8 Things You Didn’t Know Can Improve Your Mood
We all sometimes wake up in a bad mood and simply give up trying to cheer ourselves up – we simply choose to keep on frowning for the rest of the day.
Well, it’s pretty ridiculous not to make the best out of every day, especially when there are tons of ways to improve your mood. Some may even shock you!
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1. Dance your feet off
If you’re feeling stressed out and overwhelmed, try the trick from Grey’s Anatomy – dance all the worries out! There’s something freeing in dancing like crazy, not caring about who sees you and how you look. Endorphins, which are responsible for your good mood, release during physical activities, so the wilder you are while dancing, the better! Stress, anxiety, depression – you can fight all of that if you let your body move with the music beat. Physical activity brings success, so don’t just sit and feel miserable.
2. Give more to get more
Giving to others has always been more beneficial to you than doing something for yourself. By giving others presents or even money, oxytocin gets released, which is a hormone which induces feelings of happiness and warmth. What’s interesting, it’s been noted that giving money to others will probably make you happier than spending that money on yourself. Giving to charities and people in need activates regions in our brains associated with feelings of trust, pleasure and warmth connection with other people. So, if you’re not feeling great, make somebody else happy and instantly improve your mood. smile at a stranger on the street, hold the door for them or volunteer at a hospital or a soup kitchen.
3. Drink water to be cheerful, not alcohol
Sounds weird, but if you often feel moody and tired, you should drink more water! Forget about cocktails and wine – dehydration can easily be the culprit of your bad mood and lack of energy. In addition to many beneficial things drinking water brings you, a better mood and energy is what will come out of drinking 2 liters of water a day.
4. Belly-brain issues
It may come as a surprise, but the level of stress in your life affect your gut health and vice versa. Stress hormones affect your gastrointestinal function but the gut hormones affect your brain, too, namely your cognitive ability. There is a connection between bowel syndrome, excess weight and neurologic and psychiatric disorders. As Evergreen Doctors experts state, our brain is affected by the good bacteria in our gut, meaning that the food that makes our gut healthy or ill will also have effects on our mood and cognitive abilities. For example, magnesium is very important for your gut health but if you don’t eat enough food that’s rich in magnesium, it may lead to depression eventually. Even though there are ways to fight depression, do your best to prevent it. Proper nutrition which includes probiotics will maintain your gut health, simultaneously helping your mental health. Be gentle with your belly!
5. Can you smell that? It’s your bad mood!
Sometimes it’s the smell you are exposed to that’s bringing you down. We get very accustomed to smells around us, even to those which are not very pleasant. Maybe you don’t like the smell in your office, so it’s no wonder you’re all broody and moody at work. cents are known to affect our emotions, so try to expose yourself to more pleasing smells. You can get a mood-boosting scent, for example, citrus, fresh-cut grass or pine – they will activate the right areas in your brain and put a smile on your face.
6. Do the vice versa trick – smile and get happier
It may sound surprising but it doesn’t always work the usual direction – you will happy, so you smile. You can actually improve your mood IF you smile. This is a centuries-old theory that has been proved again recently – making an emotional face related to a happy state can actually make you feel happy. So, show those teeth and try out the theory next time when you feel blue!
7. Don’t follow the “men in black” trend
As much as the color black has been associated with elegance, it actually doesn’t do much for your mood. According to color psychology, colors can arise different emotions in us, so you should pay attention to the clothes you wear and the colors you surround yourself with. Black could really put you in a bad place if you wear it too often. Expose yourself to orange, green and yellow more if you want a burst of positive emotions and leave black for broody teenagers.
8. Build your mood through your posture
You know how you react when you see a person who’s holding their head high, holding their back correctly? Yes, you will instantly think that the person looks confident and self-assured. Well, that’s the thing – by changing your posture, you’re sending yourself and others a signal that you are confident, which affects your mood. You have never seen a blue or moody person who slouches, right?
All in all
Your mood is just a temporary thing. You can influence it, either in a good or in a bad way. And it’s always more fun to be happy, right? So, always do your best to keep yourself happy and boost your life – no one else has to, right?