Mental Health

Simple ways to lift your mood

Looking for ways to lift your mood? It’s natural to feel down from time to time – no flower blooms the whole year round – but there are a number of helpful things we can do to lift our mood.

From getting outside to surrounding ourselves with uplifting scents, we share a selection of some of our favourite mood boosters.

How to lift your mood

Get moving

While exercise might be one of the last things we feel like doing when we’re down in the dumps, getting moving is a simple way to lift your mood.

When we exercise, it releases feel-good chemicals in our brain. This includes endorphins, which can help to relieve stress, along with dopamine and serotonin. These both play an important role in regulating our mood.

But this doesn’t mean you have to slog it out doing exercise that you don’t enjoy. The key is to find something that you love. Whether it be an early morning stroll, yoga in the evening or a boogie around the living room, doing something you enjoy is guaranteed to get those feel-good vibes flowing.

Feel-good food

As we mentioned earlier, serotonin plays an important role in regulating our mood. But did you know that up to 90% of this helpful hormone is produced in the gut?

Serotonin is produced in our bodies as the result of a chemical reaction involving an essential amino acid called tryptophan, which our bodies do not naturally produce. This means we have to get tryptophan from our diets. A small body of research has suggested that as well as having a knock-on effect on our mood by enabling serotonin production, tryptophan may also help to alleviate aggression.

Enjoying a healthy and varied diet can help to support our gut health and as a result lift our mood. Find out more about the links of gut and mental health here.

Listen to Liz’s podcast discussing the links between gut health and the brain

Enjoy the great outdoors

Feeling overwhelmed a lot lately? Getting outside may be the answer, especially if you have access to green space.

Research shows that we’re predisposed to like the natural greens associated with plant life. Exposure to green spaces lifts our mood and sense of wellbeing.

Research also shows that looking at green foliage increases our attention span and concentration levels. The shapes and patterns you see in nature (such as tree branches and patterns on a leaf) also help our brains to feel wakeful but relaxed.

Attract too many insects to enjoy the outdoors? Enjoy a spritz of Alfresco to keep yourself protected, while smelling good! Save 20% off your order with the code LIZLOVES.

Uplifting scents

Scent can be a powerful thing – evoking memories long since forgotten, and transporting us to distant places.

Our sense of smell has an immediate effect on the way we feel. This is because our olfactory system directly links to our limbic system – the part of the brain that controls our moods and emotions.

Essential oils can be a wonderful way to tap into these mood-lifting powers. For example, bergamot has a really beautiful aroma that can help lift our mood and focus our thoughts, while rosemary can help to stimulate our mind.