8 Ways to Reduce Stress and Lift Your Mood

As I listened to the headlines, I could feel my stress level rise. So, I did some deep belly breathing.

It didn’t take away the headlines but it helped me reset and center. Five minutes later, I was on TV sharing 8 creative mood boosters and stress relievers on CNN’s HLN Weekend Express with Susan Hendricks, including the abdominal breathing I’d just employed.

Given the stress of everyday life in modern times, we need easy stress reducers, things that take pretty much zero effort, right? So, let’s start there.

1. Hum: What could be easier than humming? Did you know that humming calms the system and relaxes you? Humming even helps you fall asleep! And a good night’s sleep means even more of a mood boost.

• I’m sure you don’t need instruction on how to hum — use a single tone, your favorite tune or make something up!

2. Journal: In more than one study, journaling has been shown to shift a negative mindset to a positive one. Journaling can even help decrease depression and increase a sense of wellbeing.

• There’s no best way to journal but studies by James Pennebaker focused on writing the details of a troubling incident. Journaling made people feel better. Other studies show the benefits of a keeping a gratitude journal. Creative writing can be helpful, too, since creativity lifts one’s mood.

3. Smell. Did you know that 75% of all our emotions generated every day are due to what we smell? Consider having aromatic flowers like roses in your room, or breathe in an uplifting aromatherapy oil like wild orange or lemon.

• If you don’t have oils, keep a pot of fresh herbs like mint or rosemary in your kitchen: rub the leaves together and inhale when you need a pick-me-up.

4. Move: Sitting still is linked to depressive symptoms. Take a walk, stretch, dance, try yoga or pick an energizing task you’ve been putting off. One of the simplest and most powerful ways to relax and re-energize is to practice qigong bouncing.

• I admit, qigong bouncing, or shaking, is my favorite go-to and I do it almost every day, both for wellbeing and to stimulate creative flow for my writing and other activities. This ancient practice relaxes you from head to toe! You can find many versions of this practice on youtube, including my own, or you can bounce on a rebounder. Start out in natural stance, feet parallel, knees slightly bent, tailbone tucked, shoulder relaxed, chin tucked, tongue on the roof of the mouth and lengthen the back of your neck. Focus on relaxing a specific part of your body, one area at a time. Here’s my version of qigong bouncing or shaking, used to stimulate flow before writing and other creative activities.

5. Abdominal Breathing:

Yogis and martial artists have known the benefits of abdominal breathing for thousands of years. Science agrees.

· Abdominal breathing relaxes you by stimulating the parasympathetic nervous system. As a result it can affect your mood, decrease stress, as well as support many processes in the body. Here are instructions for diaphragmatic breathing from Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School.

6. Take a Nature Walk:

Walk anywhere, but if you can get among the trees, you’ll find an added benefit.

• Ever since Japanese scientists have studied the benefits of “Forest Bathing” it’s become trendy, but from time immemorial people have walked in nature for the lift in mood it easily provides. Trees actually release chemicals, phytoncides, that reduce our stress hormones!

7. Be Grateful:

Gratitude relieves stress, and stress is the enemy of happiness. It produces feelings of pleasure and contentment.

• There are many ways to experience gratitude: Keep a gratitude journal and write about things you are grateful for — large and small. Or write a thank you note to someone about how they’ve positively impacted your life. Express gratitude to those around you — from the store clerk to your partner. You can even practice a gratitude meditation, noticing different things in your environment and nurturing your gratitude for them, one at a time. In my book writing classes we always end our sessions with gratitude. It nourishes our relationship to the creative muse and sets us up for more of what we’re grateful for. Even if we didn’t meet all our goals, when we put our attention on what did work, we inevitably attract more of what we focus on.

8. Connect with People:

During the pandemic, we saw how social isolation brings us down and can lead to serious conditions, like depression.

• If you’re not naturally social, find ways to connect that feel easy for you — join an activity that you enjoy, such as hiking, an art class, a yoga class, or one of the many activities offered at your local library. While connecting online can be convenient, do find some in-person activities, as effectively for mood. A Yale study published in Neuroscience News showed that, “the research suggests online faces, with present technology, don’t engage our social neural circuits as effectively…” [as in person.]

One tip: Scheduling your connection time will help you commit, plus you have the added benefit of something to look forward to!