Who controls our mood? Who decides what mood we are in, good or bad? Our emotions can overwhelm us to a degree that we appear to be completely helpless and powerless. Why is that so? Are those really our emotions? Or is it something alien, something originating and happening outside of us? We feel our mood, and we relate it to us, as we do with the pain of a wound. And as the pain tells us something about the body, the mood tells us something about the soul. If the body is healthy, we are free of pain. Is our soul healthy, then we have a positive underlying mood. That does not mean we never get angry or sad. The healthy soul responds to impressions from all directions, just as the healthy body conveys pain if something is pressed on it with too much force. But, just as chronicle pain points to an illness in the body, a constantly bad mood points to an illness in the soul. For that reason there are people and organizations concerned with soul health, commonly named mental health, offering help to those who need it.
How robust the health of a person is, physically and mentally, that is different for each individual. This can be perceived as unfair. It is important that we strive to achieve an improvement of our condition anyway. As children, teenagers and young adults most of us enjoy a relatively robust health. Our body is still growing, and our soul is also unfolding on its own and getting shaped in this period. But some people need to handle poor health already in young years. Others get very old before they are confronted with such issues. Sooner or later, all of us are affected, unless we suffer a sudden death at a young age. Many possible reasons can be found vor the variation in health, from genetics to the quality of food including air and water to our habits, our balance of activity and recovery. Where and how we grow up, how our guardians live and eat, what ambitions and expectations they have, all that leaves an imprint on our body and soul. It does not simply depend on our goals what health condition we have at the age of 30. 50 or 70. It also depends on how healthy we were allowed to grow up, and on the knowledge we gained about maintaining health. When we get beyond the half way point of our live, we must make an effort to stay healthy.
How much effort it takes also depends on how many good habits we already acquired at a young age, even though there was no suffering pushing us at the time. Maybe we simply adopted healthy habits from people who already had experience with health. Still, most of us will end up with some health complaints, and then we start wondering how to get rid of them. This affects many people today, and one reason could be that we created an environment which provides much comfort and convenience, but does not demand us to give body and soul the exercise that they need.
So what options do we have? Just like the pain of the body can be numbed with medicine, the depression of the soul can be suppressed and outshone with medicine, so that our mood brightens. Mood boosters are given to the body, and they affect the soul indirectly. The effect is therefore limited. As the pain killer it is a temporary solution, that is intended to make healing possible or reduce the suffering in the process. Life becomes more pleasant instantly, and the danger is that we loose motivation to push the healing progress. Stil, such medicine can help us on the path of recovery. Especially if we are no longer able to think clearly without them. We should simply avoid the mistake of expecting the medicine to heal us by itself. Especially healing the soul takes our active engagement. Shaping the soul is our main task in this time. For this, other people can be a big help to us.
We can surrender ourselves to the mood of the soul. It can be so overwhelming that we have no choice but to do so. However, as soon as the situation has calmed down a bit, we can also oppose our mood and look at it as something detached from us. As soon as we manage that, we can observe the life of our soul from this perspective. When doing so, we must take care of our thoughts. As long as we direct our thoughts actively, we remain on solid ground. Otherwise we are swept along by our mood back into the deep waters of the sentient soul. In small steps we can regain control of our soul life. It is not about overshooting in the other direction and burst with happiness all the time. What we need is a calm, neutral underlying mood, that allows us to notice and feel the little joys of live.