How to be Glum

We've all been there. You've been in the doldrums, been going through a series of misfortunes but the times are a changing and life seems to be looking up. Such positive developments can be worrying and its important to nip them in the bud. This is of course easier said than done and so in this article I present some tips on how to build and maintain an attitude of glumness when faced with potentially challenging positive circumstances.

My first tip is to cultivate a habit of saying no to people. Being a block on other people's energy by invariably saying no is quite tricky but will be worth the effort. Its important to make this a reflex and unchanging response, so that any offer that you are presented with is met with an instantaneous no. It won't do any good to think or show you're are thinking about the offer. If you manage this trick of being primed to say no, you'll soon find that offers and invitations from others will dry up. Once that happens you would be in a strong position to view your situation as one of 'me against the world'.

Its really quite important to maintain an aloof and distanced attitude towards your emotions if you wish to stay glum. For example, some people make a mistake of trying to make sense of their sadness, to try and find meaning in it. The problem with this strategy is that you're likely to come to some conclusions. The worst of which is the tragic idea that you are some how responsible for your own emotional experiences and that you could change your feeling at this immediate instance, without anyone's permission. Such an action-oriented attitude is anathema to those seeking deep glumness. So, my advice is to avoid any kind of process of productive reflection.

The challenge here is more complex than it first seems. This is because you want to use your brain to the fullest by replaying the difficulty of your situation over and over again in your mind. However, the untrained brain is notorious for suddenly making sensible and productive conclusions and wanting to move towards action. So watch out.

My next tip is much simpler. If you want to stay glum you should try to maintain a health attitude of scapegoating. Blaming other people for the situation that you are in is a critical tactic in ensuring you feel no gratitude nor grace in daily life. If you have a particular person to blame this can be quite helpful, though the cosmos in general is also quite adequate.

It is important not to get too carried away with the blame game though. If you allow blame against a particular individual or deity to develop too much, there is a danger that you could become angry. Anger is a difficult emotion as it sometimes can lead to sudden outbursts of invective. An underlying state of inaction and passivity is critical to the glum lifestyle and so getting angry at someone can seriously endanger the inactive bubble you're building for yourself.

My final tip is to avoid physical exercise. This may strike you as a little strange but its been shown to work time and again in the modern age. The pursuit of glumness is much, much simpler if you are able to deny the reality of everyday existence. To be glum you need to live in a perpetual state of low level anxiety about a past that no longer exists and a future that is yet to come. Exercise has been shown to foster a sense of grounding and connection with the physical reality of life, to put people in the present moment, and such an attitude is likely to distract us from the task of cultivating the internal damp misery of glum. So stay away from the treadmill.

Being glum is by no means easy and maintaining that attitude for any length of time can be really quite exhausting. In this article I hope I have inspired you to see that with some creativity and discipline there is quite a lot you can do to sustain your glum.