A strange mood is mail with no return address. Open it before you toss it; there’s usually a letter inside.

An unexplained mood is information arriving with no label on it. The temptation is to throw it out, since it is uncomfortable and came with no reason attached, but the reason is usually in there somewhere and slightly out of order. Moods often know about a problem before the thinking part does.

When one lands, give it a few minutes and ask what happened in the last day or two that you moved past quickly. Something small usually surfaces. Naming it does not always dissolve the mood, but it turns it into something you can answer.