completely, and accept whatever experiences, actions, and feelings it elicits?

I know there's no right answers here, I guess I'll pass the mic.

For me it depends on what caused bad mood. If im aware of what caused, it I can noramally deal with it by accepting it, or ignoring it and removing myself from the situation. From there if i didn't accept what has caused my bad mood I would try and get my mind off the subject by doing something different. Smoking a bong always helps too but i know not everyone wishes to partake in such activities

If i don't know what caused my bad mood there is usually nothing i can do but wait it out or meditate 

[The_Tired_Philosopher]

Ah, the bong.

She, being cannabis, has led me face first into some of the most violent spiritual rages at the OIC I've ever had. Don't abuse the stuff, your emotions might magnify in ways you weren't intending

[Jade]

I think lack of joy is reflective of the feeling of not being on your path. It's one thing from Bashar that has always stuck with me - "follow your joy!" - that joy and excitement are the clues we have to finding our true purpose. What things do you think you could do that would make you experience joy, today?

[Minyatur]

Easygoingness makes everything a fun ride.

[tamaryn]

You are searching for coping skills. While you may find some that actually work, the root of the issue is left open ended and conmtinues to dish out these experiences to you, which you deal with accordingly.

Face what ever it is deep inside you. And Let it be. You will have to face him again and again until you have solved what he is begging you to answer.

I'm also getting the vibe that you are having trouble being yourself / being with yourself. This takes a quite a while to work out and strike a rhythm. But you are on the right path! Lack of joy is indicative of some process not being nourished properly.

[rva_jeremy]

Thanks everybody. It occurs to me that what I find boggling is not some single thing I'm dealing with, but the piling up of multiple things. What to tackle first? Where to begin? The feeling of being overwhelmed, of being carried away by all of this catalyst, that's the root of the mood.

I suppose it's mine to accept that I can't deal with more than one thing at a time, and everybody--including me--is just gonna hafta deal.

You guys are awesome. I guess there's no one single way to deal with a mood. I get what many of you are saying about finding the root of it, but here's the issue for me: is it a problem to be solved, or a signifier of something to accept? Maybe those aren't such distinct projects.

[Jade]

You could always try to explore it through the Catalyst/Experience dichotomy of the Mind, Body, and Spirit if you have any interest in the archetypes. It might help with some clues.

[Stranger]

Hi jeremy,

I've had this happen also recently - negative moods out of nowhere. It's important to distinguish these from self-generated moods, such as those due to being dissatisfied with something in oneself or the environment. Dealing with self-generated (or I should say, mind-generated) moods is easier - find contentment, gratitude or love in your present circumstances, and have faith/trust that everything will work out and you are loved.

The "out of nowhere" moods are trickier. We are affected by external energies, but also sometimes have deeper issues within ourselves we may not be aware of. This has been helpful in the past:

1) not getting swept away by the emotion into going along with it, i.e., not taking the perspective that things are as bad as they feel. Reminding myself, over and over if need be: this is catalyst, I need to take a constructive approach.
2) Asking myself, "what am I feeling? What is this about?" and waiting silently for an answer. This usually leads to an answer or solution - something I can further explore within myself.
3) (this goes with #1) not acting like a selfish jerk even if I feel miserable. Being intentionally and mindfully kind to the people I interact with.

I hope things get better for you soon!

[tamaryn]

Angel wings always, always.

I will be in the valley of the shadows and all I need is ta pull out sum o my sweet angel wings and mannn...

But truly, I feel that game is always acceptance. There is almost nothing else, and the game is endless.

My mantra lately has been: "X without trying" I've been trying waaaaaayyyy too hard lately to force balance and explode with energy, but all I really needed is to KNOW it and FEEL acceptance in my eyes. All the chakra blockages are also in the eyes, so it is easy to know when you have truly accepted something.

[Kaaron]

I usually start any analysis of a negative mood with the statement "I choose to accept no offers from any service to self entities and request assistance in connecting to the one infinite creator through love, humility and grace."
Then I feel like I can assess what lead me to that frame of mind without having to be as wary of outside influence as I might be. Sometimes it can be harder to objectively consider my emotions n thoughts when I'm debating if it's an attack or just me.

[The_Tired_Philosopher]

An attack on you is technically by you through you by using you against you though.

[Kaaron]

It doesn't mean you are required to continue experiencing it if you feel you'd rather experience a different state of being though and I thought that was the point of the thread.

[Berilac Sandydowns]

A very rightnow way of breaking a trend like that is to sing a happy song. Out loud. Maybe dance around to it a little too. Move with it.
Doesn't require much thought or why/how.

A favorite of mine is the Beatles.... don't remember the name.
I used to be cruel to my woman. I beat her and kept her apart from the things that she loved.
Man I was mean but I'm changing my scene and I'm doing the best that I can.
Got to admit it's getting better. A little better all the time.
Yeah I admit it's getting better. A little better, since you'll be mine.


man. This is Earth.
There's always SOMETHING wrong.

[The_Tired_Philosopher]

It doesn't mean you are required to continue experiencing it if you feel you'd rather experience a different state of being though and I thought that was the point of the thread.

It is, I was just making sure I didn't have the wrong idea in my mind. Sorry about that!

[Kaaron]

It is, I was just making sure I didn't have the wrong idea in my mind.  Sorry about that!

All good bro...I misunderstood your intention.

[Ankh]

One of the things I've been struggling with is how to deal positively with a negative or "grumpy" disposition.  To the extent I'm able to, I've taken these feelings into meditation.  I have faith they will yield fruit in the long run.  However, it still boggles my mind.

Sometimes it's easy to accept things, move on, and voilla! one's attitude is changed.  But it's just not always that easy.  And I'm afraid that it gets in the way of my day-to-day in a destructive way.

I used to think that "bad moods" were just the result of people not taking responsibility for themselves and their mindsets, or worse: that they were experiences we indulged to create victim mentalities that foist responsibility on others.  Now I'm not so sure; I don't seem to be able to sit with this long enough or deep enough to make any sort of semblance of sense out of it.  I'm in the dark, and it's just really lonely to feel this disconnected due to nothing else but affect.

What I'm looking for, it occurs to me, is a strategy to deal with this.  Is that even useful or appropriate, from a spiritual point of view?  Should I just tough it out, feel it completely, and accept whatever experiences, actions, and feelings it elicits?

I know there's no right answers here, I guess I'll pass the mic.

I totally understand what you mean! One of my toughest catalysts has been tiredness. When I am tired, it feels like my whole body is in actual, physical pain. I can't serve, nor think, nor feel any love or positivity. So, I've been thinking like you do above about this, because there are times when one is tired, but there is still third density job which needs to be done! Especially when you have kids. Aaaand some week ago, it hit me! "Do it anyway..." Feel love anyway. Serve anyway. Be positive anyway! Now, I know that it's difficult, or maybe even impossible to feel it when you are in a "bad mood", but that time, when it hit me - my heart completely opened up! I felt such a rush through me of positive energy! I would say that it was a spiritual, and transforming experience.

These days, it's not as easy to transform oneself into a positive vibration when one is in a "bad mood", as it was that time. But there are also other ways of "tuning oneself". There is constant seeking by prayers, meditations, contemplation, reading spiritual literature, etc. That which Carla talked a lot by calling it "tuning oneself". From my own, more intellectual point of view, having my heart open, and being "in tune" is a far more desired experience than when everything is closed down, and one is in a "bad mood". It is even painful to be in a bad mood! So, for me, it is worth that whatever mental or spiritual energy that one has to "pay" in order to transform oneself from this bad mood into a positive mood. It is not always I get there, but there is a constant trying... I guess it's also a matter of faith. Faith that "all is well".

From the point of meditations, I guess that one can sit with this bad mood, and hone this state of mind in an intensive way, deeply and deeply, until there is nothing there but a shining diamond. I guess that it would be the same approach to the bad mood as it is to anger in the Ra material:

"The entity polarizing positively perceives the anger. This entity, if using this catalyst mentally, blesses and loves this anger in itself. It then intensifies this anger consciously in mind alone until the folly of this red-ray energy is perceived not as folly in itself but as energy subject to spiritual entropy due to the randomness of energy being used.


Positive orientation then provides the will and faith to continue this mentally intense experience of letting the anger be understood, accepted, and integrated with the mind/body/spirit complex. The other-self which is the object of anger is thus transformed into an object of acceptance, understanding, and accommodation, all being reintegrated using the great energy which anger began.

The negatively oriented mind/body/spirit complex will use this anger in a similarly conscious fashion, refusing to accept the undirected or random energy of anger and instead, through will and faith, funneling this energy into a practical means of venting the negative aspect of this emotion so as to obtain control over other-self, or otherwise control the situation causing anger.

Control is the key to negatively polarized use of catalyst. Acceptance is the key to positively polarized use of catalyst. Between these polarities lies the potential for this random and undirected energy creating a bodily complex analog of what you call the cancerous growth of tissue."

How are you doing these days in regards to the bad mood? Did it get better after you wrote this post?

[rva_jeremy]

These days, it's not as easy to transform oneself into a positive vibration when one is in a "bad mood", as it was that time. But there are also other ways of "tuning oneself". There is constant seeking by prayers, meditations, contemplation, reading spiritual literature, etc. That which Carla talked a lot by calling it "tuning oneself". From my own, more intellectual point of view, having my heart open, and being "in tune" is a far more desired experience than when everything is closed down, and one is in a "bad mood". It is even painful to be in a bad mood! So, for me, it is worth that whatever mental or spiritual energy that one has to "pay" in order to transform oneself from this bad mood into a positive mood. It is not always I get there, but there is a constant trying... I guess it's also a matter of faith. Faith that "all is well".

That's what I've discovered, too. You have to take the time to deal with the bad mood, the same way that if you don't deal with a cold you're just going to continue to be sick. Sometimes you need rest, and sometimes you just need to pay attention to how you feel before you can really feel it.

From the point of meditations, I guess that one can sit with this bad mood, and hone this state of mind in an intensive way, deeply and deeply, until there is nothing there but a shining diamond.

That's actually what I tried to do. The thing I learned is that it's not itself the relief I'm seeking, but it's a part of getting to the point where I can appreciate the mood and the gift it's giving me.

How are you doing these days in regards to the bad mood? Did it get better after you wrote this post?

Yeah, it did. Like I said earlier, it ended up being the accrued stress of a lot of small things. Taking them one at a time, as well as connecting with my feelings instead of denying them, helped immensely. I now feel like I can appreciate the experience.

I do think there's also a weather-related element: we've had crazy rain and dreariness here in the states this past week. I always felt like seasonal affective disorder was just people who weren't sucking it up and being adults, but now I sort of see that it's probably more than that.

Thanks for the concern, everybody!