Picture a mood ring on your finger. (Pretend with me that they work!) What color is it — a happy yellow, a sad blue, an angry black?

Whatever "color" your mood is, don't despair. Moods, by definition, are temporary states of mind." Sometimes it feels like we are captive to our moods, but it's completely the opposite: You are in control of your thoughts, which impact your mood, which influence your feelings, which direct your actions, which shape your life.

Here's how our mommy M.D.s — doctors who are also mothers — bust out of their bad moods:

"Exercise is my sanity," says Katherine Dee, M.D., a mom of three and owner of Glow Medispa in Seattle. "I find I can bust out of a bad mood if I get some sort of workout in."

"When my mood gets low, I try to remember that I have to take responsibility for lifting it," says Eva Ritvo, M.D., a mom of two, a psychiatrist and author of "Bekindr: The Transformative Power of Kindness" in Miami Beach, Florida. "It's up to me to create a world that works for me — a world where I can be happy and productive as much of the time as possible. When I am feeling upset, I try to check in with myself and see what is causing the setback and then work to improve my mood. Oftentimes, it's as simple as taking a few deep breaths, getting a glass of water or a snack or refocusing on all the things I am grateful for."

"I try to be a glass-half-full person," says Amy Barton, M.D., a mom of three and a pediatrician at St. Luke's Children's Hospital in Boise, Idaho. "To accomplish this, I do

a lot of 'internal' talking to myself. If something bad happens, I tell myself, 'This is just a temporary situation.' I'll reframe it in my mind, thinking, 'How bad will this seem looking back on it in five years? Will it even be an issue then?' Probably not!"

"My parents were Holocaust survivors, and we were very poor," says Hana R. Solomon, M.D., a mom of four, a grandmother of eight, a pediatrician and author of "Clearing the Air One Nose at a Time: Caring for Your Personal Filter" in Columbia, Missouri. "We ate meat only once a week, and I put cardboard in my shoes to cover the holes in the soles. I would pray that no one would walk up the stairs behind me in school and see the holes! Despite all of our struggles, my mother taught my sister and me to remember how lucky we are. She taught us to think, 'We have a warm place to live, and we have the opportunity to work.' Nothing is owed to us; we have to earn it. We have to make our own happiness."

Dr. Rallie's Tips

I've always tried to maintain a happy, grateful attitude. I struggled to stay happy and positive when I was younger, but with years of practice, it's now second nature. It's who I am.

If I do need to feel grumpy, peeved, resentful or sorry for myself for some reason, I put a time limit on it — maybe five to 10 minutes. If it's something minor going on, that's usually enough time to get it out of my system! And more importantly, I don't end up wasting an entire day accomplishing nothing because I'm in a bad mood.

It's not always the easiest thing to maintain a positive, happy outlook. It actually takes a little effort and a lot of practice.

Fortunately, it's just as easy to find two dozen things to be happy about. A couple of times each week, I make a mental list of all the things that are going right in my life and everything I'm grateful for. When things pop into my mind that aren't going right or that I'm not grateful for, I focus on what I can do to change them for the better, rather than how unhappy they make me. I can't always change everything or everyone in my life, but I always have the power to change the way I feel about anything. — Rallie McAllister, M.D., M.P.H., mom of three, nationally recognized health expert and family physician in Lexington, Kentucky

Jennifer Bright is a mom of four sons, co-founder and CEO of family- and veteran-owned custom publisher Momosa Publishing, co-founder of the Mommy M.D. Guides team of 150-plus mommy M.D.s and co-author of "The Mommy M.D. Guide to Losing Weight and Feeling Great." She lives in Hellertown, Pennsylvania. To find out more about Jennifer Bright and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Free-Photos at Pixabay