Three Things You Can Do Right Now to Lift Your Mood
Having a bad day? A bad week? Let’s press the reset button. It could be as easy as 1… 2… 3!
As someone who suffers from social anxiety, I sometimes find myself feeling very down. Anxiety and the “big sad” are ends of the same pendulum, and occasionally, mine swings into the blue.
I think it’s safe to say that this probably happens to you, too.
It’s also safe to say that there are no quick fixes, and nothing I can say here will really help you if you are struggling with your mental health. Only a professional can truly do that.
However, I can share with you some of the things that I do when I’m feeling down. And these things don’t just work for me — the research available suggests they work for lots of other people too.
Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to go out right now and do some shinrin-yoku. I’m not going to suggest you make oatmeal either. Both of those things have their time and place. Now is not it. Not when you’re sad, or stressed, or scared.
When you feel this way, you need something that takes little energy, little time, and few to no ingredients or equipment. You need something that will shore up your mood just enough to complete the day.
And that’s okay.
When I’m feeling low, here are three things I do that always perk me up.
Take some deep breaths.
Research suggests that deep breathing can help trigger our body’s relaxation response. In one study, researchers found that there was a significant decrease in the levels of cortisol in participants’ saliva after they practiced deep, diaphragmatic breathing.
I first came across diaphragmatic breathing in a yoga class. The instructor had called it belly breathing because you had to fill your belly up on the inhale, hold the breath for a moment, and then completely empty your belly on the exhale. Then you hold for a moment and repeat the process.
Some helpful tips I’ve picked up along the way to help you really feel the benefits of this type of breathing are: 1) Lay down with your hands on your belly, fingertips touching — when you inhale, your fingers should part and then touch again when you exhale — and 2) Count your inhales and exhales to keep your focus on the breath — e.g., the inhale is ‘one’ and the exhale is ‘two’ — counting up to ten, and then starting over.
When the overwhelm gets too much — or when my mind presents me with a PowerPoint of my most embarrassing moments just as I’m drifting off to sleep — taking some deep, full breaths helps slow my brain down and calm my nerves.
Think of three things you are grateful for.
It’s very easy to fall into a depression trap. My life sucks, I suck, the weather sucks, my job sucks, everything just SUCKS. Sound familiar? Your rational mind tells you that none of it is true, but you ignore that because all evidence currently points to suck. But is it really all bad?
When this happens to me, I find that reminding myself that not everything sucks — there are lots of awesome things, feelings, and people that make my life suck decidedly less — helps me focus on what is true about my life.
I’ve talked a lot about gratitude in my writing. I know I have the privilege, and it’s all very well to say that being grateful for what you have will make you happier. It’s not a silver-bullet solution, especially not if you’re going through hard financial times, or struggling with your health.
But research demonstrates that people who journal what they are grateful for every day tend to feel more optimistic and content with their lot in as little as ten weeks! These benefits have also been shown to last up to a month in other studies.
Is gratitude going to pay your light bill, make your boss give you a raise, or cure your issues with mental health? No.
But it might help break out of a toxic cycle and see the beauty and abundance in the everyday.
Take a nap.
“A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book.”
— Irish Proverb
Research shows that how sensitive we are to stress, sadness, anger, fear, and anxiety fluctuates throughout the day and is primarily dependant on how well we have slept.
And good sleep can actually protect us from fluctuating emotions throughout the day. Good quality REM sleep, specifically, can shore up our emotional defenses. It can also take the wind out of the sails of the HMS Stress and Anxiety.
As an anxiety sufferer myself, I know the value of a good procrastinap. Something stressing me out? Someone not texting me back? Did we run out of milk, and I didn’t find out until I had already poured my cereal?
Time to nap about it.
I always wake up feeling better about the world, my life, and the people in it. Yes, even about the dry cereal that’s been waiting for me, slowly going stale, in the bowl where I left it on the counter.
A word to the wise: Not all naps are created equal.
Sleep inertia is real, my dudes. And if you want to feel the full benefits of a restorative afternoon siesta, you need to avoid it.
Sleep experts say that the ideal length of a nap is 10–20 minutes. This is long enough to get some restorative benefits of sleep without the grogginess of waking up. That’s the goal. There is nothing worse than waking up feeling like a vampire after a 300-year stint in the coffin.
Final thoughts
None of the above things are magic. There isn’t a secret to feeling happier. Nor is there any sort of spell or salve or potion that can reverse the tightness in your chest or the sinking feeling in your stomach.
But what these things do is give you a chance to hit the reset button on your day. They allow you to slow down and take care of yourself. This is something, I think we can all agree, we probably don’t do as well, or as often, as we should.
