As I eject the DVD, I can’t help but feel relieved that this was the last in the series. I was determined to finish all five seasons and I did. While watching the last episode as Claire drives off into the sunset, I can feel the tension of the show lifting from my shoulders.

“It’s finally over,” I say to myself, “the rollercoaster of emotion, the grief, the sadness; I no longer have to deal with the depression that comes with a television drama based on death.” This is Six Feet Under.

After running out of quality cable TV shows, I had finally decided to put the entire five seasons of Six Feet Under in my NetFlix queue. However, despite being a good show, it made me feel incredibly depressed and over the course of several weeks found my mind filled with negative emotions. Could watching a simple television show really have this much impact on one’s emotional state?

When I had started researching seduction, one of the first recommendations for new guys was to rid your life of anything that would be detrimental to your mindset. This included songs, movies, books, etc., that were either negative or somehow related to supplicating beta male behavior. At the time, I pretty much disregarded this advice since I felt generally positive already, but now it makes much more sense to pay attention to this stuff.

When I think back to all the times that I have done well with single women, I have always been in a very positive and motivated state of mind. Conversely, during those three weeks of watching Six Feet Under, I was a complete mess around women. One girl even called me a “Debbie Downer” while I was rambling on about terminal illnesses. Talk about a seductive conversation, this was just shooting myself in the foot.

It’s funny how watching a simple television show could have such an effect on our mental and emotional state, but there does seem to be truth in the notion that the things we surround ourselves with will effect our moods.

For those that don’t believe this, just think about how you feel after watching a really funny comedy act or funny movie. If it makes you laugh, then more often than not, your mood is elevated to a more positive state afterwards.

So, I’ve been thinking about other things that I’ve been reading lately that may cause me to have more negative emotions:

• Reading & Watching the News: I read the paper every morning and sometimes watch the evening news on TV and I must say it really sucks. There’s so much negative shit going on in the news that it’s a total downer and really there isn’t much reason to keep reading or watching it.

• Mens Rights Issues: though I do think the MRAs raise some important issues in gender equality and men’s rights in general, a lot of the blogs and message boards link to articles which infuriate me and causes me to feel some resentment towards women, when really it’s only a small portion of women that are screwing men over. Here’s the thing, I love women, so even if a small portion of my mind is feeling resentment, then that’s probably going to come across during my interactions with them. It’s not good and it’s not attractive.

I think that sometimes when we are in a bad mood or feeling like we have a lot of negative emotions, it’s good to stop for a moment and recount what we’ve been feeding to our brains.

What are some things that have made you a Debbie Downer? What do you do to get into a more positive state of mind?