Some days the problem isn’t the world. It’s the sunglasses your mood put on you.

A mood does not announce itself as a mood. It presents itself as an accurate report on your life, your friends and your chances, because you are looking through it rather than at it. The giveaway is that everything dims at once, which is rarely what real bad news does.

When the whole day seems to have turned against you, check the pattern instead of arguing with it. Ask whether this exact situation looked the same to you last Thursday, and whether three unrelated things have genuinely all gone wrong. If not, treat your conclusions as provisional until the tint lifts.