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If you’re in a funk and looking for a way to lift your mood or alleviate your nerves, there are a variety of simple, effective tactics to try that can help boost your spirits when you’re feeling down.
“There are effective things that we can do you could start doing today and feel better,” clinical psychologist Natalie C. Dattilo, Ph.D., an instructor at Harvard Medical School, tells PEOPLE. “There are proven things that we can do that are free, and highly effective.”
Do something for someone else
A quick pick-me-up that could change someone else’s day too? Being kind to those around you.
“Acts of kindness could be natural antidepressants,” says James Maddux, PhD., Senior Scholar at the Center for the Advancement of Well-Being, George Mason University.
“People underestimate how good these small, random acts of kindness are going to make them feel,” he continues. “There’s a lot of research showing that one of the best ways to enhance your own sense of well-being is to do something to make somebody else feel good.”
Try giving your seat to someone on the subway, or ushering someone in front of you at the grocery store if you’ve got a full cart and they just have an item or two.
“There’s probably hundreds of ways of doing this throughout the day,” Maddux says. “Just be alert for them and do them, and believe it or not, you’ll feel better.”
Head outside
Take a walk in nature, either through a park or the woods, for as little as 15 minutes.
“What this is doing is giving your brain a break,” Katherine Boere, a doctoral student in neuroscience at the University of Victoria, tells PEOPLE.
Ina recently published study,Boere and her colleagues showed that as little as 15 minutes walking outside in the greenery of nature “can have profound effects on both cognition and mood,” she says — much more so than if one walks indoors in an urban environment.
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Connect with others
We all need someone to lean on and to share with, in both the good times and bad. Andresearch has shownthat this kind of social support can stave off depression.
“Relationships are healing,” Thema Bryant, PhD., president of the American Psychological Association, tells PEOPLE.
“Often when we’re depressed or anxious or ashamed,” she says, “we shut down on our communication with people, which can often put us in a deeper hole.”
Exercise
The already-robust research on the positive benefits of exercise continues to grow. “About three or four times a year,” says Maddux, “I see a new study that comes out that again demonstrates that exercise is one of the best mental health boosters out there — [in some cases] better than drugs for treating depression and anxiety.”
What happens to make us feel better and so quickly?
A mixture of hormones are released: These include endorphins, our feel-good chemicals; dopamine, considered our “reward” chemical; and endogenous opioids, our natural painkillers, says Datillo, founder of The Priority Wellness Group, who exercises for both her physical and mental health.
This cocktail of hormones, Datillo adds, also helps attenuate the effects of cortisol (our stress hormone).
Further, exercise changes the neural connections in the brain, “connecting parts of the brain that increase sensitivity to pleasure,” she says. “It means that makes everything you do more pleasurable, more enjoyable.”
Whileresearch showsthat aerobic exercise such as jogging or brisk walking is beneficial, so too are short, intense workouts that raise your heart rate and feel effortful – such as jumping jacks, sit-ups, or a plank– she says.
“And once you can get your heart rate up, then you get to let it come back down,” Datillo says, “and there’s often a wave of relaxation that we feel.”
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Express gratitude
Research showsthat counting your blessings and being thankful improves mood.
Try spending five minutes, three times a week, writing down “the things you are grateful for,” Maddux says; he says this can serve you especially well during times when it feels more difficult to identify what makes you feel good.
“Take [the list] out and look over it and remind yourself that, Even though today I feel pretty crappy and this pretty crappy thing happened to me today, putting it in perspective, things are pretty good,” he recommends.
Try breathwork
As little as five minutes a day of practicing conscious breathing “has a pretty noticeable effect on mood,” says Boere. “It’s giving your brain that rest, that break from all the stimulus.”
Ina study published in Cell Reports Medicine, researchers showed that doing five minutes of breathwork a day can improve mood and reduce anxiety.
Specifically, a breathwork called cyclic sighing helps to quickly reduce stress and improve the way your body feels. To try it, inhale through your nose as much as you can, then take in a bit more breath to fill your lungs completely, and then exhale slowly through your mouth.
Click hereto watch a video on how to do cyclic breathing.
Pay attention
“Mindfulness and being present and focused on the here and now is really critical to mood because otherwise we tend to get stuck in the past or start fretting about the future,” says Mary Alvord, Ph.D, a Maryland-based therapist and author ofConquer Negative Thinking For Teens.
Research has shown that mindfulness meditationcan help reduce anxiety, among other health benefits.
“The most simple way is to simply observe your breath,” says Boere. “Just focus your attention on your breath. You don’t need to try and control it or change it any way. Just being present with how you’re breathing and what that actually feels like in your body, rather than focusing on something else.”
Have a hard time turning off your brain?Meditation appscan be helpful, says Maddux.
Listen to a podcast
In the last several years there’s been an explosion of podcasts, including ones geared to help improve mental health.
“I think it’s a great way of restoring ourselves,” says Dr. Bryant, creator and host ofThe Homecoming podcast, where she shares tips on how to deal with tough emotions. “Podcasts can be sources of information and inspiration.”
Bryant sees podcasts as a good way to get into the “right mindset,” and a way of self-nourishment.
“Choosing things that will actually lift us up,” she says, “will equip us to be able to face whatever challenges we’re facing.”
Shut off the electronics
Disconnecting from social media can provide a mental health boost.
A study published last yearshowed that tuning out of these sites improves mood.
“One of the things that happens in social media that research suggests is so damaging is that people engage in what is called an upward social comparison — they start comparing their lives to the lives of people that they think are having better lives than they are having,” says Maddux.
“A steady diet of that,” he adds, “even for a person who’s relatively well-adjusted and successful, can wear you down.”
“So disengage if you can, as much as possible, from social media now and then.”
Cold water immersion
Every day, even in the winter, Katherine Boere jumps into the chilly Pacific Ocean waters near her campus in Canada’s British Columbia.
“The impact,” she says, “has been really incredible for my mental health.”
While researchersare trying to figure outwhat it is about cold-water immersion that improves mood, Boere offers an anecdotal suggestion.
“There’s a cognitive fog that sometimes I feel when I’m very busy doing school and work and all the other things,” she says. “And for me, it just feels like a refresh button. It really provides clarity.”
source: people.com
