A great service you can give is to not take moods so seriously, not yours nor others’. Your life does not rise and fall according to mood. Moods are changing things. Moods are shades of color that come and go. When an uncomfortable mood seemingly descends on you, this is a signal that it will also leave. But you are not a chameleon where change of color serves you.

It feels to you that you have little or no choice about what mood you’re in, but moods come from your thoughts. You may think moods are caused by what occurs outside you, but it is your thoughts about what occurs that beckon forth a mood. Whether your mood is elated or dark, your thoughts decide which it will be.

Your mood can change in a minute. And you have thought that you were a victim of your moods. Acknowledge that you are the perpetrator of your moods. You call the shots. Acknowledge that moods are malleable, and you have say over them. All you have to do is to change your thoughts and not take an occasional mood here or there so seriously.

If you do not like the mood you are in, change what you are thinking about. Whatever catastrophe has occurred, to whatever degree you feel chastened, acknowledge it and move on. Moods are not tar that you are to stay stuck in.

Moods can be like bees or butterflies. You can focus on them only so long. Bees and butterflies are in flight, and so are your moods. Get out from under them, beloveds.

Moods are not chained to you, though that is sometimes how you feel.

Moods are in love with themselves and like to make you feel they are all-encompassing and will last forever. Joyous moods you want to keep. Other moods you never want to see. Accept, beloveds, that the traffic outside you does not have to direct your moods.

You think something is at stake or you would not be susceptible to your moods. A mood is like your temperature that goes up or down. The thermometer of your mind tells you what your temperature is. Your mind casts the shadow you call mood. Your thoughts influence your mood.

Whether you feel downcast or elated, you are affixing cause and effect. Your mind is at work making connections. Further, your mind cautions you. If you feel joyous, your mind says it won’t last. If you feel hurt, your mind tells you don’t deserve it, and therefore someone or something is to blame. And so you dam up your heart, and you have made a momentary unhappiness into a longer-lasting mood.

One day you get dressed in silver and gold, another day you change into black. As with clothes, you can change your mood. Accept, beloveds, that moods are something you put on. When you recognize that you put them on, you are in a better position to take them off.

Meanwhile, you try to figure out how much to confront the people you consider responsible for your mood or how much do you let it go. I am telling you that you are responsible for your moods irrespective of the precipitating event. Do not hold the event to you. Dealing with the events is one thing. Your mood is another.

You cannot sweep everything under the rug, and you cannot discuss every crumb either. In any case, you cannot spend your life on what transpires, or life will pass you by. Choose your mood, beloved. Choose it now.