What small things can we do to feel good?

When people suffer from low moods, depression, and anxiety, they’re often given the ‘helpful’ advice to practice self-care. Things like, taking exercise, eating healthily, getting good sleep, seeing friends.

That advice is not wrong in and of itself, but to practice that sort of mentally healthy behaviour we need some helpful processes already to be going on in the brain.

Things like exercising, seeing friends, eating nourishing food and sleeping will help us produce the neurotransmitter serotonin. Most of us have heard about serotonin – it’s our happy chemical

When we have a steady flow of serotonin, we are happy, coping, confident souls. We are motivated to do all those positive things listed above and more. We work productively, can be creative, lift up the people around us. We can be the best version of ourselves for our businesses, workplaces, our family and friends. Life feels manageable and even good!

The trouble is, when we are suffering from depression and anxiety, we’re not producing enough or even any of that useful chemical. So, it’s a bit of a Catch-22. Telling someone with severe depression to get off their butts and out for a run in the sunshine is like asking them to drive a car 50 miles with no fuel in its tank. It's not going to happen!

But, the good news is we can start to shift processes in our mind so that we start producing more serotonin. That serotonin then helps us perform mentally healthy behaviours, which, lo and behold, encourage the production of yet more serotonin. We create a virtuous cycle: do more, feel better, so do even more, feel even better…

Here are some tips for helping create that virtuous cycle and WHY they make a difference:

1. Generate positive thoughts. Now, I am not talking big things. When you’re down or stressed it can be hard to see anything positive. So look at the small things, tiny things. Why? Because to do this you have to engage your intellectual mind, the left prefrontal cortex, to come up with positive thoughts. That means you leave your anxious, depressed primitive mind for a bit. If a brain scanner was attached to your head while you came up with a positive thought, you’d actually see activity in the primitive mind quieten down or stop. I have a blog post on exactly this here.

2. Take a positive action. Again, go small and achievable. Want to tidy a room? Start with one drawer; just organise one drawer. You’ll get a chemical reward for doing it, dopamine as well as serotonin. Go for a short walk. Doesn't have to be a mammoth hike, just five minutes around the block. That will give you serotonin and a boost from daylight.

3. Generate positive interactions. We are better as a tribe than as individuals so we are built to interact with others. The pandemic really has limited our avenues for this but an email exchange with a friend counts, a phone call, an exchange of WhatsApp messages, a Zoom call with a few friends, a quick chat with the person at the till at the supermarket. These small interactions will all help boost your serotonin.

I have examples of positive thinking, actions and interactions elsewhere on my blog, so have a browse and a read and do give me a call if you have questions.