4 ways to instantly lift your mood
Are you going through mood swings and wondering what to do when you feel low? We all have some bad days and, on such days, our mood goes for a toss. We feel cranky, irritated or depressed. But staying in these negative states of mind for a long duration of time does not help us in any way and further, it stops us from enjoying life. So, when we feel low, it is important to change our mood as soon as possible. How to do that? In this blog, I am going to share with you 4 tips to change your mood. When you practice these tips, your mood becomes better and you may even feel happy.
Tip 1: Connect with Earth
One day, my mom and I were sitting in our veranda and having a casual chat. It was around 5 PM, but it was quite hot as it was summer. Both of us felt the heat and did not feel like chatting much. The heat is irritating and made us feel grumpy. Our mood was low. Beside our veranda, we have our garden. Suddenly, I felt like moving from the veranda to the garden. So, my mom and I went to the garden, and we sat in the garden.
Our garden is a beautiful place with greenery and various trees. When I sat on the green grass on Earth, I could feel the energy of Mother Earth strengthening and rejuvenating me. My irritation was gone and my mood changed. I became my cheerful self and felt refreshed. I also experienced a great difference in the temperature when I sat on the grass. Temperature felt lower than what it was in the verandah. My mother, too, felt the difference. Like me, she also felt good sitting in the garden. And we both had a happy conversation. This experience taught me the importance of sitting on Earth and how this simple practice can change the mood.
In olden days, a home used to have some open Earth left, and people used to happily sit on Earth and talk. But due to modernization, the amount of open Earth in a home, without concrete, has become nil or negligible. We have concrete floor everywhere. And this is making us stay away from the touch of Earth.
Just like a child needs a mother’s touch for healthy and happy growth, we all need the touch of Mother Earth for our health and happiness. Staying connected with Earth rejuvenates us. This experience taught me that the simple practice of sitting on Earth could change our mood and energy. Try this tip for yourself and see how you feel when you sit on the green grass or just plain Earth.
Tip 2: Listen to uplifting music
Music can instantly change your mood. Listen to your favourite song or music and observe how your mood changes. Right form of music can heal the mind and body. There are healing systems based on music and in Indian tradition, music is a highly revered form of art and years are spent by seekers to learn and master this art. Choose uplifting or cheerful music when you are feeling low. Do not go for sad or violent songs as these can intensify your bad mood.
Tip 3: Use the power of smell
Smells can greatly affect your mood and emotions. This is one of the reasons why powerful scents like camphor, incense sticks, sambrani (or loban) are heavily used in Indian tradition. There are various ways you can incorporate smell to instantly change your mood. Below are some ideas.
- Smell fresh flowers like jasmine or rose for 10 to 15 minutes. To make it more powerful, use your other senses such as sight and touch to see and feel the flower. Flowers are soothing and relaxing.
- Diffuse essential oils like lavender or rose or lemongrass oil in your surroundings and nicely breathe. There is a whole branch of study on essential oils called aromatherapy. These essential oils are extracted from plants and carry therapeutic properties. Various oils are used for physical, emotional and mental healing.
- Light an incense stick. Choose your favorite incense. To make this more effective, you can also pray or just sit in silence. Be sure that your incense stick does not contain harmful chemicals and is eco-friendly.
- Burn camphor. This is a refreshing smell.
These are some ways to use the power of smell to change your mood.
Tip 4: Deep breathing
Our breath and emotions are closely connected. When we go through negative emotions like sadness, irritation and anger, our breath becomes shallow and rapid. And when we do deep breathing, our emotions calm down. This is one of the reasons why breath is given lot of importance in yoga in the form of pranayama. There are various types of pranayama and it is a huge branch of yoga. When your mood is low, just do 5 minutes of deep breathing. While inhaling, your stomach should come out like a balloon and while exhaling, your stomach should go in. Doing this form of deep breathing relaxes you and changes your mood. Below are some pointers to remember while you are practicing deep breathing.
- Be comfortably seated.
- Don’t be in a hurry.
- Go as deep as you can while breathing.
- Focus on your breath.
These pointers make your deep breathing more relaxing and refreshing.
Connecting with earth, listening to good music, smelling the scents and deep breathing are 4 ways of enhancing your mood. You can use any or all of these to change your mood. It is common to have up’s and down’s in life but we need to come out of our bad mood as soon as possible. Life is beautiful and there will always be new opportunities. So, why waste our time by feeling bad about anything? Cheer up and make the most out of your life.
Manjula Ghattamaneni signing off and wishing you peace!
