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This meme is hitting for me right now, except instead of other people, it's the sub-parts of my head, the web of moods and emotions stuck to but inconsistently mapped with my actual circumstances - anxiety, contentment, courage, frustration.

Sometimes it's the pendulum swing that gets to me, like how a stretch of feeling "oh hey this is pretty manageable, lifes kinda good actually" somehow drives its countermood that this world is kinda awful, and I feel as unreasonably down as I previously did up.

Sometimes I feel empowered by using focus and self-talk to adjust my mood, but now I worry it's all a sham that just pushes that pendulum, robbing the bummed-out Peter of myself in a few hours to pay happy and content Paul now.

And not to begrudge anyone the pharmacological tools they have been given to help make their own emotional landscapes more hospitable, but sometimes I feel like I should be appreciate myself for using introspection and equanimity and going without external mood balancers, which are crucial tools for many but often clumsy ones, in terms of side-effects. (And as always with the awareness that - as with many chemical based anti-depressants - perhaps my philosophical approach is cutting some of the highs along with the lows.)

Real talk, what are your favorite mental tools for in-the-moment emotional management? Or do you just surf it and feel what you feel?