Banish a Negative Mood

My beautiful wife ‘inspired’ me to write this article. She’s been feeling very down in the dumps recently, so it lead me to look into ways of helping her to combat her stress and banishing that negative mood........

You wake up to the sound of an annoying alarm, you’re dead tired, and you just plain feel out of sorts. Ugh! How do you go out into the world—or even get out of bed!—when you are feeling so blah? Here are some mindful strategies that can help you shake off the blues.

Use Mind-Body Methods

What can you do if you wake up on the wrong side of the bed? Try these strategies. You may think they sound bonkers, but they really can work. (Hanni.....trust me!)

Use Body Scanning. “When you wake up, get in the habit of scanning your body,” advocates Linda Moseley of the Coaching Gym in Hurley. “See if there is tension in your body. Feeling ‘out of sorts’ is negative energy held in the body. Recognise tension as negative energy, and start to know exactly the intensity of this by scoring it on a scale of 1–10 (with 1 being very low negative energy and 10 being major reactive negative energy). Then, do the following: Remember a time when you were at your best (on a positive energy scale of 1–10, choose a time when you would give a high score of at least an 8), and visualize it, making the pictures intense in color and the feeling warm and peaceful. Notice your breathing, and start to inhale on six counts and exhale on six. Do this for the time that it takes you to get out of the bathroom and dressed. Smile and look up with your eyes to the ceiling, and keep them there with the smile for at least 30 seconds.”

Meditate. Mary E. Miriani, an ACSM health/fitness instructor in the US, uses meditation to shift her mood. “I draw my attention to my breath, taking in positive energy with each inhalation and releasing negative energy with each exhalation,” she says. “Sometimes, doing this for 5 minutes is all it takes. If not, I picture a drawer, a cupboard and a window in my mind. I imagine putting small issues in the drawer, larger issues in the cupboard and things that are out of my control out the window, closing each in turn as I leave my problems to be dealt with either at a more appropriate time or by my higher power (those things I have no control over). I envision light pouring into the top of my head and down through my body, filling me with light that I will radiate out to the people I meet that day.”

Pay Attention to Nutrition

This is Hanni’s biggest downfall.....If you ignore your daily nutrition needs, you may find yourself in a bad mood more often than you want. On my wrong-side-of-the-bed days, I am particularly careful about my food selection. It is vital that we eat a great breakfast EVERY day! I need the time every morning to sit down and eat a balanced breakfast of carbohydrate, protein and some fat and reflect on the upcoming day. I rarely miss this routine, but on the odd occasion that I do, I struggle to get myself going, which is frustrating and further exacerbates that morning mood!

Get Active

People who exercise on work days are more productive, happier and suffer less stress than on non-gym days. University of Bristol researchers found that employees who enjoyed a workout before going to work - or exercised during lunchbreaks - were better equipped to handle whatever the day threw at them. It also found that people's general mood improved on days of exercise but they became less calm on non-exercise days.

The research, published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management, is the first of its kind to prove that exercise during work hours has mental, as well as physical benefits. Jo Coulson, Research Associate in the University's Department of Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences, said: 'Our statistical results were very important. “On exercise days, people's mood significantly improved after exercising. Mood stayed about the same on days they didn't, with the exception of people's sense of calm which deteriorated. Critically, workers performed significantly better on exercise days and across all three areas we measured, known as mental-interpersonal, output and time demands.”

For a Consistent Positive Mood

You can proactively work to shift things in your life so that your bad moods occur less often. The only way you can change your mood is to make active attempts to do so. Instead of dwelling on dark or angry feelings, decide to focus your thoughts on coming up with solutions. For example, if the sound of your alarm clock makes you feel like smashing it to bits, don’t continuously think about how much you hate your alarm clock. Instead, shift your thinking to what type of sound you would like to hear or the manner in which you would like to be awakened in the mornings. Then make a plan to get a new alarm clock or wake-up device.

It is hard to stay positive all the time, but these few tips should help you to adjust your mood when things are getting you down!

Leon