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9 Ways Bad Moods Can Be Good For You!
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There is a difference between being in a bad mood for a reason, basking in a cloud of depression, and having a bad day with the hope of having a better one tomorrow. It is a much better feeling to be happy, but contrary to popular belief it is very difficult to be happy every moment of every day no matter what occurs in your life. In fact, being in a bad mood is not only normal, sometimes it gives you the impetus to clear out bad feelings and bad habits and recharge yourself with a new outlook.
Many of the ancient literary works viewed misfortunes as a regular part of life. Shakespearean tragedies viewed life in this way as did musical artists like Chopin and Beethoven. Philosophers saw the advantage of accepting problems and finding ways to live through them and live to see a better day. Here are 9 ways being in a bad mood can benefit you:
1. Increases your memory
A clinical study tested the memory of the people who participated in it. They tested the participants on their recall of the details that had to do with a shop they had recently visited. What they found was that the people who went to the shop on a gloomy, chilly day were able to provide many more details than those who visited the shop on a sunny, warm day. The study showed that the people who were sad paid more attention to the shop and all of the details about the environment, whereas the people who were happy provided less details and just went with the flow.
2. Makes you more polite
When researchers studied a group of people who had just taken in a sad movie, they found they were much more polite when they made a request. They seemed to be more in tune with other people’s feelings after viewing the movie. After studying people who watched a film that had a happy theme they found the viewers were not as in tune with others and were not very polite at all.
3. Gives you motivation
A study was conducted to determine the level of motivation between sad people and happy people. They found that those who were sad stuck with a difficult task and persisted until completion. Happy people, on the other hand, quit the difficult task without trying to complete it. They also hampered their chances of completing the task by indulging in a beverage that could affect their performance.
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4. Creates better communication
It was discovered that people who were in a bad mood were much more attentive and expressed more detailed thinking which improved their level of communication. The sad people provided much more persuasive and effective reasoning to convince other people. They were able to understand sentences that were ambiguous more than those who were in a happy mood.
5. Better sense of fairness
An experiment was set up between two types of people – those who were happy and those who were in a bad mood or sad. Those who were involved in the experiment had the choice of two different games. One game was called the dictator game and the other was the ultimatum game. With the dictator game, you were given $10 and were able to divvy up the money whichever way you wanted to between the other player and yourself. In the other game, you are again able to share the $10 any way you want, but if the other person did not accept your offer then neither person got any money. The experiment showed that those who were sad were more generous when dividing the money and the people who were happy were less generous and were self-centered.
6. Increases your creativity
People who were in a bad mood or sad were found to be more compassionate, empathetic, and showed a higher level of sensibility both morally and aesthetically. Their attitudes were a definite catalyst that generated artistic creativity.
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7. Helps you make better decisions
When you are in a negative state of mind you could become nostalgic and melancholy as you remember past situations. It has been found to lead you to depend on previous information that will help you determine your future plans and provide you with motivation.
8. Strengthens your focus
It was determined from recent studies that when you have a bad mood it really works as an alarm signal that reminds you to be more attentive and think in a more detailed way. When you are in a good mood and are happy, you end up being less attentive and feel safe and familiar showing much less attention to detail.
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9. Helps you to reset your attitude
While no one really wants to be in a bad mood there is something cleansing about being so miserable you really don’t care about anything around you at the moment. You are able to express anger without censoring yourself and you may even end up expressing sarcasm which could turn humorous. Once you go through all of the emotions tied to a bad mood, you will find that your emotions don’t really want to stay in a bad mood for a long time. As soon as you get everything out in the open, you should be ready to restart your attitude, set new goals, and enjoy being in a good mood.
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