Has anything happened recently to make you feel stuck in an unpleasant place? We live in an era when so many medicines are available to help us escape hardship: drugs for sleeplessness, anxiety, to alter heartache of grief. After years of disapproving of people who use such medicines, I’m seeing that drugs may have a place. I’m trying not to judge, at any rate. BUT I still gravitate toward natural systems that can help our bodies move through, or ease, everyday struggle.

So I enjoyed reading the chapter on “Emotional Emergencies” in the recently released book “The Yoga of the Nine Emotions: The Tantric Practice of Rasa Sadhana” by Peter Marchand. The teachings revealed here are based on lectures from Indian guru Harish Johari, and the lessons, I have to say, pertain more to mood than serious mental illness. But here are some ways to change the body’s “chemistry” next time you find yourself falling down a dark and dingy rabbit hole.

When angry, Harish Johari advises: “Take a relatively cold shower, drink several glasses of cool water, and chew some green cardamom seeds.” Stop eating meals until the anger is gone.

For fear or anxiety, the guru advises eating fresh ginger and drinking lemon juice in water. For sadness, a good cry helps release the sad energy. “Rinse the eyes afterward with cool water or rose water. Chew some fenugreek leaves and saffron or eat a light sweet dish that contains one or both of these spices.” When depressed, try eating a good amount of fresh ginger and drink fruit juices.

Oh, that’s folkloric, outmoded tripe, some might say. But I honor this type of simple advice because in each instance, the recipe requires pausing to care for the self through a system or ritual. There’s no rush to the doctor or the medicine cabinet. And there’s much more to the chapter, actually, with advice on how not to identify or attach to negative emotion. When depressed, for instance, it is best to visualize happiness, find positive imagery, and not tape a sign to your forehead that says “Pathetic. Hopeless. Terminal.” That’s my paraphrase, not the guru’s wording.