“periods of crankiness, depression, or apathy, which will disappear when there is tolerance, love, and spiritual understanding” (Page 127)
It’s tempting, when feeling generally down, to try to inventory it.
Don’t. It won’t work. It will make one more self-obsessed. It increases the rip in the fabric.
One’s general affect (baseline mood) is a function of many things, some of which are under one’s control and some of which are not.
Now, if my general life structure is wonky and I’m misbehaving or not observing basic measures in the areas of the physical, the mental, the social, the practical, the philosophical, the religious, the moral, and the spiritual, my affect will be—affected, and these ‘low-hanging fruit’ need to be addressed pronto (e.g. go to bed early, reduce use of devices, see a friend, tidy a room, read something uplifting, go to church, do something for someone else, and pray more).
However, I do not try to ‘interrogate’ the low state, because it will talk back but only with its own neurotic ramblings. Do not listen. This is the ego or the devil being given a platform.
Rest assured that, if the macro changes are made (in the eight areas above) and if daily inventory is performed, affect will lift, in due course, and on its own schedule.
It won’t be rushed.