A little food, a little wine?

Of course we all know the Mediterranean diet is good for us, we've heard the news, but I didn't know that it was good for depression, but it turns out it is.  When I think of the Mediterranean diet, I think of olive oil, fish, veggies all washed down with some wine.
 I have a hard time following diets, changing my diet (although I have made some changes),  Go read the article.  It has a guide to the Mediterranean diet to help you get started and the encouraging news that you only have to moderately adhere to it, just make a few changes.

Waiting it out?

We get happier as we get older with happiness levels at 70 the same as at 21. Wisdom may bring happiness with it when it comes.  

Here's the link:  Aging has an upside - Happiness

"So perhaps, as it turns out, pursuit isn’t the best approach in the quest for happiness. Patience offers better odds. 

It appears that happiness sidles up to us gradually, gently, borne on a lifetime’s accumulation of adaptability, acceptance, appreciation and experience. A fringe benefit of age.

Another year older; another year happier. Light the candles. Cut the cake and celebrate as the double digits climb."

Middle age can be hard, but hang in there baby.  

Looking at the sky.

Looking at the sky is good for you.  I like to look at the sky and I like to take pictures of the sky.  It's meditative to sit and look at the clouds and it's good for you.  Try it.
 This is an easy one.  Even on cloudy, seemingly depressive days, the clouds are always doing something interesting, making shapes, moving.  Look.

http://lauragraceweldon.com/2013/07/24/look-up/

Video Games?

Of course, there are video games to help us.  My favorite is The Sims which is silly, but it's play and play is a helpful thing, so I go with it. I played it daily for a while after my dad passed away.    I also have found that there are games which have been specifically designed to help with depression and anxiety.  There is a good list here, with links.

Tech-Mic  - Video Games

And here is another good list.

Venturebeat

I have not played any of these so if you have, let me know if it helped and if there are any ratings related things we might need to know.

There's also a web site with calming, happifying activites called Happify.  It has a subscription fee but is very highly rated, so may be worth it for you.   I did try this with a free subscription and found that it was not for me, not my style, but it might be yours.

There's an app for that?

I guess I should have known that there is an app for everything but I didn't think about it, until today, to wonder if there was an app for depression.  Turns out, there are a ton of them.

Healthline has a slide show listing 18 of them, can you believe it?  Here it is.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has rated several of them for ease of use and helpfulness and you can find that here.  

I'm still going low tech for stress relief and coping with life, art journaling, crocheting and exercising. 

I haven't tried one yet, have you?  I do think that I need to spend a lot less time on Facebook and I will be happier.  I may need to find an app that tracks my Facebook time and locks me out.  

(going looking on Google ....)

Found it!  An app that keeps you from spending too much time on social media sites.

Keep Me Out

Art. I knew it.

Last year when things were pretty dismal in my life and I kept feeling like I was having the metaphorical rug pulled out from me about once a week, I just felt overwhelmed.  I felt hopeless.  I didn't feel that I had the mental capacity to read or crochet.  Taking a walk or going around people just seemed like more than I could handle.  That's when my art exploded.  I just wanted to draw all of the time.  I had begun doing artwork a year or so before and helped me cope with my Dad's passing and my Mom's Alzheimers, but when everything came raining down on me, I retreated into my art to recover.  It helped immensely.  I personally write bible verses on all of my art, so that got me reading and finding quotes about hope and that helped even more.  I feel like my art pulled me through the tough times.  I would say that most of it is not very good, but sometimes I get lucky and all of the elements on the page blend together and it's good and when I look at it, it makes me feel happy.  In searching the web, I have found that doing art has been proven to make people happier.  I knew it.






Here are a few facts about art and our mental health.

1.  Four out of the six happiest activities are arts related.

2.  It's kind of a chicken and the egg thing,   Creativity Breeds Happiness   "Richards, the researchers note, wrote that day-to-day creativity “is both a cause and consequence of positive development."

3 You don't have to be good at it to reap the benefits.

4.  Just looking at art makes us happier.    

Resources. 

Here are a bunch of art therapy prompts to get you started if you don't know what to do at first.  Expressive Art Inspirations

Coloring in coloring books and doing paint by numbers are also ideas.  I don't know if there have been scientific studies done about these, but they sure are popular right now.

Adults Are Coloring.

Coloring Books for Grownups are a Thing.

Here's one of my drawings without any color, for you to download and color if you'd like.  Right click with your mouse on the picture and you can either select save image or print right from there.

Sing in a choir.

Singing in a choir makes you happier.  It boosts all the good hormones in your brain.

Heres an article:  Slate and here's an excerpt.

"Music is awash with neurochemical rewards for working up the courage to sing. That rush, or “singer's high,” comes in part through a surge of endorphins, which at the same time alleviate pain. When the voices of the singers surrounding me hit my ear, I'm bathed in ...


dopamine, a neurotransmitter in the brain that is associated with feelings of pleasure and alertness. Music lowers cortisol, a chemical that signals levels of stress. Studies have found that people who listened to music before surgery were more relaxed and needed less anesthesia, and afterward they got by with smaller amounts of pain medication. Music also releases serotonin, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of euphoria and contentment."

How cool is that?  

Here are a few more articles for those who like to read everything (like me!) 

Singing Changes Your Brain

Imperfect Harmony  (Love that title!)

10 Reasons to Make Singing Your Happiness.

And from Deep Fun (a site I just love), an article on Complaints Choirs, which joins snarky comments and singing!  So.  Much.  Fun.  You have to go read it and take a listen.  

Here's a directory to find a choir in your area.  ChoralNet   and here's another one.  Vocal Area Network

If you can't find one there, remember most churches have a choir you can join and community theater groups often need ensemble singers.  

Posture!

Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are!  Go now and watch this video.  I'll wait.



Now spend 2 minutes adopting one of the power poses that make you feel more powerful and able to take on life's challenges.  It's worth 2 minutes of your time to try isn't it?

If for some reason you can't watch the video, here it is summed up.

Wonder Woman Did It Right

Here's a quote.  "Our body language is always influencing how others perceive you, but more importantly, it changes how YOU feel. Amy Cuddy’s research showed that not only does your posture change how you feel, but it also changes your hormone levels in a significant and meaningful way. "

Plan a Vacation!

Even if you can't afford to take one right now, planning one is beneficial to your mental health.  Really.  The optimal thing would be to be able to plan and take several small vacations each year, but if you can't do that, start a little savings fund and do a little planning.  It takes your mind off your troubles.

How Vacations Affect Your Happiness

Do Vacations Make Us Happier?

For more good advice on how to plan a vacation click to read more.  

One thing that can affect your happiness on the trip is to have realistic expectations, a daily plan or itinerary (at least a loose one) to prevent the "what are we going to do"? arguments/discussions that can take up a whole day and to take something you look forward to doing to do during the down-times.  I know that when our family of 5 has to adapt to a hotel room with 1 bathroom, waiting for people to get through the bathroom time to finally get ready to go is something that gets on my nerves.  For us, since we don't have cable TV at home, we often entertain ourselves by watching shows we don't get to watch at home, but sometimes there's not anything we can agree on, so we play board games or walk around the hotel while waiting.  It helps us not to grouch at each other and ruin the mood of the trip.  Also, with kids especially, it's good to have a budget plan and stick to it so that they know not to beg for souvenirs.  You might want to give them some trip spending money.  If you do, don't be critical of their buying choices.  It's budgeted, pretend like it is already spent and don't take this time to lecture them on financial planning.  It's vacation.  Have fun!

Here's a link to some travel planning apps.  Optimize your next vacation.

Personally, I love going on HomeAway and imagining vacationing.  :-)

Here's a fun article about traveling for free!  Budget Travel.  You can house-sit, pet sit, work on an organic farm ... all for free lodging!

Remember, one of the happiest parts about vacation is the planning, when anything is possible, so have fun with it!

Talking to yourself.

WSJ

Inc

Annie Murphy Paul

Three articles but they basically are about the same thing, talking to oneself.  We all have self-talk, whether it's inside our heads or out loud or a combination of the two, but how you refer to yourself, it turns out, is important.

"The way you address yourself matters, too. Research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in February found people who spoke to themselves as another person would—using their own name or the pronoun "you"—performed better under stress than people who used the word "I."

Referring to yourself in the as if you are a friend, using you or your name makes you feel less anxious and less stressed when performing a difficult task.  

I find it fascinating, what do you think?  

Coffee?!

Here's the article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.  Coffee to prevent depression?

Here's a quote:  "Conclusions In this large longitudinal study, we found that depression risk decreases with increasing caffeinated coffee consumption. "   

I don't know about you, but I love coffee and increasing my coffee consumption a little bit might not be a bad thing.  :-)  I think it's going to be one of the things that I routinely do, along with getting more sun and eating more yogurt.  

Ways to actively fight depression.

Here's a link to a good article on Psychology Today.  Fight it.  Fight it hard.  

Here's an excerpt:    

"To begin this process, it is helpful to think of these destructive thoughts as being like the parasites that keep you in bed when you're sick with the flu. Don't listen to these attacks when they tell you not to pursue your goals, to isolate yourself, or to forego an activity you enjoy. This gives the voice even more power over you. Instead, when you notice these thoughts and attitudes starting to intensify and take precedence over your more realistic, positive ways of thinking, it is essential to identify them as an alien point of view. Ask yourself, would you think such cruel thoughts about a friend or family member who was experiencing the same struggles. By having compassion for yourself and recognizing this inner voice as a destructive enemy, you can begin to see who you are more clearly and realistically." 

One of the ways I fight depression is art journaling.  It helps me get into a state of flow.  Try and find what works for you.

Now read the rest.  

To quote my favorite 21 Pilots song, Holding Onto You

Remember the moment you know exactly where you're going,'Cause the next moment, before you know it,Time is slowing and it's frozen still,And the window sill looks really nice, right?You think twice about your life, it probably happens at night,Right? Fight it, take the pain, ignite it,Tie a noose around your mind loose enough to breathe fine and tie it,To a tree, tell it, "You belong to me,This ain't a noose, this is a leash,And I have news for you, you must obey me."

Here's a link to the song on You Tube.  The song is good, the video is weird.  :-)  

Stress!

I've not been blogging lately because I have been experiencing some stress.  We've had a cancer diagnosis in the past 2 weeks in a close family member and we've been trying to deal with it.  I think that she's going to be okay now and we seem to be adjusting to our new normal.  While in the midst of this, I walked into the library and saw this book.




It is absolutely mind boggling and incredible!. This book says it's not stress that kills us, it's the way we think about stress that kills us or strengthens us.  If you don't do anything else I ever have said or will say in the future, watch this video.


Here's a quote: “Mindset 1: Stress Is Harmful. Experiencing stress depletes my health and vitality. Experiencing stress debilitates my performance and productivity. Experiencing stress inhibits my learning and growth. The effects of stress are negative and should be avoided. Mindset 2: Stress Is Enhancing. Experiencing stress enhances my performance and productivity. Experiencing stress improves my health and vitality. Experiencing stress facilitates my learning and growth. The effects of stress are positive and should be utilized.” ― Kelly McGonigal, The Upside of Stress: Why stress is good for you

Okay, this one is pretty interesting.

Botox, the botulism toxin that the inject into your face to paralyze your muscles so you won't have frown line wrinkles, makes you feel happier because it makes you unable to frown and facial muscles influence brain activity.

Time Magazine Wipe Away That Frown.

If you keep reading to the bottom of the article, it gets even more odd.

"But Lewis says he favors the theory that facial muscles influence brain activity directly and points to earlier research that suggests such a neurological link. For example, studies have shown that subjects find comedy routines significantly funnier when they hold a pen between their teeth the way a dog holds a bone, a pose that stimulates the muscles used for smiling. Similarly, subjects laugh less when holding a pen between their lips, a pose that mimics frowning."

He looks pretty happy here, doesn't he?  

NY Times - Get Botox!

Let me sum up.

On this blog, so far, we have explored the science behind many different ways to improve your mood.  We've looked at how doing things for others can make you feel better, how practicing an attitude of gratitude can also help.  Those are the things you have heard of.  Some of the things that I am learning while researching and writing this blog and trying to hold on tightly to my own joy (and sanity) are just plain fascinating and frankly, kind of weird.

Here are some of the ways in a handy, printable form.  Hang this up someplace, use it as a background on your phone or tablet, do some of these things.  Honestly, I think the yogurt, which is the only one I have been doing consistently, may have saved my life this week.  Seriously, try to do them everyday!  Here they are.