The Pursuit of Grumpyness

Grumpy, it seems, is the new happy. Following years of getting a bad rap, mine and Victor Meldrew's favourite emotion is making a long awaited comeback.

According to research reported on the BBC news website, being in a bad mood makes us 'think more clearly.' Professor Joe Forgas, an Australian psychology expert who led the study, found that being cheerful can make you more creative, whereas feeling gloomy will make you more attentive and a careful thinker. In other words, feeling a bit down in the dumps once in a while is actually good for you and can help you make the right decisions. The ironic thing is, I could have told you all this back when my cousins and siblings were berating me with nicknames like 'Mrs Happy' and 'Mardy Bum.'

We have been bombarded for the last decade with the concept of positive thinking. Books like 'The Secret' brainwashed us into believing that by continuously thinking positively about a given situation, all potential obstacles would disappear. This was all well and good in the Noughties when the world was enjoying an economic boom. Everything and anything seemed within reach. We could afford to think positively all the time, and, if not, we would whack it on a credit card. Today, the new era of frugality and sombreness brought about by the recession, demands something a little less optimistic. It is now unrealistic to believe that positive thinking can solve all our problems - just ask someone who has recently been made redundant. Being grumpy is therefore the perfect antidote.

Don't get me wrong - I still believe it is desirable to think positively in certain situations. Believing that you're going to do well in a job interview is far more beneficial than walking in believing you're going to fail. However, there is a time and a place for both being negative and positive, and we should not ignore our feelings just because they are not particularly good ones.

It is therefore time to feel good about feeling bad. For one, feeling bad about something tells us that we need to bring about change in our lives. How else are we meant to know that a given situation is not right for us? Just like being scared is a warning that something poses a physical threat to us , I believe being grumpy is a warning that something poses an emotional one. You need to feel persistently bad over a period of time about your job to realise that you need to find a new one, for example.

Some of my greatest decisions have come following long mardy spells. The Great Grumpiness of 2006 led me to move to Dubai in early 2007. Had I sat and done what the positive preachers instruct us to do and tried to make myself believe that everything was great, I wouldn't have moved. The reality was, Lincoln was not right for me and my job was boring. I was miserable and no amount of positive thinking was going to make me feel better about the situation because what I really needed was change. I left and everything worked out for the best. Being grumpy gave me the kick in the right direction.

So from now on I'm not going to feel bad about feeling down. I'm going to revel in it, reach for the chocolate, pop open the bubbly and celebrate the fact my next big life changing decision is probably on its way.