Normally we try to find a reason for our emotions, we try to understand our moods rationally. When you try to solve something as transient as your mood, you are giving a reality and significance to something that doesn’t really have.  Understand, most of your problems are just meaningless inner chatter!  All you need to do is just switch them off.  You will be surprised to see how easy it is to switch off the mind.  Switching off the mind doesn’t mean becoming insensitive to the situation, it just means giving your natural intelligence some breathing space, so that the right response can arise.  Once you learn the art of switching off your mind, you can never be overwhelmed by any external situation.

Next time you experience an emotional outburst, don’t focus on the reason.  Just tell yourself quietly and very firmly to switch it off.  Don’t try to reason with yourself or find excuses for your behavior.  There is no point in getting angry with yourself because you are angry, or feel bad because you are depressed.  You will be shocked, once you decide to switch it off, the mood just disappears for a few minutes. Straightaway you will fall into a gap, a serene silence.  Instantly you are out of the mood and back in your center.  Now you may ask, what if the emotion comes up again after a while? If it does, just repeat the instruction.  Each time you taste this silence, when you see that you can call up this silence at will, you will lose the respect you have for the games of your mind. You will just feel like laughing at your own moods.  When you learn the art of switching off, you can remain centered in the middle of the most heated argument or the worst mood swing. Nothing can overpower you for long.