Hey, this is Rajiv Kumar Luv Trainer, Coach, Workshop leader, Author, podcaster, Youtuber and founder of The Personality Boss which conducts the Ultimate Personality Development Program, Course, Coaching, Training and Workshops in Mumbai. I help you design the life you want. The articles that I post on my blog also have one purpose in mind “Leadership through Personality Development” Now over to the article…

Bad Moods can affect your productivity, peace of mind, health and relationships. If you are in one, you need to quickly do something about it. In this article, I share 7 Ways To Improve Your Mood.

1. Write down what comes to mind

Try to identify the problem that is bothering you. Write down all what comes to mind. For example, you could write down the name of the person who could be the cause of your bad mood, put down your feelings about yourself and about the other person. There are two benefits of writing, one it is easier to figure out what to do about the situation and number 2 it is about getting the bad feelings out of your system, now you are not bottling up those bad feelings, this itself gives you quite a relief. Probably you may also come to the conclusion that after all its no big deal and it is not worth fretting about, you could do better things.

2. Stop taking things personally

Taking things too personally is the biggest cause of anger, jealousy, frustration, disappointment and bad moods. When we take things personally we get stuck in a pattern of thinking what I call ‘stupid thinking’ Let’s take an example your boss says, “You spend too much” Now your head starts spinning and you start talking to yourself, what does he mean I spend too much? Am I doing this for my personal work? Am I stealing the company’s money? How can I get things done without money?. Does he want me to spend my own money? Am I stupid? Am I incompetent? What does he think of himself? I am not going to do this work again, let him give it someone else. You go on and on and spoil your own mood. I think a better approach would be to have clear communication and not take things personally by assuming things on your own. This one change in habit could reduce your bad moods to a great degree

3. Sit down to worry

When we are in a bad mood, what do we do? we worry and we worry. When we are at home we worry and when we are at work we worry, result our performance is poor at both the places. so instead of worrying all day long, decide on a specific time to worry. For example you could tell yourself, “ I will worry from 7pm to 7.30pm” If 30 minutes is not enough take one hour. Whenever you get any worry during the day, you tell yourself, “No, my worry time is from 7pm to 7.30pm” and then occupy yourself with some productive work. In the evening, take a chair in a quiet place, sit down and start worrying of all the things you can. An interesting thing happens, when you actually sit down to worry, you can’t think of anything. Try it, it works.

4. Do some physical activity

When we are in a bady mood, what are we doing? We are over using our mind. Stop doing that instead immediately do anthing dull and somewhat mechanical for example cleaning a cupboard, fridge, toilet, when you are done, you will realize the bad mood is gone. You could also do knitting, painting, dance, exercise, breathing exercises, listen to music or watch a happy movie. One thing that works very well with me is, there are a few of my favourite books in which I have highlighted phrases that make me feel good. When I am not in a good mood, I take a book and start reading the phrases, soon I start feeling better.

5. Use your body in positive ways

Think about it, when you are in a bad mood, you use your body in a particular way. Our feelings have an effect on the body, the reverse is also true, if you change your body, the feeling inside also changes. For example when you are in an upbeat mood, your walk is different, you may also be humming your favourite song. But if you are depressed and in a bad mood, you facial expressions would be dull, shoulders will be slouched, you will walk with dragging your feet, your eyes will be down. Now even if you just try to stand tall and force a smile on your face, the feelings within will change.

6. Interrupt your pattern of thinking

What is a bad mood? It is nothing but getting stuck in a pattern of ‘stupid thinking’ This is shown very effectively in movies. For example, the hero tells the heroine, “I don’t love you” The heroine is stunned and keeps repeating and muttering to herself, how can he do this to me, he doesn’t love me, he doesn’t love me, she keeps repeating the same thing over and over again and gets stuck, it is just like the needle of the record getting stuck in one place and keeps playing the same piece over and over again. The heroine cries, keeps staring at the wall, doesn’t talk, doesn’t eat then someone come along and gives her one tight slap and suddenly she is out of that pattern of thinking, the slap here was something that we call as a pattern interrupt. So whenever we get stuck in a negative pattern of thinking, we should use a pattern interrupt which we have already decided upon. A pattern interrupt has to be something outrageous, crazy, why because then only your mental associations will change. For example let’s say whenever I think of person X I feel depressed, if I continue, I will always feel the same, but let’s say now when I think of the person, I stand up an shout yeeeah, yeeah, first of all I will laugh at my foolishness but what will happen is my mental association will change.

7. Ask powerful questions

What is thinking? Thinking is nothing but asking and answering questions. When you ask stupid questions you get stupid answers, you take stupid action and you produce stupid result. Take a few stupid questions for example, why do these horrible things always happen to me?. Why does the boss always shout at me? Why doesn’t the quality of my life improve? Why am I so fat? Let’s take the last example, If I ask myself why am I so fat, the answer I get is ‘because you eat like a pig that’s why, that would make me feel bad and I would go and eat some more and get fatter. But if I change the question to, how can I achieve a weight of 75 kgs and a waist of 32 inches, now you get different answers and if you took action on them you would get results and feel better. Always ask powerful questions.

By the way when you are working on your bad mood avoid shopping, drinking, smoking and over eating.

I am Rajiv Kumar Luv. My passion in life is to make a difference in the lives of people so that they achieve their personal as well as professional best. I am absolutely committed to specially helping youngsters become leaders in their chosen fields. In the past 28 years, I have trained over 100,000 people from all walks of life. Through my two-day program “Leadership Through Personality Development” I help the youth plan their career, build confidence, make better decisions, manage time and develop their employability skills to meet today’s real-life challenges. You can learn more about me and the work I do by visiting: http://www.thepersonalityboss.com