The way to cheerfulness is to keep our bodies in exercise and our minds at ease.

Mood is more physical than it feels from the inside. A body that has not moved and a mind chewing the same thought produce a heaviness that seems to be about your life, and often it is mostly about the afternoon. Neither walking nor letting a worry rest will fix a real problem, and both change the state you meet it in.

When the day has that flat quality, try the simple things before the analysis. Twenty minutes outside, at a pace that makes you breathe. Then set the recurring worry down until a time you have chosen. If the heaviness does not lift over weeks, that is worth telling someone about.