How to get rid of a bad mood? 15 ways scientifically proven

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Your mood largely depends on the circumstances. But it depends no less on your personal efforts and actions. You can improve your mood and feel a little happier right now, and here are 15 scientifically proven ways to do it.

1. Smile

In 2011, Michigan State University conducted the results of which showed that positive thoughts that make you smile bring feelings of happiness. The fake smile that some workers are required to keep on their faces, on the contrary, leads to emotional exhaustion.

But another 2003 study at Clark University in Massachusetts found that smiling itself evokes positive memories.

So just smile and hold that facial expression for a while.

2. Go for a run

Physical activity triggers the release of endorphins, neurotransmitters that provide happiness.

Running and other physical exercises can become a kind of "moving meditation", when you forget about all the affairs and problems, concentrating on body movements and breathing.

And yet - people who go in for sports feel more attractive and more confident in themselves, which also affects their mood.

3. Find something to laugh at

Laughter has a positive effect in the short and long term.

When you laugh, the consumption of oxygenated air increases, the work of the heart, lungs, muscles is stimulated, and the amount of endorphins increases. Laughter helps fight stress, provides a calm, relaxed state.

In the long term, laughter improves the immune system and reduces pain, helps to cope with difficult situations and boosts mood by relieving apathy.

4. Take a walk in the park

Walking in nature has many benefits, including uplifting your spirits. One scientist from the University of Sussex found that participants felt much happier in the wild than in the city.

But if you live too far from the park, just going for a walk is much better than sitting at home. Physical activity improves mood.

5. Do a good deed

Do something nice for other people. This will make not only them happier, but also you.

Social acceptance and gratitude from other people increase positive emotions.

Professor Sonia Lubomirski of the University of California has proven that good deeds, especially those of variety, help people feel happier.

6. Listen to joyful music

The Journal of Positive Psychology published Euna Ferguson and Kennon Sheldon, in the process of which they tested the effect of joyful music on a person's mood.

Students listened to positive music and tune in to a feeling of happiness. Eventually, they really began to feel happy.

Those students who did not think about feelings of happiness, but simply concentrated on music, did not feel the same enthusiastic and positive emotions.

The conclusion can be drawn as follows - use joyful music as a tool to raise your mood, but do not forget to concentrate on the feelings of joy and happiness that arise from it.

7. Step wider

It turns out that while walking, it is important not only where you walk, but also how you do it. Sarah Sondgrass of Florida Atlantic University discussed the type of gait and the sensations associated with it.

One group of people was given the task to walk with wide strides, waving their arms and holding their heads high, the second - to walk in small steps with their hands together and their gaze lowered down.

Eventually, the participants were asked how they felt during the experiment. It turned out that people from the first group felt much more confident and happier.

Going out for a walk, even under the weight of your problems, do not forget how to walk.

8. Start a gratitude journal

In fact, it can be a notebook, note, or a regular document in which you write down what you are grateful for.

A study published in the Journal of Happiness found that there is a direct link between gratitude and feelings of satisfaction and happiness.

Participants in this experiment wrote letters of thanks for three weeks, listing everything for which they are grateful to life. Each week the letters grew longer and people felt more satisfied with their lives.

9. Plan your vacation

One conducted in 2010 proved that going on vacation, even two months before, makes people feel happier.

If you don't have a vacation, think about New Year's holidays and subsequent holidays - it's also nice.

The experiment, which lasted 4 months, involved more than 1,500 Dutch adults, about 1,000 of whom were going on vacation.

It turned out that two months before the planned vacation, a person's mood rises. He starts planning his vacation, which provides many pleasant thoughts, and looks forward to a great time. His mood rises as he gets closer to the X date.

10. Play with your pet

One found that playing with a puppy increased pleasure more than eating chocolate.

Scientists recorded brain activity during different activities using EEG to find out what brings more pleasure.

Activities that were more enjoyable triggered activity on the left side of the brain, which is associated with pleasure and happiness.

As a result of the experiment, scientists have found that people experienced the greatest joy when they found 10 euros. The next largest pleasure was when playing with a puppy. Since you cannot find money at will, you can have a pet and improve your mood anytime every day.

11. Take a nap

proved that in the absence of the right amount of sleep, people become more pessimistic and respond more to negative stimuli.

The experiment involved sleepy students who needed to memorize a number of words. They memorized 81% percent of words with negative connotations, such as cancer. And remembering another list of words with a positive connotation, they were able to name only 41% of the words.

This may be because negative stimuli are processed in the tonsils, while positive and neutral stimuli are processed in the hippocampus.

Sleep deprivation affects the hippocampus more than the tonsils, which is why sleep deprived people quickly forget good things and remember bad ones more often.

12. Enjoy a cup of tea

Neuropsychologist Rick Hanson, author of Hardwiring Happiness, argues that noticing and focusing on pleasant little things is a way to "train" your brain to feel happy.

10 seconds of a beautiful view outside the window, 20 seconds of pleasure from tea with chocolate, and you have already tuned your brain to good stimuli.

In general, we are accustomed to react much more strongly to negative stimuli than to positive ones. This is due to the desire to ensure safety. However, now such attitudes "from the Stone Age" do not so much help to survive as hinder to feel happy.

And you can easily change the habit of focusing on bad events by “rewiring” your brain to other stimuli - positive ones. To do this, you need to pay attention to positive events, happiness and pleasure.

13. Sign up to volunteer

Dr. Suzanne Richards from the University of Exeter has analyzed about 40 studies over the past 20 years that have looked at volunteering and happiness. It turned out that volunteers have almost no depression and feel great.

Scientists believe that this is due to several factors:

• The volunteers' level of physical activity increases. The activity takes place away from home, you have to walk, stand, work with your hands, etc.
• Volunteers have more live communication, the opportunity to make friends. Eye contact, smiles - real social interactions boost your mood.
• Good deeds, as we pointed out in point # 5, help you feel happier.

14. More sex

A report by Nick Dridakis, an employee of the Institute for Labor Research, presented interesting results of the experiment.

It turns out that people who have sex at least four times a week are happier and more confident, they reason better and suffer less from dull moods.

In addition, it relieves stress, strengthens the cardiovascular and immune systems. And the feeling of happiness and health are closely related.

15. Just remember the happy times

Nostalgia for happy events in the past helps to build more optimistic forecasts for the future. Scientists from the University of Southampton, whose members were supposed to remember and write nostalgic memories.

Their stories were much more positive and optimistic than the control group, which was asked to write a story about ordinary events.

The same thing happened when the participants listened to nostalgic music and recited poetry - they were more optimistic and happy than people in the control group, who listened to ordinary music and recited ordinary poetry not related to a happy past.

So, nostalgia for happy times directly affects mood, increases self-confidence and sets you up for a positive future.

To feel a little happier, sometimes it’s enough just to remember good things in the past.

How do you improve your mood?