Showering?

Okay, this is a weird one to me.  To reduce depression, take a cold shower.  Really.  It's backed up by research, found here.   Here's an excerpt:    Exposure to cold is known to activate the sympathetic nervous system and increase the blood level of beta-endorphin and noradrenaline and to increase synaptic release of noradrenaline in the brain as well. Additionally, due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a cold shower is expected to send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an anti-depressive effect.

To see other benefits of cold showers (besides the one you always hear about) read this article.  

While you're in there, might as well belt out some show tunes, since singing show tunes helps prevent dementia 

Plants, either indoors or outdoors.

Plants make you happier.  It seems crazy, but it's true.   Some of the points in this article are that exercising outdoors boosts your mood and just spending time outside makes you better able to focus and more resilient to stress.   Living near green space makes you live longer.  

Having plants inside your home has all kinds of benefits as well.  I've got to admit that this surprised me and tomorrow I am going to get some plants for my house and for my mom's assisted living facility room.   

Psychology Today - Plants Make You Feel Better  :  plants have been shown to lower blood pressure, improve reaction times, increase attentiveness, improve well-being, lower levels of anxiety during recovery from surgery and more!  

They filter the air of course, but they also make you happier!  In this study, people were given a house plant to take care of and they reported feeling happier in general.  

And, there's a bonus, they also make you smarter.  Houseplants Make You Smarter.  

Even cut flowers improve mood, so if you have a complete inablity to nurture a plant and keep it alive, buy yourself some flowers every now and then.  :-)  

Just for fun, go look at these wonderful balconies on Apartment Therapy.  

Light!

Getting out in the sunlight is good for your health and it is good for your mental health as well.  People tend to get depressed when the natural sunlight is low during the winter, and this is often called seasonal affective disorder.  It can be helped by getting out in the sun or with artificial lights that synthesize sunlight.

Check out these resources:

Mayo Clinic 

Columbia

Benefits of Sunlight 

Did you realize that people do something akin to photosynthesis when exposed to sunlight?  We synthesize vitamin D through a chemical reaction in the skin.  I think that's completely fascinating!  

Sunlight has many, many benefits.  Go outside.  

You Shouldn't Shun the Sun.  

Get out there.  Plant some flower bulbs or do some guerrilla gardening with seed bombs, take a walk with a loved one or just sit down on a bench or your front porch for a little while.  

Make your bed!

There is plenty of evidence that making your bed every morning makes you feel happier.  It seems kind of silly and yet, sometimes the simplest things can have an impact on your well-being.  I personally started making my bed as my February resolution.  I decided this year to make a series of small resolutions and do one each month, adding it to the existing one.  January was prayer and bible reading and February was making my bed.  I've stuck with them both though mid March and I have to say, it makes a difference.  My March task was this blog and I started it and I plan to continue it, just as I have the other 2.  I think that doing one small thing each month and making them cumulative has been a good thing.

I work at home, in the bedroom, right next to the bed so it has an impact, visually, on me, all during my work day.  I make it up and I through the most colorful afghan in the world on it and then as I walk by it every few minutes, it makes me smile.  Also, the kids in my house come and lie down on the bed and talk to me while I am working and that makes me happy as well.

Here's articles on the benefits of making your bed.

Psychology Today  People who make their beds report themselves as happier.

Life Hack  It gives you a sense of accomplishment.

Apartment Therapy  Making your bed is a keystone habit, which means it is a catalyst for other good habits.

I told you this afghan was colorful!  It's also fuzzy and warm.

Who knew?

Get up and do it right this minute.

(Unless someone is in your bed sleeping!)

Bringing a little color into your life.

Even the tiniest little bit of a color you love can make you happier.  A throw pillow, a blanket or throw, a teakettle, you name it.  Put things and colors in your home that make you feel happy.  Color Psychology.   For the past couple of years I have been making art to please myself.  Then I sold a few pieces and after that, started trying to make art that I thought would please others and be easier to frame but that didn't provide the same satisfaction for me so I am back to pleasing myself.   Someone may look at it and say that I use too much blue or too much yellow or orange, but it's not for them; it's for me and it's what I like.  During the last couple of years, dealing with my mom's Alzheimer's disease, this art has saved my life and therefore I love it.

My house is mostly beiges and browns and I can't really afford to redo it and getting my husband to approve colorfulness in the house is a wild stretch of the imagination, so I painted one wall of my laundry room in my favorite, robin's egg blue and over the past year, I've brought little bits of that color into the other rooms as well.  Another small tool for feeling better.  It's important not to go on a big shopping spree because spending money that you possibly don't have won't help.  That will only make you feel worse.  Just try and bring some color in your environment.