Your mood is one of the most important mental things we need to keep in a good state. A bad mood significantly impacts your ability to do pretty much anything, and the only thing left to do is find a way to raise your mood. It’s crucial that you start relieving yourself of stress as soon as it starts because if it snowballs, it gets a lot harder to fix.
Fun Mood-Raising Activities
There are quite a few activities to consider, but the ones we’ll be giving here are a good baseline of what to do.
Sleep
Before anything else, perhaps the reason for your bad mood is simply fatigue. In these cases, going to sleep or taking a nap might just be the only thing you need. Don’t just do your usual pre-sleep prep either. Buy yourself some comfy new pillows, put on some soothing ambiance, and have a hearty meal beforehand. All of these combined should lead to proper, uninterrupted sleep, and few things are more fun than not feeling like death in the morning.
Light Exercise
Sometimes, it might be the opposite problem. Lethargy is often a result of sitting in one place for too long, and that leaves the body stiff and stressed. Light exercise and stretching are fun and healthy ways to solve this. It may be tiring at first, but the layer of stiffness that’s been affecting your mood should quickly dissipate as the “rust” falls off.
Cooking
Spend some time creating delicious meals for yourself or your family members. If you haven’t cooked before, learning how to is pretty fun in its own right. For those who have some pride in their cooking ability, they could basically do the thing Jon Favreau did in the movie Chef, cooking up a storm to raise their sour mood.
Spa Day
Sometimes, exercise and sleep aren’t enough to push out the body’s many aches. Proper skincare and massage should be the perfect solution, and that’s what a spa day accomplishes. The dopamine release from a massage is quite unlike any other, and a good spa also counts as a day to properly hygiene yourself.
Small Party
Whether it’s a holiday party with teammates at work or just a small gathering with close friends, a celebration is a potentially mood-raising affair. Spending time with good company, eating food, playing board games, or singing karaoke offer a fantastic distraction from whatever it was that caused your mood shift in the first place.
Short Trip
Traveling away from it all for a short while is also an effective way to get rid of the blues. Maybe there are personal problems where you are that remind you too much of bad times. Going away on a short trip, whether by yourself or with a loved one, gives you the proper time to reset, away from the prying eyes of people you know. Plus, it’s a good way to check off some bucket list goals.
Find a New Passion
Woodcarving, skateboarding, painting, whatever it is, it’s always a good time to try to find something else to be good at. Or at the very least, something fun to do with a dedicated community around it. There are plenty of hobby groups out there that are exciting for new people, and it’s incredibly fun discovering new friends and passions in this way.
Vent to a Friend
Sometimes, distraction isn’t the solution. It’s confronting it directly, and talking to a friend about a problem could be emotional, but it’s also a huge weight off people’s shoulders. In fact, some perspectives might even lead you to laugh about it, as being stuck in your own head might block you from seeing how simple a solution might be.
Why Is Your Mood Sour?
Lightly discussed in the venting section, but the fact of the matter is that no one activity is a surefire way to destress, especially if it is something so specific. Take a good look at your situation and think “What can and can’t I do?”. For example, light exercise might not be possible for somebody whose reason for stress is a recent injury.
However, an injury doesn’t exempt you from finding new passions or resting to give the body more time to recover. Alternatively, the cause for your stress could be health-related, such as a poor diet that’s caused unwanted weight gain. In such cases, light exercise and learning to cook healthy are great ways to uplift your mood, as it’s two fun activities with health benefits.
Conclusion
Truth be told, there won’t be a magical activity that raises your mood, without fail, every single time. However, the activities provided here are a good blueprint of what has always worked for people throughout history. Exercise, good food, rest, and spending time with friends are all worthwhile endeavors.