Drive in the Rain

“When it rains, it pours.”

A statement that holds a lot of emotion during rainy season in India. You never know how much will it rain. Sometimes it pours, sometime it just gives a short peek and passes by for us to enjoy the rainbow. In India, power cuts, roads filled with water, unseen manholes are opened, people driving in hurry to reach their destination, couples in love sharing hot food to the sides of the road, people removing helmets to feel the strong connection to earth, some standing by for it to pass and many more.

As a bike rider, I enjoy driving during the time it rains. I don’t care if it pours or drizzles, there is something about that moment that holds me close to it. The smell of petrichor, the slow drive, the sound of rain hitting the skin, and music just makes this meal heavenly. The destination may not be fulfilling but it’s the journey that fills me with a sense of joy. 

As a person, I connect with mother earth on a deeper level during rain. It gives me a feeling of belonging to a deeper purpose. Mother Earth causes rain to hydrate herself and add water to it’s lovely citizens. As a student, it’s my best bet if the college would be cancelled. The sound of rain on a Monday morning always lifts my spirits because I knew school/college would be cancelled. Now, the same rain helps me find peace from the worldly pains.

8 Foods For Our Moods

Everything has a vibration. Whatever you do,say,eat and drink has an effect on you. It either builds you up or breaks you down without your knowledge. An unhealthy diet comprising of less vegetables and organic food can effect your mood drastically. Other than obesity, It also attracts sadness, frustration and negativity as a whole.

Having organic food and a balanced diet has a contrary effect.  It makes us feel energetic, refreshed, alive and happy. In simple words, it boosts our mood and lifts our vibes. It assists us in attracting what we desire . Good health and good mind are very closely related to each other. Let us look into some of these uplifting foods:

 

Green Leafy Vegetables: Leafy Vegetables are organic and the fresher they are, the better. Spinach, chard and other dark leafy vegetables contain magnesium which positively effects serotonin and boosts our mood. Lack of magnesium can cause a risk of anxiety and depression.

Beans: As protein packed foods, beans contribute to our mental health through the fibre present in them. Fibre helps regulate blood sugar which  in turn makes our mood better. Beans are also an excellent source of magnesium, iron, potassium and phosphorus.

Bananas: Bananas appear in every list of food concerning mood boosts. They are high in Vitamin B6 which synthesize feel good neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine. Bananas consist both sugar and fibre. Sugar, when paired with fibre, releases slowly into our bloodstream allowing for stable blood sugar levels which stabilizes our mood. Low blood sugar levels may lead to mood swings.

Bananas with a green coloured peel are a great source of probiotics which is a kind of fibre which helps feed healthy bacteria to our gut.

Berries: Berries are packed with a variety of antioxidants. Blueberries are rich in the antioxidant flavonoids which assist in activating brain pathways associated with reduced inflammation and risk of depression. Blueberries and strawberries contain a compound called polyphenolics which improves concentration, memory and attention span.

 

Salmon: Salmons are rich in omega-3, fatty acids. Especially DHA and EPA. Omega acids are anti inflammatory and are necessary for brain and nervous system development. EPA and DHA have shown to eliminate depression and they can effect our personality and impulse control. Salmons are also high in proteins, Vitamin B12 and D. Vitamin D is linked to better and stable mood. Vitamin B12 on the other hand works in cooperation with folate to help convert amino acids into neurotransmitters which are found in low levels among depression patients.

Almonds: Almonds are rich in protein  including tyrosine for neurotransmitter production It also contains Vitamin E, magnesium and fibre. As an antioxidant, Vitamin E can help fight radical damage in the brain and has shown to improve memory and cognition.Almonds and walnuts have calcium which can help offset hormonal imbalance in women and decrease the symptoms of depression, anxiety, irritability and impaired memory.

Cashews on the other hand, are rich in tryptophan, a neuro chemical which our body turns into serotonin. Vitamin B6 and magnesium present in cashews help to control mood swings. A handful of unsalted cashews are just enough to get the necessary nutrients.

However, not everytime one may feel like indulging in organic foods. In such cases, one may try chocolates! Dark chocolates, to be specific.  Rich in many mood boosting compounds, its sugar is a quick source of fuel to the brain which in return may improve our mood. It helps reducing anxiety and improves the conditions of clinical depression. Dark chocolates with large amounts of cacao can have positive effects on stress levels and even the immunity. It releases feel good compounds such as caffeine and N-acylethanolamine which is chemically similar to cannabinoids that is linked to an improved mood.

Coffee: For some of us, Coffee is a mood saver. Indeed it is. Its high level of caffeine and chlorogenic acid boosts our mood. The caffeine increases our attention by preventing adesnosine from attaching to the brain receptors that promote tiredness.The list of such food goes on. Some examples are oats,lentils,eggs,herbs,spices, fermented foods and tea.

The list of such food goes on. Some examples are oats,lentils,eggs,herbs,spices, fermented foods and tea.

 

There are  lists of healthy foods,habits,lifestyle,behaviour and practices . What makes them healthy is the vibes and energy which they carry. It is known amongst many that how a vegetarian diet can help to calm down a person. How exercises boosts our mood and how meditation helps us understand ourselves better.

All of these practices are healthy because they help to promote good vibes in us. When we come in contact with something which vibrates at a higher frequency, it improves our vibrations . When we inculcate activities with such  high frequency vibrations, we improve our own vibes. Thereby, attracting positivity.

How To Quickly Improve Your Mood

While we’re in the midst of life’s stresses, we sometimes just want to feel happy immediately. Not only do studies indicate that cheerful individuals have many advantages in life as a result of their happiness, but happiness also just feels good.

Every area of your life is affected by your mood and mental health, from how you feel about yourself to your relationships with others and your physical health.

Though it may appear like happiness is just around the corner with a better career, a healthier relationship or a nicer house, the euphoria that comes with those accomplishments might be ephemeral. Furthermore, you don’t need to make major changes to be joyful; you can experience happiness even with doing miniscule task

There are several strategies to keep your brain and emotions in peak condition. Exercise, good nutrition, and stress-reduction strategies such as meditation or mindfulness may maintain your brain — and your body — in peak condition.

How to Quickly Improve Your Mood

Listen To Music

Music is believed to have the capacity to affect one’s mood, making it a great stress reliever. In reality, music has been utilised therapeutically in hospitals for pain management and mental well-being. Music has also been related to happiness, particularly specific genres of music, according to research. Music, particularly music with a major tone, is associated with reduced stress and feelings of enjoyment.

Incorporate Laughter In Your Life

As it’s so true, the saying “Laughter is the best medicine” has become a cliche. We know that laughing has several benefits other than improving one’s mood. Laughter has been shown to boost immunity and extend life. Laughter can not only be helpful for elevating your mood but the mere anticipation of laughter has been shown to have advantages.

Change Your Mindset

Changing your expectations and comparisons is a quick and easy approach to improve your attitude. Rather than focusing on what you don’t have, consider all you do have. There will always be those that will have more than you in some aspect of life, but so many would have less than you. Enjoy the advantages of thankfulness and shift your perspective on what you have, and you will feel happier right away.

Do a Good Deed

Many people have found that helping others makes them happy. Indeed, studies suggest that individuals who volunteer have higher levels of health and pleasure. This is believed to be true for a number of reasons. The first is that generosity itself has several advantages, including an increased degree of emotional well-being. If you are doing something kind for someone else, your attention shifts away from yourself and your issues and onto others and making them happy. A smile that you put on somebody else’s face is an infectious smile that spreads contagious happiness.

Practice Meditation

Although meditation appears to be more of a stress management strategy than one that may increase happiness, it has been shown to be an efficient approach for both. Meditation’s stress-reduction effects are well-known, but research also suggests that regular meditation can lead to higher levels of happiness.

If your attempts to improve your mood aren’t helping or you’re having difficulty giving yourself a very much needed boost, consider seeking help from a  professional therapist. If your mood has been low for much more than two weeks or is affecting your relationships, job, or education, speaking with a therapist can help.

Tips to get through a Bad day

Not everyday is a perfect day. Not everything will be perfect as you think. One day will be the best day, you accomplish all your targets and will have a happy ending. Another day will be worst, every plan fails and every second a new problem arises. What do you do if your day is going rough? How you handle yourself if you get angry and irritated by everything that’s going around. You can only wish for a restart button. Better thing is to try to handle everything with peace even though you are loosing it. Dragging yourself towards positivity when life is trying to push you back, will be a good strategy to follow for your own good. You can try these things if you are having a unpleasant day.

go for a walk

To get things out of your head, you can choose a lonely walk. Just walk by a roadside or in a park, whatever is good for you. Just get out of the place which is making you feel unpleasant. If you can, just go for a picnic. watching the outside world will make you realize that you are not the only one with struggles. You may get inspired by some stranger or the busy world, will take out the problem from your head.

just breath in

The day may get hectic and bring you discomfort. When you feel as if you are inside a trap, sit back and try to relax. Try to concentrate on your breathing, may be some pranayama, and take a deep breath. Concentrating on your breath relaxes you and shifts your attention from the tension. This may be is a very short term solution, but this will help you rethink and think better.

get a treat for yourself

Why to have treat only when you are happy. Get a treat to make yourself happy. Grab some coffee or get a pastry or a cake. Even you can bake for yourself. Make your favorite drink or visit your favorite restaurant.

just write it out

What’s bothering you all day? let that flow out through your words inside a journal. Write about the whole day. Write about all the reasons you think of, for the bad mood. Write about all your feelings. Let them be stay inside a book rather be inside your head. This will help you have a better perspective about the things. You will get to analyze what went wrong and what you should do now. It will help you take better decisions.

let music takeover you

If you are a person who loves music, what is better to deal with the bad day other than music! Just put your headphones on and let the world be on mute. Or just sing for yourself. Play any instrument if you can. Sing as if nobody around you. Dance on your favorite song. Listen to all motivational songs and cheer yourself up.

talk to the people you love

Why do you have bestfriends! call them. Talk to your buddy who will complain along with you about the bad life. Talk and laugh through your bad fortune. Or they will help you get out of the problem. Talk to your family. They may not have a best solution ready in hand, but talking to them will make you feel lighter.

trust you hobby

Your hobby will be a best partner. Just read a book or cook. Clean your house or draw a bird. Watch a movie or a fun Vedio. They will help you get out of bad mood.

At last, we all know nothing stays forever. Then a small problem should not be affecting you too much. Be happy for what you have. Be grateful and graceful. Remember a non living thing will never get problems, only living things do. Try to solve the problem and find out what caused it if you can. Just let a day be a day, not more than that.

HOW TO BRIGHTEN YOUR MOOD

From Sad to Glad!

Everyone has one or two moments during the day when they think about something and their mood instantly changes from good to bad. For a few minutes we process that feeling and could either go two way: you would either ignore the thought and continue with your work or you would dwell on it and make it worse. Literally anything can ruin our mood if we let it. So, if you find yourself in a bad mood more often then you must some of these mood lifting ideas mentioned below:

  • Deep Breathing: It is proven to calm your nerves down and bring your mind into a state of cam. While doing that you will have a little time to reflect on your mood and you might even let go of the negativity.
  • Try taking a Walk: If you find yourself sliding into a bad mood, put on your sneakers and go take a walk. Don’t time it just keep walking and walk until you make peace with your thoughts. Walking is a great source of distraction.
  • Have a Chocolate: Chocolate is a beloved dessert for all age groups. I don’t think we need a reason to have some of that deliciousness. It will 100% put you in a good mood and all you will be focusing on is the how much your soul is enjoying a piece of your chocolate bar.
  • Talk it Out: If your bad mood is because of a friend or a colleague, then the best thing would be to talk it out with someone who is rational. You can either sort out your differences directly with the person or you could take help of another friend to let go of all the bad thoughts.
  • Take a Nap: A nap is the solution to all your problems. During that time you are detached from the outside world and once you are well rested you’ll have a whole new way of processing your mood. So, snuggle up in your bed and let go.
  • Exercise: Exercise is a proven outlet for anger. If you are in a bad mood you must exercise and you will feel that blood pumping through your veins, it could be a great distraction because who doesn’t feel good about themselves after a great sweat session.
  • Cook your Comfort Food: Food is the ultimate mood up lifter. Cooking is therapeutic and even if you don’t know how to cook, once you start cooking you will be distracted and that is a good thing. Also, when you cook for yourself , you are automatically putting yourself in a good mood and in no time you will forget all about those bad feelings that overcame your mind.
  • Retail Therapy: It is said that money cannot buy happiness and that is true but it can buy you a short lived sense of satisfaction which is enough to put away all that negativity. You can either go buy some clothes or you could go grocery shopping too.
  • Do Something Recreational: Someone who is in a bad mood often has a hard time focusing on things that are important. In order to gain that focus back you can do something recreational like draw, sing, write in a journal, read your favorite book or maybe dance it out. You will feel instantly refreshed and you can focus on the important things again.
  • Rearrange your Wardrobe: It is always good to let out the anger and do something productive with it. The most productive thing you could do is rearranging you wardrobe or maybe cleaning the house. A clean and freshly arranged surrounding will definitely uplift your mood.

We all have days when nothing feels good and all we want to do is curl up in bed and sulk about it but in no way is that healthy. We can easily overcome those feelings if we channel them into something we life and in the end you will feel much much better about your day. Some days are definitely better than others but if we try a little harder we can have more good days and lesser bad ones. Just don’t hide your emotions, accept them and do something to make them go away. Soon you will be the happiest person you know and that’s the ultimate goal, right?

How to feel better in a pandemic?

We often feel low, especially during the pandemic. We cannot go out and have fun nor can we physically go to school or work. Yes, the situation is slowly getting better with the distribution of vaccines but it is still a lot to take on our mental health.

So, here are some things you can do in your own house and instantly feel better:

Taking a long hot bath: Our skin releases endorphins in response to warm water. This is why you must have noticed that before taking a shower we tend to be lazy and don’t feel like taking it but once we are in the shower we don’t plan on coming out.

 Make your shower more fun by listening to songs and lighting candles. If you are someone who has a bathtub you can add bath bombs, bath salts, flowers, etc. If you don’t have a bathtub you can use a shower melt which is like a bath bomb but for showers.

Treat for the skin: Now that we are done with our bath. It is time for treating our skin. Doing a small activity like applying a face mask or exfoliating your skin would make you feel good. This will also hydrate your skin and remove the excess oils from it. We often feel great after doing skincare because our skin feels great and we feel relaxed.

Getting ready: just because we don’t have anywhere to go doesn’t mean you can’t look good at home. An issue I faced in the lockdown was not being able to get ready as often. Getting ready is more than just looking good, it also makes us feel more confident. So, wear a good outfit, even if you plan on staying home.

Make the environment cozy: we have to stay in our house most of the time during the pandemic. So, find any place in your house and turn it into your spot. You can decorate it by putting on fairy lights and wallpapers. You can then read your books there, paint or watch movies.

You can also switch things up in your house, move in some furniture or decorate the house. You can do this by adding pictures, posters, or paintings to your walls. You can also add in some indoor plants. Making the house look more lively will automatically brighten the mood. It will also give you a nice change because we are bored seeing the same four walls of our house.

Meditate: we often hear how effective meditating is but we never really try it on our own. Listen to calm music while you meditate. Even doing this for 3-5 minutes will make you feel good.

Cook: I am aware that not everyone is good at it. So, you can try making simple things like a mug cake. It is fun and eating it would brighten your mood.

Watch something light: when you are feeling low I would not recommend watching anything serious. Watch something which will instantly give you light laughter, and improve your mood.

Talk to your friends: during the pandemic, we cannot meet our friends, so video call them instead. Trust me there is nothing better than talking to friends. Whenever I talk to my friends over a video call, it not only brightens my mood up but I keep laughing the entire time. So, call the people who instantly lift your mood.

When it is raining outside

Rainy day gives us the perfect opportunity to relax and unwind and catch with the things when you are in home. There are several other things which you can do to take a day off from your busy work schedule and have more me-time.

Here are the things which one can do that will surely lift up the mood when the skies are gloomy –

1. READ A GOOD BOOK

A rainy day is the perfect time to engulf yourself in reading books which are waiting for their turn since days in that old cup-board. In this rat race people hardly get any time to read books and hence, it can be your good buddy during this time. You can curl up under your blanket with your favorite book and enjoy!

2. BAKING OR COOKING

When it’s cold and wet outside, get creative in kitchen and cook something which you always wanted to and saved those cooking videos in YouTube.

3. BINGE WATCH

Enjoy an afternoon or evening of relaxation, watching your favorite TV programs. Try to watch a good comedy for a nice laugh or a nostalgic show you enjoy.  There’s nothing better than curling up on the sofa when it’s a rainy day and watching your favorite show or sitcom.

4. WRITE SOMETHING

If you’re a blogger why not take the time to work on your blog. Whether that’s writing a new post, updating an old one, If you are a beginner then you can just start by maintaining a diary or write something which is on your mind and make it creative.

5. PLAY BOARD/VIDEO GAMES

Depending upon your choice, if you have friends with you then surely you can go for playing board games otherwise you can play online games with your friends like Ludo King which is trending.

6. LISTEN TO SONGS OR AUDIO STORIES

Now this is my personal favorite, there is nothing which can beat the feeling of curling under a blanket with a cup of your favorite hot drink and listening to your favorite songs or audio stories accompanied with the sound of rain at the window.

7. GET CRAFTY

Find a fun craft to put together if you enjoy doing crafts. If you’re not familiar with crafting, search the Internet for crafting ideas and start enjoying it.

8. SOCIAL NETWORKING

If you’re feeling alone and you’re unable to visit with a friend or loved one, why not get social with social networking? If you have a social media account such as Facebook, Whatsapp or Instagram say hello to a friend or two and catch up on news and photos.