Boosting Mood Naturally: 55 Proven Ways To Lift Spirits
In today’s chaotic world, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and stressed. This takes a toll on our mood and overall well-being. For mild to moderate mood drops, it’s best to try boosting mood naturally and without the use of medication.
In this post, we’ll explore 55 proven strategies that can help lift your spirits; from the importance of sleep and proper exercise to spending time outdoors, practicing mindfulness, connecting with others, and pursuing hobbies. Whether you’re looking for simple ways to quickly improve your mood or seeking more comprehensive strategies to deal with ongoing mood issues, these tips can have you feeling happier, healthier, and more balanced.
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What Are The Benefits Of Boosting Mood Naturally
Boosting mood naturally often has many benefits for our overall well-being. When we are in a positive mood, we are more likely to feel motivated, energetic, and engaged in our daily activities. This leads to increased productivity and improves our relationships with others.
Additionally, being in a good mood helps us cope more efficiently with stress and adversity. This has a positive impact on our mental and physical health over the long term.
Thus, by prioritizing natural methods for boosting our mood, we can improve our overall quality of life while minimizing possible negative side effects from medication.
However, everyone’s experience with mood and mental health is unique. If you are experiencing persistent low mood or symptoms impacting your daily life, such as excessive sleep, inability to sleep, appetite changes, or a prolonged lack of energy, it’s important to seek help from your physician or a mental health provider.
Here are some quick tips for raising your spirits that don’t require much effort.
Simple and Quick Natural Mood Boosters
- For a quick mood lift, give someone a spontaneous hug.
- Practice perfecting your belly laugh for five minutes.
- Listen to an inspirational podcast, such as How To Fail With Elizabeth Day.
- Start a prayer journal.
- Relive happy memories by looking at photos and scrapbooks of vacations, weddings, etc.
- Or make a very special adventure book. Like this sentimental tearjerker album from the movie, “Up.” https://amzn.to/3oQmTuL
- Write down your feelings on paper. Read them out loud. Then smash the paper into tiny pieces and throw it away. It felt good, didn’t it?
- Get up early and enjoy the sunrise with a fresh cup of coffee.
- Meditate. Multiple studies have shown meditation reduces feelings of depression and anxiety. Surprisingly, the practice positively changes the brain by improving memory and stabilizing emotions.
- Get eight to nine hours of sleep each night. Adequate rest increases mental alertness and improves energy, mood, and overall sense of well-being.
- Spend some time with a child and see the world through her eyes.
- Find five things to be grateful for and focus on them for five minutes.
- Call a friend you haven’t seen in a while.
- Start a collection of something fun.
Energetic Strategies For Boosting Mood Naturally
- Start an exercise program. Exercise releases endorphins, which are natural mood boosters. Even just 30 minutes of physical activity per day can help reduce stress and anxiety while increasing feelings of happiness and well-being. You could try yoga, weightlifting, or aerobics.
- Spend time in nature. Experiencing nature reduces stress and improves mood. Take a walk, go for a hike, or simply sit outside and enjoy the sunshine.
- Do something fun, such as pursuing a new hobby. Engaging in an enjoyable hobby can lift your spirits and reduce stress. Whether it’s painting, writing, or playing an instrument, try to make time for fun each week.
- Crank up your favorite playlist and belt out the lyrics while dancing and pretending to be on stage.
- Hit the road for a spontaneous trip, by yourself or with a friend. It’s a great time to think and reflect on how your life is going.
- Visit a farmer’s market to buy fresh produce and cook a delicious, healthy meal.
- Take a nighttime walk in a safe area. Furthermore, enjoy some stargazing while you’re out and about.
- Connect with others. Spending time with friends and loved ones can boost mood and reduce feelings of loneliness and isolation. Thus, reach out to friends or family members for support. Or, you can join a social club or group to meet new people.
- Learn how to forgive someone who’s hurt you. Letting go of anger frees us from the prison of emotional pain. When we forgive, it reduces feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress. This allows us to move forward and away from the pain.
- Visit an art museum. Viewing art promotes relaxation, creativity, and inspiration. In addition, it reduces Cortisol, a stress hormone manufactured in the body.
High Energy Strategies For Elevating Mood
- Decorate your porch for Spring and create a place to sit and watch the world go by. Drink tea while greeting neighbors and passers-by. Moreover, take your neighbor a glass of tea and strike up a conversation.
- Host a neighborhood BBQ. Email a signup sheet for neighbors to jot down what they plan to bring. Or, attach it to your front door.
- Buy tickets to an out-of-town concert and enjoy a fun weekend trip with the girls.
- Write a song and sing it on karaoke night. However, this tip requires mental energy rather than physical!
- Create a photo wall of favorite family photographs. Look at Pinterest for inspiring ideas.
- Plan a party. If you enjoy having guests, this can be energizing and motivating.
- Learn how to dance with a how-to video on YouTube.
- Design and plant a garden filled with home-grown vegetables and beautiful flowers. Then routinely place a garden bouquet of flowers on the dining table to enjoy.
- Make a plan to solve a problem you’ve been battling, such as getting out of debt or helping your child deal with bullies. And follow it through to the end.
- Organize a charity drive. Collect shoeboxes and fill them with hygiene and self-care items donated by friends, family, and neighbors. Afterward, drop them off at a local charity.
Using Scents to Boost Your Mood Naturally
Certain scents have been found by researchers to lift mood and relieve stress. So here are a few ideas for using scents to lift your spirits.
- Make a dried lavender wreath. You can find lavender here: https://amzn.to/41IwEd5. Lavender’s aroma has calming and soothing effects. It promotes sleep and reduces mood swings.
- Or make dried lavender sachets. You can place them on bedding and around your home for stress relief.
- Line a closet wall with cedar. The scent of cedar, like lavender, lowers anxiety, helps induce sleep, and stabilizes emotions.
- Clean your home with lemon or orange-scented cleaners. Lemon improves focus, energy, and mood, while orange enhances relaxation and induces positive thoughts.
- Create a cheery coffee bar in your home. Coffee’s stimulating aroma can produce proteins that help prevent nerve damage from stress.
- Enjoy a long bubble bath complete with flower petals and scented bath bombs.
- Put on your favorite pretty p.j.s and light some scented candles. Then play relaxing music while enjoying a glass of wine.
- Afterward, put on your favorite perfume and wear it just for yourself!
- Slow-boil aromatic potpourri on the stovetop. But never leave it unattended!
- Revitalize your skin with this lovely peach-scented facial scrub from Burt’s Bee’s: https://amzn.to/3n46aE5.
- Keep a rosemary plant on your desk. Rosemary enhances performance, focus, and memory, which in turn, stimulates creativity.
Additional Ideas to Lift Your Spirits
- Start a smile project. Make a point to smile at five people every day and record the results in a journal. Note the reactions of others and how they made you feel.
- Grow an herb garden in your kitchen window. Use its bounty for preparing tasty meals.
- Start an inspirational journal. Document what went well that day and what didn’t. Some examples would be receiving a compliment, feeling great in a new outfit, or a friend’s good news. Then jot down some ideas on how to improve what didn’t go as well.
- Teach yourself 150 words in a different language. If you use a translator app on your phone, it’s free of charge!
- Visit a pet store or shelter and spend time with some furballs. Even better, volunteer at an animal shelter! Studies show that stroking a cat or dog calms jittery nerves and lowers blood pressure. Also, the love you receive in return can’t help but boost your mood!
- Playing with this item will have you in stitches: https://amzn.to/3VpVcpb.
- Lie on a blanket with a loved one in the yard and gaze at the clouds. Then, enjoy guessing what each cloud looks like. However, don’t forget the bug spray.
- Start a healthy eating regimen. Eat a diet rich in whole grains, lean meats, vegetables, fruits, beans, and nuts. When our bodies get the right fuel, we have more energy, feel better, and function at our best.
- Celebrate a small win, even if it’s only because you survived the day! Take yourself out to a nice dinner and buy a special gift as a well-deserved reward.
- Boost your mood by browsing through this amusing selection of items on Amazon.Amazingly Funny Gifts Under $25 On Amazon.
Wrapping Up Boosting Mood Naturally
Overall, as long as mood drops are not too severe, any one of the following categories can be used to lift sagging spirits.
- Use of Scents
- Creative Pursuits
- Social Connections
- Fun Activities
- Doing something new
- Planning something exciting
- Feeling useful to others
In a nutshell, implementing a few of these natural mood boosters can help you feel happier and more positive. Hopefully, you will try some of these strategies and discover firsthand how they can lift your spirits.
Truly appreciate this well-written post. I’ve certainly picked up valuable insights that will help me to boost my mood.
These are lovely mood boosters and can’t agree enough, getting good sleep and making space for fun and self care is crucial.
You are right about that! I appreciate your positive comment!
Great list! I saved this and also jotted down a few ideas to try right away!
I can’t wait for you to try out the ideas you’ve saved! I think you’ll find them very helpful! Let me know what works best for you!
I loved this! Especially going to a museum and scents. I feel like scents are underrated for mood boosting like music can be. Thanks for compiling these great suggestions!
I appreciate your uplifting words, Tracy. And I fully agree that scents are underrated!
I love these tips. They are so fun and lighthearted. Can’t wait to practice my belly laugh. ????
Practicing a belly laugh can be fun! And it certainly takes the stress meter down several notches! Thanks, Rave!
I love that you added practiced belly laughing. My top mood boosters are getting in nature, gardening, and farmers market.
You sound like an outdoor girl! We have that in common! And being outside is a proven mood booster!
I really enjoyed reading the ideas shared in this post about boosting mood. Can’t wait to start putting some of them into practice.
So happy you like the ideas and plan to use some of them! Enjoy!
This is awesome! I’m pinning it for later! 🙂
Thank you, Laurie! I’m glad you liked it!
Something I really needed to read! Going to give this my best shot!
You got this, Trich! Have a happy day!
My absolute favorite thing to do as a instant mood booster is cute animal videos! Nothing that makes me happier than seeing cutie pies being silly.
Same here, Krystian! My kids and I love watching funny animal videos together! You can’t be in a bad mood after watching silly animal antics!
I needed to read this post today
Hopefully, you found some good ideas here to raise your spirits, Jimmy!
I definitely needed to read this today, nothing seems to be going tight and I am in a mood, haha. So, i journaled about it then meditated and lay in my hammock for about an hour. These are great tips and small reminders too.
Sounds like you’ve got some great natural mood boosters of your own, Elise! Thanks for commenting.
Great post! I can always count on singing to lift my spirits, so the car ride belting the lyrics sounds perfect for me!
Sounds like a car ride is in your future, Valery! Have a great day!
There’s so many good ideas here. I may print this out and share with my son. Always trying to give him ideas. And I’ll print a copy for me too. I like the idea of the scents…I used to do this a lot but have gotten out of the habit.
Great idea, Carol! Maybe you and your son can do some of these activities to lift your spirits together!
Pinning because this should be shared!
I hope you enjoyed “Boosting Mood Naturally,” Carolyn. Thanks for pinning!
I love this comprehensive list of ways to naturally boost our mood. They are practical like getting extra sleep and fun like hosting a neighborhood bbq! Such a great post!
Thank you, Debbie! With 55 tips, there’s something to lift everybody’s spirits!
I am ALWAYS searching for ways to boost my mood naturally! I love this!
That makes me happy because it tells me my guide is doing its job. Thank you, Gabby!
Awesome post and ideas. I try a few on this list like journaling and dancing, gardening. Saving for later.
And hopefully, you found a few new ideas that you haven’t tried yet. I appreciate your comment, Nisee!
These are all great. Thanks for sharing
Thank you for the nice comment, Sheenia.
Great list! I’m going to try some out. It is always good to find a natural way to cope with moods. It helps the body do it’s course and adapt without becoming dependent on medicine.
I agree, Christina! And the tips on this list make it difficult to stay in a bad mood!
I use scents allllll the time lift my spirits!
Me too! I love candles and plug-in air fresheners. Having a nice-smelling home is a good strategy to naturally boost mood!
This is such a great list! Everyone can benefit from these mood-boosting strategies. I absolutely love the idea of a smile project!
I love it, too! It’s one of the more unique ideas in this guide!
One of my favorite posts! I love all your tips on boosting your mood. My favorites are the hobbies and nature ones. I look forward to reading more articles!
Thank you, Julie! I love hobbies and nature too! You can just feel the stress melting away when you’re doing something fun or when you’re out among nature.