I am going to paraphrase a commercial: Change your tarot cards and change your life. Tarot cards do not (as I have said before) predict what WILL happen, things can and do change. But when you get a lot of negative cards in a reading, you can look at the cards and see what you want to change. A basic reading for reversed (upside down) cards is “not” whatever the meaning of the upright card is. If you get a reading with a lot of swords (worries) in there, consider reversing that card and reversing that energy.
Sad Cards
10 of Swords? Things are so bad that you are pinned to the ground with worry and misery. Turn it upside down and say, it could be much worse. The swords are falling out and life will get better. Did you get 3 of swords (which is miserable, yes, but mostly negative thinking)? Turn it around and say, the clouds are breaking, and the sun will come out soon. Things will get better.
Happy Cards
The exception card is 4 of wands, harmony and happiness, which is just too happy to ever be sad. But we also must point out that a happy card can be sad if it is reversed. Ace of cups is great wellsprings of love and happiness, but reversed it means you are pouring a lot of energy out and not getting a return. I get this card many times when people (usually women!) are in a bad relationship and waiting for the other person in their life to change and be more loving and less demanding. In this context, I have to tell them that things are not likely to change until they change partners, since you cannot make someone else change.
Too much of a good thing
Other cards can be too much of something when reversed. The Fool is child-like and enthusiastic, reversed, reckless and unthinking. The Sun is enjoyment and happiness, reversed can mean hedonism and not caring how others are dealing with things. The Hanged Man reversed is being a martyr, giving up what you want to keep the peace or because you want something back. They all become negative by being reversed. A lot depends on the context: the surrounding cards or the question being asked.
Do not assume that the way the cards are when you do the reading is the way the future must work out. We are not locked into our lives by Fate or Destiny. We can work on changing what we do not like in our life and make it better. We just have to put our energy to work on it. Cards point the way, but they do not lead us to the goal.