Ready for science-based ways to boost your mood with positive emotions while you decrease negative emotions so you can enjoy life more?
Life isn’t always easy or fun or what you thought it would be like. Sometimes negative things happen that result in feeling negative and a bad mood is what you experience. Other times, you make a decision that doesn’t turn out how you would like. And at other times, you might feel down for no apparent reason. When this happens, we know we want to feel better quickly. The confusing thing is that it’s often difficult to think of even simple things to do to boost your mood. Luckily, psychological research has shown which practices can reliably boost your mood.
Here are a few to check out:
1. Practice gratitude
One of the best ways to start feeling better fast is to practice gratitude. Gratitude is said to be the parent of all virtues and often leads to an optimistic perspective. You can write in a gratitude journal or make a gratitude list to remind you of what’s important. These simple practices are quick and boost your mood – fast!
2. Cultivate self-compassion
Self-compassion can help you feel better about yourself. You treat yourself better when you’re not as judgmental of your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. You can boost self-compassion by writing down things you’re proud of and reminding yourself that you’re always learning and evolving. Even when things don’t work out as you hoped, a small nugget of wisdom can help boost your mood. Considering all of the good things about yourself encourages you to treat yourself with kindness.
3. Boost self-confidence
When you are confident, you’re more likely to take the necessary actions you need to take to improve your life. As a result of this boost in motivation, it is easier to be in a better mood. One way to boost self-confidence is by reminding yourself of your strengths and positive qualities. Think about your strengths. It doesn’t have to be a huge accomplishment — maybe you’re a great baker, the video game champ in your friend group, or you’re good at your job. Acknowledging what you are good at can help boost your mood.
4. Change your point of view
Research shows that future pacing or looking at your current life from a point of view in the future can decrease your negative emotional experience and help you feel better now. So, if you’ve experienced a difficult situation that leads to feeling down, imagining your life after there’s some distance between now and then can be helpful. This perspective helps you feel hopeful about the future and boost your mood. Tell yourself about all the great stuff your future self is doing. Acknowledge that you’ll move through this challenging situation; on the other side, you’ll gain more experience and self-knowledge.
5. Notice the positive things
Many studies show that focusing your attention on the positive improves well-being. This doesn’t mean “focus on the positive and forget the negative” – that’s just not practical. Instead, acknowledging the current situation and what’s difficult and, at the same time, also recognizing the good things in life is the focus. A realistic, well-rounded perspective helps boost your mood and gives you something to look forward to.
In sum
When life happens, like it does for all of us, and you’re feeling down, it’s often difficult to think about what would help. This short article gives some simple and easy steps to boost your mood. Remember that self-compassion will help you feel better with more authenticity than negative thinking could ever do!