The end of the semester is upon us. Woo-hoo!! And this is typically when self-care starts to take a serious back seat. The key to maintaining something close to a positive life balance is knowing how to implement simple and doable stress-busting strategies. By integrating these into your daily life, you can start providing yourself with generous doses of calmness and positivity throughout your day.
The mood-boosting effects of these go-to stress-busters can help you stay grounded and better equipped to cope with the many stressors of college life. Here are 3 mood-boosting strategies that you can add to your stress-busting toolkit right away!
1) Shake it Out!
Get out of your head and into your body through movement that feels good.
You’ve probably heard about the wealth of scientific research supporting the link between exercise and mood enhancement. Yet for many of us, the notion of exercise can feel daunting and tedious. What we often don’t appreciate is that even the simplest movements can lift our spirits.
You don’t have to run for half an hour (or even 10 minutes) to experience the countless benefits of movement. Experts have found that within just 5 minutes of moderate movement, we already start to experience mood enhancement (Weir, 2011). This means that taking a few minutes of your day to walk, dance around your bedroom, do a short yoga flow, or even get chores done can instantly boost your mood.
What if you’re feeling tired? Well, your body may actually be craving movement in those moments – especially if you’re feeling mentally fatigued or saturated.
So next time you notice that you’re feeling lethargic, or that your eyes are worn out from all that screen time, try getting up and moving for just a few minutes. Rather than forcing yourself to engage in any kind of intense exercise, just explore some simple movement that is accessible to you wherever you are.
The most important thing is that it feels enjoyable to you. Treat this like an experiment and notice how your energy levels shift as you move. If you like what you see (or rather, feel!) then make a commitment to integrate these mini movements into your day whenever you catch yourself stuck in your head or sinking into a spiral of stress.
2) Smile!
Your smile is your superpower. Brighten your day by brightening your face through a simple smile.
This strategy may seem deceivingly simple, but it works – I promise! Research has found that through a mechanism called facial feedback, we can actually manipulate our facial muscles into evoking or amplifying certain emotions, including happiness (Baumeister & Bushman, 2017). In this sense, we can actually reverse engineer how we feel – how cool is that?
We typically assume that a smile is a result or reflection of happiness, but the science of facial feedback suggests that happiness can sometimes be a result of smiling. The same mechanism applies to more negative emotions as well. Frowning or screwing up our facial muscles can just as easily dampen our mood.
The invitation here is not to smile round the clock (that would be unrealistic and let’s be honest, a little weird!) but rather, to bring awareness to the signals that your face and body are sending to your mind via your facial expressions, gestures, and posture.
The way we sit and carry our bodies also has the capacity to influence our mood. If you find yourself slouching often, try sitting upright and rolling your shoulders back and down. This slight adjustment can have a big impact. Top it off with a bright smile, and you’ve got a better mood in the making! Furthermore, your smile will probably touch and lift the spirits of those around you, creating a ripple effect of positivity.
3) An Attitude of Gratitude
No matter how hard life gets, there is always something to be grateful for. Each time you take steps to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, you are investing in your health and wellbeing.
In the midst of stressful times, it’s easy to forget all the blessings in our lives. An active practice of gratitude is one of the most powerful ways to shift from a state of stress and scarcity to one of contentment and abundance. Each time you notice yourself thinking that you don’t have enough time, energy, or resources to complete a particular task, try countering these thoughts with a list of all the things that you do have.
A mental list can certainly be effective, but the act of writing down what you’re grateful for can have even more of an impact. Creating a gratitude journal provides you with an invaluable tool that you can turn to each time you find yourself feeling drained or deficient in some way. The lists that you create in your journal will serve as a constant reminder of what adds meaning to your life and is important to you.
There will definitely be times when you struggle to authentically feel gratitude. When you’re under pressure or have experienced a significant setback, making a gratitude list can seem futile or forced. In these moments, reflect on the simplest and most basic things that we often take for granted.
Think about the miracle of your body, and all the hard work it does to keep you going. Think about the gift of having access to a college education, as stressful as it may be at times. And of course, think about all the incredible people in your life who support and value you. Gratitude is the gift that keeps on giving. As soon as you begin to reflect on all the abundance in your life, you’ll find that your list will start to rapidly expand.