Happy Hour: 10 Ways to Improve Your Mood Instantly

10 Ways to Improve Your Mood Instantly

A long day at the office, a parking ticket, a lost cell phone; there are limitless irritations that can arise throughout the day, souring your mood instantly. And when you’ve been hit by three or four pesky annoyances in a row, it can be hard to rebound! To combat those irritations (large and small), see these 10 new ways to help you perk up promptly.

Faith.com is a new lifestyle site, devoted to filling daily life with grace and inspiration through uplifting articles, useful reviews, powerful photos and videos. Faith.com features family and faith-based lifestyle topics including cooking, entertainment, parenting and health features from across the Web.

Practice Being Aware

Just like hanging out with your friends allows you to get out of your head and into the moment, being aware, or mindful, will help you to be in the moment as well. Not sure how to start? The next time you feel caught up in stress or anxiety, take a few deep breaths. Focus on your breathing and let go of everything around you. Notice your stomach moving in and out as you take in each breath. Do this for at least one minute and then go back to what you were doing with complete mindfulness that what you are doing right now is more important than worrying about tomorrow. Basically, just be present regardless of wherever you are and whoever you are with. You’ll enjoy your days much more and the people you surround yourself with will enjoy you even more as well.

Fake It ‘Til You Make It

Use the old saying, “fake it ‘til you make it” when it comes to being happy. Feel like you’re always in a sour mood? Tell yourself you are in a good mood until you suddenly find yourself in that good mood you’ve been talking about! While we never endorse hiding your feelings, we do support pulling yourself out of that negative place where we sometimes like to dwell.

If you’ve experienced a major traumatic loss, by all means feel your feelings! Don’t pretend you’re doing fine emotionally, when you’re not! However, if you’re angry for no reason other than the fact that you had to get up and go to work this morning, you need to fake your happiness until you become happy!

Give yourself a 24-hour test: count how many times you have a negative thought, complaint or criticism in one day and purposefully work to change those negative thoughts to positive ones. Were you angry the line for coffee took so long this morning? Instead, think about how it gives you an extra minute to do nothing but smell the roses (or in this case, the coffee)!