Life can be rough, and some days it can feel as if we are fighting an uphill battle just to keep on going with our day to day tasks. Of course, so much of this struggle is due to how we feel at that point in time, and that means if we can change or improve what we are feeling we can be much more effective, productive, and happier too. Luckily, there are some smart strategies below that will enable you to hack your mood and feel better straight away. Read on to find out what they are.
Hack your mood to feel better everyday.
Exercise
We all know that exercise is good for us because it burns calories and moves oxygenated blood around the body. However, there is another significant advantage of working up a sweat as well, and it’s with our moods.
In fact, exercise actually stimulate the body to release endorphins or happy hormones which can have a significant effect on mood. So, much in fact that there have been studies done that demonstrate exercise to be almost as effective to people suffering from moderate depression as SSRI medications.
Of course, if your mood and motivation is already low, it can be tough to find the energy to exercise, and that is why it’s crucial that you start small and build up to a longer, more sustained movement goal. However, even small amounts may be enough to help raise your mood right now and start you on the right path to feeling better in the long term.
Meditation
Many people practice meditation to improve their mood and feel better, but the results you get will depend on the type you engage in.
For example, mindfulness meditation is hugely popular at the moment. This is where you focus on your breath and allow thoughts to enter and leave your mind in their own time. The idea is that while you will get carried away of a train of thought from time to time, you should just bring your attention back to the breath nice and gently, and just observe what is going through your mind without engaging in it.
Of course, sometimes this can make you feel more centered and relaxed, but it’s also a practice that works the long-term moreover After all, occasionally the thoughts in our minds won’t be positive ones, and this can make it a tough practice to do, and one that doesn’t necessarily make you feel better right at that moment.
Alternatively, there are many other types of mediation to try including guided visualizations. Many of these are written to help you create dreamlike, perfect space in your mind, whether that be a walk through a beautiful forest, swimming in a crystal clear lake, or even floating on a cloud.
In fact, such meditations can act as an escape or break from the current situation that you are experiencing, and so can be used much more effectively to boost your mood in the moment practically.
Vitamin supplements
Our moods are often linked to our general health and well-being, and that means if we can do something to boost that, how we feel will also follow. Luckily, by providing the body with the right nutrients, we can maximize our potential for positive mood.
Of course, many of these nutrients can be consumed through what we eat, and in particular fruit and vegetables are loaded with vitamins and minerals that can have a positive effect on mood. There are also some fantastic vitamin supplements on the market that are designed to do this as well.
In particular, B vitamin, D vitamin, and magnesium supplements are known to have a positive effect on mood, and you can even get vitamin mixes, something that you can click here for more info on, that can be taken in the morning and will help invigorate the body and mind for the rest of the day. After all, if you can give your body a little boost in the right direction when it comes to mood, it only makes sense to do so, as then the rest of the day is likely to be so much easier as well.
Cutting carbs
Now, you have probably heard a lot of about carbohydrates in the news and online, and much of it can be conflicting. After all, you have the low-carbers that say you can improve how you feel by cutting this food group from your diet, and then there are others that remind us that carbs are the primary way that our body fuel itself, and to remove these can be detrimental. It’s confusing for sure!
Of course, when it comes to deciding what food to eat, you need to research and make the decision yourself, but I can tell you that while the body does use carbs for energy, it doesn’t have to. In fact, you can make the switch from burning carbohydrates for energy to burning fat, and this is essentially what happens in a low carb or ketogenic diet.
Those in favor of this suggest that doing so can help regulate blood sugar and prevent sugar highs and lows and, so improve our mood and mental focus. Although, following a ketogenic diet can be difficult and take a few weeks to adapt to.
In fact, if you are looking for a short-term way to improve your mood it may be better to cut out sugar instead of all carbohydrates. This is because while something sweet can help you to feel better in the moment, it can often lead to a dip in mood and craving for more. Therefore by cutting this out, you can help to stabilize your mood, right from this moment and prevent the cycle being perpetuated.
Positive self-talk
Imagine that someone followed you around every day and constantly reminded you of all of your failures. How long do you think you could last without telling them to go away? Not long I’d wager as that would be verbal abuse and have a serious effect on your mood.
Sadly, a vast number of us to this to ourselves each and every day by allowing and listening to negative self-talk, and this is something that can negatively affect our mood just as much as if someone else was saying it to us!
That is why if we want to hack our mood and make our lives a little easier and more pleasant it’s crucial to start recognizing negative self-talk and disengaging from it. We can even begin to use positive mantras and pay ourselves complements like we would a friend, too. This being something that can result in an instantaneous boost in mood!
Acknowledging your mood and committing to a valued action
Now, this last one is less about changing our mood, and more about changing what we do and allowing our feelings to catch up with that. It involves acknowledging when we feel low, or tired, or sad, emotions that all human being have at some point, and then choosing to refocus on to a valued action instead of letting our mood dictate what we do.
Of course, this is by far the most challenging option on the table, but the idea is that after a while your mood will improve anyway because you are getting things done and feeling a sense of mastery in your life. You just have to get through the initial discomfort, first. In fact, doing so may actually prove to be the most sustainable way of hacking your moods in the long run.
Be the first to comment