Most decisions are made based on how we feel here and now, and yet so much of our feelings come from how we decided in the past. The composite of your past choices establishes the foundation of your present feelings.
Your present feelings are the result of a past chain of decisions, whether you recognize them or not. Feelings flow from long term choices, much as the water in your house will run in the direction and to the destination of the pipes that carry it, whether you see those pipes or whether they are hidden within the floor. Those familiar enough with how this works can accurately predict how you will feel later based on what you are doing and why you are doing it now, just as a plumber can locate and trace your pipes.
Even feelings that seem to occur all of a sudden are actually the result of a process. The more enduring a feeling, the greater the likelihood of longer processes to generate it. While intense feelings can occur in a moment, those that do don’t last. An enduring feeling builds over time across countless decisions, much like building a retirement account.
When the result of accumulated choices is negative, you will face the daunting but navigable challenge of reversing the course through successive actions oriented in the opposite direction. This visceral process is well-known by children who have had the pleasure of creating a whirlpool in a circular pool and then spinning around to reverse the flow.
When the result of accumulated choices is positive, you will face the tailwind of continuing to make things even better with the help of momentum already flowing in that direction. Every additional effort impels greater acceleration, much like cycling downhill while shifting gears.
In all likelihood, the amalgamation of your present mood is not the result of a monotonic process up or down, but the culmination of decisions that each yielded contributions in either direction. The more unified your actions are over time in one direction, the more actions it will take in the other direction to significantly alter your long-term feelings.