When things look better to you, what has changed but the way you look at them? One day you are sad, and the next you feel brighter. Do you really think that you have no say in how you feel?

If you want to feel cheery, you can. If you want to feel less cheery, that is up to you too. You have recourse to more than passing moods.

When you find yourself in the doldrums, lift yourself higher and you will not be in the doldrums. You can lift or lower yourself with your intent and desire. On occasion, it may be that you have wanted to be long-suffering, put-upon, savoring your misery, as if misery were an experience not to be missed.

Do not take misery so seriously. It is no more serious than anything else. It is no more lasting than anything else. You do not have to make a toast to miserableness. You can walk away from it. You do not have to take it with you.

Moods are colors you wear. You can change the color of your mood. Pick another color.

A mood you call bad is a stew you cook on the stove too long. It was done long before, but you preferred to stay where you were rather than to get up and turn it off. You were too lazy to step out of your mood. Or you felt like being a tragedian for a while.

Sometimes you pretend the opposite of what you feel. Sometimes you act giddy when your heart is hurting. Better to be honestly sad than faking joy. Pretense is not admirable. It is no answer.

But just as you can be doing math and the next minute answer the phone or cook a meal or read a novel — just as your mind can move from one area to another — so can your moods. It is, after all, your thoughts that signal your moods. It is your thoughts that invite them.

When you think of all the evidence that proves you are a stepchild of the universe, you are guaranteed to feel down. When you notice once again the favor that the universe bestows upon you, you are guaranteed to perk up. Choose your thoughts. Choose them well.

This does not mean to ignore what presses upon your heart. It means to acknowledge it, tip your hat to it, and then move on. It is not ignoring something to drop it. When you hold on to something you don't want, you are ignoring something you do want. Or, perhaps you really want that which you like to think you don't want. If you hold onto to suffering, perhaps there is some strange reason why you want it. Perhaps you think it offers you something you need.

Have I not told you that you have everything? What then is it that you could possibly need? What benefit can self-punishment possibly offer you except the opportunity to veer your thoughts higher?

Sometimes your moods come from your parents or your parents' parents. They are handed down to you. You have accepted that they are part of you. But you are not obliged to accept any inheritance. You can choose what you will inherit. You certainly do not have to inherit unhappiness. You do not have to accept it, and you do not have to pass it along.

What inheritance do you wish to leave? What do you wish to bestow?

Have you not had enough of unhappiness? Have you not proved it enough?

Now it is time for you to prove something else. You were not designed for unhappiness. That is another myth you have bought. You were designed for happiness, else you would not suffer from lack of it.