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The Living Room Psychology and character How to get out of being in a foul mood?

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Arthur Mont

How to get out of being in a foul mood?

Latest Post: February 6, 2010 at 9:13 PM

72 followers

How to get out of a foul mood?

When in a foul mood how do you get yourself out of it?

When I had a piano I would play it. Take some nice Chopin Mazurkas and Nocturnes, and through playing them my mood would change. That’s part of the power of playing Chopin. That’s the power of music in general, to transition from one mood to another. Chopin, for pianists, is masterful in this complete and subtle change of mood. But it doesn’t work with simply listening to others play him, you have to be playing him, and not having a piano I need to find another way.

Rock music can help. Nina Simone’s anger in Mississippi Goddam helps. Some other dance songs can help release the tension from the body a bit.

Ok, the reason for my foul mood is idiotic – a team I support lost a tight and important game – but even if I know it’s idiotic, I’m in a foul mood. I’m in no mood to sit and read.

I imagine I’m not the only person who is sometimes in bad moods. There are so many reasons which put us in foul moods. What to do? How do you get yourself out of it? What kind of music do you listen to?

This post is referenced by the following other contributors:

Clara

in "How do I control my anger? / How do I control my anger? / How to control one's anger versus co-workers / Being furious"

(The Living Room)

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Martin Howells, Trained in pure mathematics, physics,...

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Edna Stern

February 2, 2010 at 7:57 PM

87 followers

Hi Arthur,

Maybe because I’m a musician I’d rather go see a movie to get out of a bad mood, but I don’t as bad moods fall on you unexpectedly and movies require (most of the time) a well planned “time off.” I can understand though how playing Chopin makes you forget your bad mood as it requires total immersion in beauty. It is this total immersion that makes you go on to other things, minimize and forget the annoyance. One thing I find difficult in playing Chopin is to control the relation between these two elements - freedom and rigor. For that reason I prefer to be in a very good mood when I play it, and open to the new sounds, harmonies, and other possibilities I may discover through using one of these elements more than other.

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Layla Tov

February 2, 2010 at 9:02 PM

11 followers

Ok, I will be very basic and not refined here, but this comes from first hand experience. A few weeks ago I was a lot more than in a foul mood, I was so depressed I couldn't stop crying. I tried everything, but only one thing did the trick: Southpark. I had to laugh. Though I know it by heart. It was a compulsion which won even over the compulsion to cry my head off. Some kind of a miracle, I strongly recommend it.

I have to agree that music can be very helpful. I'm an extremely emotional person, and I adore Brahms, but I've learnt this one thing: when sad, never listen to Brahms! Rather listen to something with a lot of rhythm (personally: Shooglenifty) and very happy.

I've never been upset because of a sport event, so I'm not sure i can totally empathize. I've been upset because the film had no happy ending, though, which is similar in the way that I'm not personally concerned with this event, but it still affects my emotionality. In this case (well, in every case actually) my other recommendation is good dark chocolate. It is chemical but it's not too dangerous. It helps. It's not as strong as Southpark, but when the bad mood is not too serious, it can help to see things from a different perspective: that of a person who has many things to enjoy in life.