10 Simple ways to improve your mood

OHMYGOSSIP — Depression is very common in our society and being on a bad mood often is very annoying. Feel depressed? Here’s 10 simple ways of keeping depression away and staying on a good mood:

1. Get enough sleep – The chances of you being in a bad mood are going to increase if you do not get enough sleep because when you are in bed your brain is developing and resting and your body is repairing itself, so when you sleep for only a few hours you are going to be starting the day on the wrong foot and things can only get worse. Do try your best to get eight hours and you will find that the day becomes that bit easier than it otherwise could have been.

2. Exercise – Exercise can help your body to produce endorphins and this is a chemical that makes you feel happier as well as fitter. You are not required to go to the gym on a daily basis, but do try to at least do some walking even for just 15 minutes as this can be enough to help put you into a good mood.

3. Stay hydrated – This may sound like common sense, but you do need to make sure that you drink enough water during the day because being dehydrated will lead to you feeling grumpy and more lethargic than you would normally be. It is important to point out that you are best to drink normal water and not soda or anything else as they contain additives and chemicals that do nothing for you when it comes to improving your mood.

4. Keep a diary – It has been shown in different studies that keeping a diary and writing down your emotions is a fantastic way of stopping depression getting a hold of you. The idea behind this is that it is for your eyes only, so nobody is going to judge you on what you write and it can be a great way of getting things off your chest rather than letting it eat away at you.
5. Do not hide away – Even though this may be quite difficult, you do need to try to socialize with people on a daily basis even if this is for a short period of time. Try and avoid becoming a hermit as it then becomes harder to change your mood when you have nobody to talk to, so get out, talk to people, and you will feel better for it.

6. Eat fruit and vegetables – Fruit and vegetables are crammed full of nutrients and minerals that can help you when it comes to trying to beat depression. By eating them, we are giving our brain the nourishment it needs to function as best as it possibly can, but eat the wrong things such as too much sugar, then your mood will fluctuate as those sugar levels rise and fall.

7. Meditate – Meditation has been studied by a number of people and there is no doubt that it does help to settle your mind and improve your mood if you have been able to even just get 30 minutes of peace and quiet where you can be alone with your thoughts. If you do not feel like meditation, then prayer does work for people that are religious as the idea is just to get some comfort from it in order to lower those stress levels.

8. Get Vitamin D – Vitamin D, along with Omega-3, is known for helping the brain, but we are often quite guilty of never getting enough of it and this does then have a negative effect on how we feel. Do, therefore, consider using supplements to boost the levels and you should feel a difference, but only if you do this on a daily basis, so make it part of your ritual as you will benefit from doing so.

9. Be thankful for what you have instead of worry about what is missing – Quite often we can become depressed by thinking about things that are missing from our life, but in actual fact you should remind yourself of what you have several times a day and be thankful for every single thing. The idea with this is to try to get it into your mind that not everything is bad and that small good things do happen to you and all it takes is you to remind yourself in order to put a smile on your face.

10. Love – Finally, make sure that you love those people that you are closest to because we are guilty of thinking we are all alone when depressed and in actual fact this is very rarely the case. Talk to your loved ones each day even if this is just for five minutes at a time and love them with all of your heart because those emotions will help you to see that you are luckier than you thought.

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