7 Great Ways to Boost Your Mood

I originally wrote this as a guest article for Peter's Possibility Change Blog. I hope you enjoy it.

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try to avoid it, we sink into a funk or less than productive mood.

We drag our feet, feel unmotivated, and lose perspective. When that happens, we can either roll with it, hoping it will wear off, or we can apply strategies to counteract it.

Here are 7 helpful suggestions to boost your mood:

1. Get some exercise. Exercise is one of the quickest ways to pick yourself up because it stimulates circulation and releases the happy hormones, otherwise known as endorphins. Before you know it, you will be ready to take on the world, or at least you'll feel that way!

2. Have a catnap. If you're worn out and too tired to exercise, perhaps a nap is in order. It's surprising how refreshing a little fifteen - or twenty-minute rest can be. Also, when we nap, new ideas, insights, and solutions emerge from our subconscious. Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, and John F. Kennedy were all known to take catnaps to rejuvenate themselves.

3. Listen to uplifting music. Music is the ultimate mood changer! It can take you from the depths of listlessness to the heights of exhilaration. As Plato observed: "Music and rhythm find their way into the secret places of the soul."

4. Take a break and have a cup of tea or coffee. There is a reason coffee breaks are mandatory at most workplaces. Of course, you need not drink tea or coffee, but stepping away from what you were doing gives you a fresh new outlook, and when you get back to it, you're ready to roll.

5. Focus on the positive. When we get involved in a project, and things aren't going well, or when we're having a bad day, we tend to become negative and distort the situation. We forget what has gone well and what is working. When that happens, it's a good idea to re-focus and look at what is going right, what you have accomplished, and how far you've come. It will give you the boost you need to keep going.

See article: How to Think Positively

6. Talk to someone. Expressing your feelings to a friend or colleague can be therapeutic and a way to get you out of your mood. When someone empathizes or commiserates with us, we feel that the burden is not all ours to bear and that someone understands what we're going through. Knowing that others care or have had similar feelings gives us a pickup, which helps motivate us to move on.

7. Switch direction completely. Sometimes, getting in a rut or down mood can result from spending too much time on one particular task. In those cases, you need a different type of break. The best thing to do is walk away from what you're doing and engage in something completely different.

If you've been working at a computer all day, take a break and go shopping, visit a friend, or clean out your closet (a popular choice, I'm sure). When you get back to the task at hand, you will have a new, fresh mindset.

As you can see, we are not at the mercy of our moods. When we get stuck (and we all do at times), we can lift ourselves, rise above what's momentarily dragging us down, and forge ahead.

The bottom line is that you can change your mood! Since you are in charge of your thinking, you're in charge of your moods.