10 Holistic Approaches to Improve Your Mood

Depression can make you feel unhappy and make life feel kind of gloomy. But it doesn’t have to be this way.  You can improve your mood. Even a very mild depression can affect your vibrancy, energy, relationships, motivation, job performance, wellbeing, and other areas of your life. More serious depression can cause additional concerns, including the possibility of behaviors that are self-destructive like addictions.

If you’re suffering from depression, you are not alone. Depression affects an estimated 16.2 million American adults, which is accounts for 6.7% of all U.S. adults. The numbers are increasing each year.

Good news! You don’t have to live with depression. There are powerful and effective ways you can reduce and avoid depression. Keep reading to find out the 10 holistic approaches to improving your well-being.

1. Mindfulness can lower depression

People who practice mindfulness tend to devote less portions of their brain repeating old stories and agonizing about the past. Instead they devote more time in the present and identifying what’s going on in the present moment, instead of the past.

2. Change up your diet

Since food is can be used as medicine, a proper diet is important to not only to our overall health but also to our brain health. Fresh vegetables, particularly leafy greens are crammed full of phytonutrients that nourish our brains and bodies and provides us with the energy to fuel our well-being. Without a complete diet, dietary supplements do not work as efficiently. Do not believe vitamin pills alone can replace the work of a nourishing diet. If you are used to eating processed foods, make slow changes by making small healthy substitutions.

3. Move your way to a better mood

Physical activity can be a natural anti-depressant by increasing your energy and giving you an inspiring setting. Getting some exercise is a great way to overcome depression without drugs. Your body was created for motion. Regular exercise will keep you strong, fit, and help alleviate chronic stress. Weightlifting, yoga, walking outside, hiking, biking, and other forms of exercise are all great ways to naturally increase endorphins—the “feel good” chemicals in our brain that naturally lift mood—for hours. You can even do exercises from the comfort of your own home with online workouts. Just be sure to keep it fun.

4. Your secret weapon: self-kindness 

If you devote too much of your day reflecting on the past, you will be more likely to become depressed and anxious. Self-kindness decreases negative reflection, thus boosting emotional health by lessening anxiety and depression.

5. Kindness increases compassion

Kindness habits can really change the activity to your left prefrontal cortex, which is a part of your brain that is responsible for positive feelings and strength and helps to improve your mood. This is also the part of the brain that is related to kindness and compassion.

6. Increase determination, reduce inflammation

While there are many reasons why someone would develop depression, it has been linked to an increased inflammatory activation of the immune system affecting both the periphery and the central nervous system (CNS). Realizing and living life with a higher purpose can help to decrease this inflammatory activation, and works to improve your mood and body.

7. Find your social support

Find a social support system to help alleviate the solitude of depression. Your social support can be in the form of friends, family, church members, coworkers, even social media groups.

8. Affirm yourself

Since anxiety and worry are the leading causes of depression, overcome this by speak good words to and about yourself. Choose positive, powerful, present tense affirmations and repeat them to yourself daily. Here are some affirmations to get you started.

9. Take a bath

Need to improve your mood? Take a bath! Not just any old bath but an aromatherapy bath. Adding Epsom salt and certain essential oils to your bath water can decrease stress and increase your mood. Essential oils like, wild orange, lavender, patchouli, frankincense, and rose added to your bath water can help you feel better since these essential oils are known to increase your spirits. You can make a mood boosting bath by blending 1 cup of Epsom salt, 3 drops of wild orange, 3 drops of rose, 3 drops of lavender, and 3 drops of patchouli to your bath water.

10. Try guided meditations

Guided meditation, is a simple way to enter deep relaxation and inner tranquility, reduce stress, and bring about positive personal transformations. Check out this post for more information about guided meditations: The Ultimate Guide to Guided Meditations for Beginners.

Studies and personal experiences have shown that mindfulness, kindness, self-kindness, physical activity, meditation, affirmations, and purpose all have psychological and neurological advantages.

These ten points are only stroking the surface of helping to avoid and decrease the symptoms of and heal from depression. However, counseling, therapy, coaching, and other professional forms of support are extremely helpful, influential, and often essential for appropriate healing and safety.

If you or your loved one is living with depression, understand lifestyle changes can help you decrease the effects of depression. Depression is not a life sentence. Try these six steps as a foundation for increasing your well-being. Just keep moving—onwards and upwards. Joy is yours, just trust it.

Do you or have you faced depression? What approaches are you choosing to decrease your symptoms? Please share your experience in the comments below.