Things that are Ruining Your Mood.

Things that are Ruining Your Mood. A bad mood is something you don’t want to be caught in, it’s a mess for you and for people around you. For many, the reasons aren’t that forthcoming and you could risk being labeled neurotic or psychotic by others. Nevertheless, your environment shapes you and your mental well being, so let’s take a look at some not so obvious things that are ruining your mood.

1. Food Spoils your Mood.

“The link between emotions and eating is no myth,” says Sherry L. Pagoto, Ph.D., associate professor of preventive and behavioral medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. “People do eat to feel better, so the link is there.”

Things that are Ruining Your Mood., you are what you eat

Scientific research shows that eating healthy can drastically change your mood and improve your way of life. Food allergies or intolerances can have a great effect on your mood. Insufficient levels of vitamin D, in particular, can lead to mood swings, depression, and fatigue.

Here’s how some unhealthy eating habits can alter your mood and emotional well-being:

1. Skipping meals. Missing a meal, especially breakfast, can lead to low blood sugar. This will likely leave you feeling weak and tired.

2. Cutting out entire food groups. If you reduce the variety of foods in your diet, it can be more difficult to get all the essential nutrients you need. Low levels of zinc, iron, B vitamins, magnesium, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids are associated with a worsening mood and decreased energy.

3. Eating too many refined carbohydrates. High intakes of unhealthy, processed carbohydrates, such as white bread and pastries, cause blood sugars to rise and fall rapidly. This can lead to low energy and irritability.

By making better food choices, you might be able to control compulsive eating behaviors and weight gain. You might also experience feelings of calmness, high energy levels, or alertness from the foods you eat. What we eat affects how we feel. Food should make us feel good

2. How (much) You Sleep.

Sleep has a MAJOR impact on our physical and mental health. At night, our amazing bodies carry out a whole bunch of very important functions such as cell repair, healing, fighting infections, and detoxifying.

What’s more, sleep helps to keep our extremely delicate hormone balance in check. It is essential to keep them balanced, once they are off it is very difficult to bring them back to order.

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Few tips to improve sleep:

1. Go to bed at the same time each night

2. Reduce screen time at night – no phones, laptops, etc.

3. Cooldown your bedroom – we sleep better at a cooler temperature

3. Watch Out What You Watch.

It’s no surprise to anyone that media feeds on bad news. Especially today when tragic statistics are being shoved in our faces daily, it’s hard to not let it get to you.

And it’s not just that! Social media can be just as overwhelming. A sad story you read online can linger on your mind for days

It’s a good idea to do some media detox every now and then. Try puzzles – they’re great to calm down an anxious mind and keep you focused.

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4. How Active You Are.

Things that are Ruining Your Mood., let's get active

We’re made to move! Our bodies and our minds thrive when we’re active.

The problem arises when being sedentary becomes a lifestyle. The longer you allow yourself to stay in that state, the harder it is to motivate yourself to do anything. It’s no surprise that a sedentary lifestyle is associated with an increased risk of depression.

On the other hand, a simple walk or a short bike ride can do wonders for your mood. Even more so – a quick home workout!

5. The Weather Around You.

Rainy with a chance of Depression? Living in gloomy weather can in turn make us as gloomy if not more.

Seasonal affective disorder, or SAD a disorder associated with a particular season, especially affects people living in areas of the world with long winters and entire months without sun.

It can, however, occur in any climate. SAD is characterized by symptoms of depression that return around the same time every year. Most people with this condition experience symptoms during short days and cold weather.

Well, there’s not much you can do to change bad weather but it’s comforting to at least recognize the reason for our momentary dullness.

For those struggling with depression or addiction, paying attention to weather changes and sunlight exposure can go a long way in maintaining motivations and working towards recovery.

6. Overactive Imagination.

In other words – not getting your thoughts organized.

It’s easy to get overwhelmed by work, personal problems, and information overload.

We often convince ourselves of unrealistic ideas when our minds are on overdrive because the act of holding onto a tangible idea, no matter how far-fetched, makes us feel like we are in control of the situation.

What we think is logical under extreme strain or exhaustion is usually not something we would think if we were neutral and well-balanced.

Things that are Ruining Your Mood., overactive imagination

In order to combat these extravagant thoughts, adding a bit of balance to one’s life can help keep everything in perspective. If you try not to think of ideas or situations in extremes, you will not be overly disappointed if, in the end, things don’t go your way.

Keeping a healthy optimism and lack of obsession in one’s life is important in order to deflect negative or positive energy that might put you off-balance in the end.

We need to actively work on bringing peace and order to our minds. How to do that depends largely on your personality – it could be meditation, taking a long walk, or journaling. Anything that works for you.

In Conclusion, the holistic approach to well- being suggests that all aspects of our lives are interwoven, one cannot be in imbalance without affecting the other negatively. The solution lies in a self course correction that a ship’s Captain would seek to do if he feels the ship going off-chart. That would of-course start with recognizing the areas of life where an imbalance is, which is sometimes not so evident. The purpose of this article “Things that are Ruining Your Mood”, is to point out the areas in which self-correction could be required to achieve optimal mental well being.

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