Everyone Wins when you Follow these Two Strategies. Part 5 in the Bad Mood series

Yet more strategies to improve your state and overcome a bad mood.

Inspire a Good Mood in Another
It only takes one person to initiate a bad mood which can then affect everyone around them. A single determined person may also inspire a good mood in others. You can change your life by inspiring another, which in turn helps inspire you - a virtuous circle.

Although it may not seem like it much of the time, deep down inside people do prefer being in a good mood - it just feels better. Yet negative thinking may have convinced them they deserve the mood they're in, and prefer being on the gloomy side of life.

In this they deny the truth of who they are, and self sabotage instead. Mind you, they may be choosing to find out what the negative is like in practice, to get to know it heuristically, to actually experience it for themselves, so they better appreciate the positive when it arrives.

You need their Cooperation
Of course, one secret of success is to gain the cooperation of others, so only help those who see the benefit in change. You won't change your life by trying to convince those who insist on viewing change as a threat instead of an opportunity.

Yet you can make a huge difference. Just as one match can light a thousand candles, you can lighten the mood of many by improving your own. Overcome your own self sabotage by choosing to be an inspiration for those around you. As always, the secret of success is to answer that vital question: What do you choose now?

Every Cloud has a Silver Lining
Sometimes you'll not only be in a bad mood, but will have some idea, a vague inkling, no matter how small of its cause.

Whenever you're sad about something, then contemplating the cause will help overcome your self sabotage. As they say, What you resist, persists! And what you take your attention away from decays and disappears. So stop resisting it, stop pretending it's not happening, and instead look for the benefit it can give you. The time-proven proverb is right on the mark: Every cloud has a silver lining.

Do You Act on this Wisdom?
You know that investigating the cause is one secret of success, but do your actions demonstrate that you know? Or is this simply something you know about in the abstract, but have no practical experience?

Lack of action simply means you don't authentically know, although you may understand. But understanding is mental whereas authentic knowing requires experience. Convert your understanding into real knowledge by seeking that silver lining.

This does take time and energy, but you can either sit around moping, or invest that time and change your life. The energy you invest is never wasted, the silver lining is both available and will benefit you forever. There is one somewhere, all you need to do is find it!

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Food for Thought
"By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest."

- Confucius, 551–479 BCE, Chinese philosopher who emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity.