Your spirits are down? How about lifting them with easy doable ways, using healthy natural approaches that will become a way of life for you? The good thing about such ways is that you can design your own mood-lifting diet that can be both nutritious and delicious. I once read: “Good food, good mood.” Not only does it sound nice; it also makes sense. A well-fed body gives energy and health and a well-nourished brain boosts mental power and mood. Now, let us see how healthy lifestyles can influence your well-being.
Start your day with two glasses of room-temperature water as you wake-up in the morning to cleanse and moisten your body. Kick off your energy and mood with a serotonin rich banana. Don’t forget to scrape the inner peel of banana for additional serotonin. The hormone regulates your mood, biological clock, and sleep, and decreases anxiety and depression. For more tryptophan, serotonin precursor, you should have fish, chicken, turkey, meat, legumes, eggs, whole grains, or dairy as well as cabbage and family, greens, carrots, beets, alfalfa, or sprouts. Nuts and seeds, in small portions, along with a fruit make a healthy snack and provide essential fats to balance brain chemistry. An additional energy booster is a glass of green apple, orange, carrot, and beetroot juice. Keep away from harmful pick-me-ups like sugar, caffeine, and alcohol, which dampen the mood after a while.
Some herbal drinks provide natural mood-regulating chemicals, which improve neurotransmitter activity in the brain, give a lighter feeling, and enhance sleep. They are available in St. John’s Wart, lavender, valerian, passion flower, and chamomile, herbs that are soothing to the nerves, calming to the body, and boosting to the mood.
A sure mood-lifter is a stroll in the park, a green area, or at the seaside with your favorite companion. Allow daylight to penetrate your eyes; fresh air to enter your lungs; cool air to blow on your face; and warm sunrays to touch your skin. The different color flowers, greenery, or the blue sea gives serenity to anxious and low-spirited persons and brightens their day and iodine from the sea air enhances sleep and health. Take your time and get acquainted with your environment and become intimate with nature. It can be gratifying.
Believe it or not! Interaction with people improves your state of mind. Friend and family support is very important when you feel low or overwhelmed with worries and stress. A sympathetic ear can alleviate anxiety; an understanding look can relieve distress; a soft touch can disperse fear; and a smiling face can ease discomfort. So don’t be afraid to seek companionship; people care!
Smile and laugh more often. Your demeanor reflects on your mood and lifts it and boosts immunity as well. Watch a light comedy; exchange jokes; and be light-hearted with your friends at times to relieve melancholy.
Sound night sleep (eight hours) is paramount to quell anxiety and raise the spirits. A short afternoon nap (not more than 30 minutes) renews vitality, quietens the mind, stills agitation, and enhances the mood.
Exercise and physical activity are sure ways of jumpstarting the release of endorphins. These chemicals, which are also called the “runner’s high” or feel-good hormones, act like morphine, making you feel better and more at peace with your surrounding. They are secreted by the brain even with moderate exercise like a ten-minute brisk walk, giving a feeling of well-being. A 30 minute workout or walk will offer the brain a boost, the body energy, and the mood uplift. Exercise with a little sweat is an antidote for feeling low.
I am sure you have heard of aroma therapy. It is a technique that affects the nervous system through the smell center in the brain. By heating certain essential oils, you are able to animate your spirits with clove oil; relax with lavender; boost immunity with oliban, Boswellia, (luban shihri); energize your body and mind with ginger; and detoxify with lemon. Put a couple of drops of the essential oil on the burner and leave it to diffuse its powerful and effective aroma. Once in a while soak in a warm bath with a mood-lifting oil like neroli, bergamot, or geranium.
Deep breathing, meditation, and prayer are techniques, which hush the brain; control negative thoughts; slow down mental activity; clarify the mind; stimulate spirituality; and lead to wisdom. Take 15 to 30 minutes a day to shut off your daily surrounding and practice deep inhalations and long slow exhalations. Meditate or pray in a quite, peaceful, and secluded environment away from distractions (telephones, obligations).
Try therapeutic exercises such as yoga and Tai chi to relax your body; soothe your nerves; silence your negative thoughts; still your bad emotions; arouse your senses; center your body and mind; activate your organs; balance your endocrinal system; and suppress stress hormones. Stress disrupts the hormonal balance, depresses the mood, and lowers the spirits.
The brain, mind, body, and emotions are connected and interrelated. To balance one, you need to counter-balance the others. You cannot address one without managing the others. Your awareness of each one of them helps you maintain inner stability, outer balance, and physiological, psychological, and emotional equilibrium in order to face daily stressors; confront unexpected difficulties; and keep happy and disease-free. Go for it!
