eeling like your mood isn’t as good as it could be today? Wanting to give your mood a boost? Then here are 14 ways to help improve your mood. You can try one at a time or a couple of them depending on what works best for your schedule and what your mental state is like today!
I know that when you are having a bad day it can feel overwhelming and exhausting to think about how to improve your mood.
So if you learn some of these ideas then you can help yourself to quickly implement them when you start to feel yourself having a bad mood! So keep reading for my 14 helpful tips for boosting your mood.
14 Ways to Help Improve Your Mood
1)Get fresh air & natural light
Fresh air and sun light are so helpful for brightening up a bummed out mood.
Take a scroll in the park. Or just a quick lap around your neighborhood.
Even sitting out on your patio will assist with helping getting you the fresh air and natural light to help improve your mood.
2) Smile
This follows an actually helpful idea of “fake it till you make it”.
Smiling, even if you are forcing it, helps to bring you joy and help brighten your mood. Think about things that naturally make you smile and focus on that for 10-15 minutes. Even if you REALLY don’t feel like smiling it’s worth trying to make yourself smile for a bit to help your mood.
*bonus tip- I find that putting a little effort into my smile makes me want to smile more! Get some whitening strips or a lip stick you have been wanting to incentivize yourself to smile more.
3) Get correct levels of sleep
Sleep is so important for every aspect of your health.
Mental health is no exception to this!
Getting the correct range of sleep time is incredibly important for generally improving your mental health and stability which will gradually improve your mood. But an important part of this to note is that there is a correct range. For those under 40 and over 10 it is actually recommended to get between 6-7 hours of sleep a night and for those over 40 and under 10 you should aim for 8-9 hours.
Over sleeping can harm your mental health just as much as not sleeping enough can! This is so helpful and one of the most important ways to boost your mood.
For additional tips and tricks for getting the best sleep you can then check out this guide: Tips and Tricks for Better Sleep.
4) Listen to upbeat music to put a smile on your face and improve your mood
Upbeat music is great tool for improving your mood any time of the day.
If you have the opportunity to spend some time building up a positive and upbeat playlist on your Spotify account then that is one of the best ways to do this!
If not, then just search for anything like “upbeat” or “happy” and thousands of already made playlists will appear.
It’s important to try and focus on songs with positive messages in addition to more upbeat tones, this will help maximize the effect that music can have on improving your mood.
5) Get laughing with a comedy
Similar to smiling, laughing even if you do not want to can help trick your brain into improving it’s mood.
So put on your favorite comedy movie or find a stand up routine on Netflix. You will potentially want to watch a couple if you have the time! Getting in a good laugh is good for your mood temporarily and of course an enjoyable experience to have any day.
6) Call a loved one to help improve your mood
Calling a loved one is a fantastic way to help bring you joy and improve your mood.
Especially if calling that person will also bring them joy! For example, calling your grandparents or a niece that loves you. Bringing others joy will help your mood as well as reminding you of some of the caring people in your life that want you to be happy.
7) Help someone else out
Helping out others is a terrific way to spread the love and help put a smile on yours (and others) faces.
If you have the time and resources available to go formally volunteer than that is fantastic. If you find this to be a helpful way for you to feel better than you should consider signing up as a regular volunteer with an organization that you find truly brings you joy. It is an absolute win-win to help others and improve your mood.
If that level of formal volunteering isn’t an option then consider something as simple as asking an elderly neighbor if they need any help around their house/lawn. Or go to a local animal shelter and offer to spend some time loving and walking the dogs!
8) Get moving
Getting physical movement releases endorphins that seriously improves your mood.
Daily activity even if it is just 20 minutes will help to release those endorphins. So take a walk, do a like home work out, or go ahead and commit to an awesome gym session.
The morning is an ideal time to get daily activity which can have a long term positive impact on your mood. For more information on getting up earlier in the morning and building a positive morning routine
9) Do some self-care to improve your mood
Self care as basic as it sounds is one of the best ways to bring you happiness.
So take some time to pamper yourself a little bit.
Get your nails done, do a spa night, put on some comfy pj’s and watch your favorite movie. Anything that makes YOU happy. Do not worry about spending time on yourself because you deserve it.
Take at least an hour to take care of yourself.
10) Reflect on recent positives
Grab your favorite notebook and write down 5 positive things that have happened in the past
They can be major or more minor positive experience that has happened to you. Anything positive.
Taking this time to reflect on positives will remind you of positive aspects of your life and help pull your brain out of it’s rut. This is actually a great routine to do once a month or even once a week, especially if it brings you joy and helps improve your mood.
11) Declutter your living areas
Decluttering your living spaces will help to not only make your living space a better place but it will also help improve your mood through getting rid of things that don’t bring you any happiness.
12) Write down your frustrations in life
And then let them go! Sometimes it is incredibly helpful for improving your mood to fully understand what pushed you into a bad mood to start with.
Grab a notebook and your favorite pen and start jotting down what you think might be holding you back from your mood improving. Once you really get it figured out what is hurting your mood it will give you a better idea of how to address them so that you can start really, truly improving your mood.
13) Create a happy space
Grab your favorite blanket and some relaxing candles or go into your bedroom and make the bed and clean up the area around you. Whatever you would consider a happy space.
Creating an environment that brings you joy will help boost your mood.
14) Limit social media time to improve your mood
Monitoring and limiting your social media time can have a lot of mental health benefits that can help to significantly improve your mood.
Spending too much time on social media can really mess with your mood. Seeing everyone else’s highlight reel can really bring down your mood and make it difficult for the other ideas to be effective. Remember- social media is not an accurate representation of others lives.
Finally, these are tips and ideas for improving your MOOD. If you feel that your mental health is in a difficult place or are experiencing any thoughts of hurting yourself or other please seek out immediate professional assistance!
Sincerely hope you are experiencing a better mood today!
