Dark after 4 pm, cold, damp… This is November, and we have to get used to the unfriendly weather for another 3-4 months at least! So instead of complaining about it every day, let’s see what we can actually do to cheer ourselves up!
1. Flowers
Flowers remind us of spring and summer. Make sure you have flowers at home and at your workplace. You can buy one in a very small pot, so it will fit on your work desk. Choose the ones of your favorite color, or the ones which bring some nice memories back. They will definitely make you smile whenever you look at them.
2. Summer Hits
Buy or download summer hits and listen to them while driving or on the bus. You can make a track list with summer hits of different years, or you can choose the year you have the best summer memories from, and download all its summer hits. People might look at you strange while you are smiling in the rain, but you got what you wanted, feel the summer, and that’s the most important.
3. Smile and laugh!
When the sun is shining, we smile involuntarily. Now when there is no sun, we still want to smile and laugh, because it is good for our health.
Smile is contagious. So make sure you avoid grumpy people and try to be around happy, smiling people. Being around them will give you lots of positive energy and will make you smile too.
Go to Youtube and search for your favorite comedy. Whether it is Friends, or Mr. Bean, or Tom&Jerry, give yourself 10 minutes, and just watch and laugh. You will see how different you will feel after only 10 minutes!
Laughter really does have healing power, whatever our problem is.
4. Choose the right food!
Many people are emotional eaters, which means they eat more either when they are happy, or unhappy, or even when stressed. And guess what? Most of the people tend to eat more when they are down.
Now, if you go to a chipper, then very soon you will be in an even worse mood. Filling your bag with chocolate bars and then eating them will only have a short term positive effect, and then you’ll be down again. Not even to mention the other negative effects to your health.
Chocolate – yes, raw cocoa powder really is a mood booster food, beside its plenty other health benefits.
Here are two very easy tips for a home-made chocolate treat, ready in 5 minutes:
a/. What you’ll need: 1 pack (100 gsm) raw flaked almonds, 1-2 tablespoons raw cocoa powder, healthy liquid sweetener (honey, agave nectar, maple syrup), little bit of water.
Put the almond flakes in a bowl, add the cocoa powder (start with 1 tablespoon, and then add more if you wish, depending how ‘chocolatey’ you prefer it), add 1-2 table spoons of your chosen sweetener and then start to stir it with a spoon. You can add 1-2 table spoons of water to make it easier to stir and to loosen the texture.
The amount of sweetener and cocoa powder is absolutely up to you and your taste buds.
Extra tip: Top it with some fresh strawberries and bananas, or any other fruit. Enjoy! 🙂
b/. What you’ll need: blender, 2-3 bananas, 1-2 tablespoon raw cocoa powder, sweetener if needed (in case the banana is not ripe enough), healthy ones of course: xylitol or one of the above mentioned ones.
Blend bananas and cocoa powder together, and add sweetener if needed. If it is too thick for you, add water or rice milk. So easy, healthy and yummi! 🙂
You can also use dried dates to sweeten anything when you use the blender.
5. Sunbed
Now this one is not the healthiest tip I admit. However, if not overused, it could be good for you. It is not the best for your skin if getting too much of it. You might have a nice tan but your skin will age earlier than you would like it to.
So when day after day no sunshine at all and you feel really down, give it a go. 5-10 minutes only, and you will feel like coming back from a sun-holiday.
As I said before, make sure you don’t visit the tanning shop too often.
6. Production
Sounds weird? Keep reading. Rain, cold, bad mood, you feel like not doing anything. Now this is the point where you should find the thing you have to do but have been postponing for a while. Is it doing your administration? Is it cleaning the shelves in the kitchen? Whatever that is, if you do it and finish the job, the satisfaction will be such a great feeling that you will forget about all the bad things straight away.
Production, and seeing your product, is something which brings real happiness. Try it and you’ll see!
7. Last but not least: Exercise!
The lower you feel, the higher the benefit will be. Awful weather? Think about the sunny feeling after your class or after your exercise. Not to mention the countless of other benefits of exercising beside the mood-booster one.
I’m always proud of my Zumba students when coming to the class in horrible weather, and the feedback I receive is that it is always worth it 🙂
So try the things above whenever you need some healthy mood-booster and weather-fighting ideas.
And book your place to one of my ZUMBA classes in Dublin 2, Dublin 6 and Dublin 8. CLICK HERE!