We’ve all be at our lowest of lows. What matters is whether or not we stay there. Whether you’ve been recently dumped by that now-unlucky-ex or you have had the misfortune of experiencing an astronomically traumatizing event; you must keep in mind that there are coping mechanisms you can utilize to keep yourself, and others, stable. First, remember that we all have our lows and no one is perfect.

1. Exercise: When you’re feeling under the weather and like doom is just raining from the heavens on your day. Try getting up and just moving around, staying physically active can take your mind off things that may be tearing you down and it will also aid by releasing positive hormones and chemicals into your brain. Exercise doesn’t necessarily mean lifting heavy weights or doing push ups, it could be as simple as taking a flight of stairs on your way to somewhere instead of the elevator, or just taking a nice bike ride. Not only will a bike ride get you exercise, the fresh air and, if it’s a beautiful day, will enhance your mood as well.


Five Practical Ways to Tackle Depression

2. Keep Busy: If you are idle and just dormant your mind will begin to wander, often bringing up rather depressing and unsatisfactory thoughts. This can lead to even more and more depression. To avoid this keep busy around the house or wherever you are. Try and pick up a second or even first job if you do not yet have one. Keeping busy can also just be menial tasks such as surfing the internet or dusting your fireplace off and those old picture frames too while you’re at it! Eventually your work will build up momentum and give you a positive sense of achievement and time-well-spent as well.
3. Keep a Diary or Journal: Even if no one sets eyes upon what you write but yourself, writing down and ranting your thoughts and concerns into a journalized format can be instrumental in relieving depression and stress. If you are angry about a particular consequence or outcome or event, you can rant to your journal and it will never talk back or make you feel bad about what you say. Not only will you be relieved of your problems, you can also get creative and enhance your writing skills with haikus or other poetic writing.
4. Eat Healthy: The key word here is healthy, if you can put nutritious and healthy food into your body; your body will return the favor of a nutritious and healthy lifestyle accompanied by enjoyably pleasant moods. Your body is your temple and you must maintain it well, if you do not you will get negative repercussions. Eating healthy is not only essential to fight daily depression, but also to fight other problems such as obesity or the likewise.

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5. Positive Music: This is probably the most influential mood changer available. The more positive the song the better the mood. If you can listen to songs that you associate with happy memories and good times, or are just up-beat in general; your mood will follow along as well. Avoid songs of previously girlfriends or boyfriends to limit the amount of bad memories. Positive music is essential to a positive mood.

After you’ve climbed over that mountain of emotions that seems to sweep us all from time-to-time, you can finally rest at ease with the knowledge that everything is, and will be ok.

Tim Frisch is a student at UW-Stout in western Wisconsin.  He is also a regular contributor at PSCLife.com – the web’s probiotic experts and retailer of “Flora Five” – a probiotic supplement with five types of friendly bacteria and a patented delivery system for immune and digestive health.

You are what you drink. That should be the saying instead of what you “eat.” That is because it is well known that what you are drinking from day to day has a much higher effect than what you are eating. Cutting soda from your diet can be the healthiest thing you ever did for yourself – and your body will begin to thank you for each day that you do so.

Healthy drinks

Specialty drinks seem to multiply overnight. Just try to name them all. They are not necessarily the healthiest drinks. Drinks with natural bases will add to your good health instead of detract from it. Most of us have heard about the chemicals and sugar, not to mention caffeine, in soda. There is nothing healthful about it and there are plenty of unhealthy aspects to avoid.

Antioxidant loaded drinks may prevent cancer, among other diseases. Your organs will thank you for drinking these drinks: orange juice, green tea and low sodium tomato juice. The more pulp the better in your fruit juices. Green tea boosts metabolism and speeds up the fat-burning process in the body. This is a good thing and it doesn’t taste bad, and your body will thank you later in life for all of the cancer preventing properties that these types of drinks carry with them.

Mint tea eases cramps by improving muscle relaxation; it is an antispasmodic. It helps to move food through the digestive track and therefore aids digestion. Tea has less caffeine than coffee, but black coffee is also an antioxidant.

The best news yet is that hot chocolate is good for you! Cocoa protects us from heart disease, wonderful stuff that it is. Chocolate raises the serotonin level and that improves your mood. Serotonin is a hormone, and you know what hormones can do. Between the mint tea and hot chocolate your mood should be in good shape.

Multiple, long rows of juices in the grocery store are mind boggling. If you want the healthiest ones, make your own vegetable juice. Dark green leaf plants and cabbage provide the healthiest juices, just not the tastiest. Be careful with carrots and beets because they raise insulin levels like fruit does. Vegetable juice has less calories than fruit juice, and it is raw food. Vitamins and minerals that seem to disappear in processed foods are absorbed right away in liquid form and are almost instant energy sources.

Low fat milk is like a mini-meal in itself. It has carbohydrates, protein and some fat, which are absorbed slowly by the body to make you feel full longer. Calcium and vitamin D are found in milk and help to prevent osteoporosis. Soy milk is also a good source of all these good-for-you items, but it should not be used if there is a history of breast cancer in the family. It has phytoestrogens which may increase the risk. Soy milk does, however, have soluble fiber and soy protein that lowers LDL, or bad cholesterol, and triglycerides.

Kefir and Kvass are not known by a majority of society, possibly, but are ancient Russian drinks rich in vitamins. Kefir is fermented milk, and Kvass is fermented, stale, dark sourdough rye bread. These drinks contain beneficial bacteria that produce enzymes to aid digestion by promoting healthy flora in the digestive track. If these drinks are not in the grocery store, try a deli or a store in a Russian or Polish community.[ad]

Most of these drinks are easy to obtain and will improve your health. Let the “power” drinks go and get real power from healthier choices.

This article was written by Philip Rudy. Philip helps to run and maintain MonaVie.com – a website that provides health drinks called MonaVie specially formulized to help provide you with more energy without harmful side effects of other energy drinks. He played college basketball for University of Michigan Dearborn and is obsessed with staying as healthy as possible.

Ayurveda is a way to stimulate and strengthen your body on two different levels, both physical, and spiritual.

Physical, by the heat that is produced by the rubbing, which improves the blood circulatory and the lymfesystem.

[ad]Spiritual, because the touching of the massage works the nervesystem. The purity of the massager is therefor very important for the good effect of the massage.

Ayurveda massage tries to follow the natural lines of the body, with the hand, feet and the top of the head as the most important parts to release or ‘pull’ tension and toxics out of the body. This will allow the energy to flow freely again, and resolve all blockings.

Ayurvedic massage tends to start working first towards the feet, where our base is. Then towards our hands, our heart, where the love is that makes it all happen. Next to the top of our heads, which is the connection to the universe.
For the best effect, Ayurvedic massage should be recevied daily, since it brings balance in our bodies and our lives. And balance is a vital need of our bodies, like eating, drinking, sleeping, bathing and moving is a vital need.

1. Get some light! During the winterperiod, there are many days that the sun doesn’t shine, so you will need other ways to get the full-spectrum light that your body needs. Go to the lightbulbstore nextdoor, and look for bulbs that are advertised as “full spectrum light” bulbs. Use these instead of your regular bulbs, and enjoy a dose of sunshine in your home!

They are available in both florescent and incandescent bulbs.  Exposing yourself to  a “full spectrum” light for 20 to 30 minutes as soon as you wake up in the morning will help start your day off right. It’s a real mood lifter, as it stimulates hormones that make you happy. Some brands have understood this, and brought a whole range of life-lights onto the market, suchs as light-balls that can change in intensity and color, alarmclocks that start with their lights about 30 minutes before you have to get up, and much much more like that.

[ad]2. Try eating nuts! Nuts and seeds contain Omega-3 fats, which is an essential nutrient for your health, and for a happy brain. As little as just a daily handful of walnuts will help combat the winter blues. Another great provider of Imega-3′s are Flax seeds. Be reminded that if not ground, the flax seeds may benefit the colon, but the Omega-3′s will stay bound up inside the hard shell, and thus not giving you brain benefit. But no worries, a small coffee grinder does a great job of grinding them. 

3. Daily exercise. Believe it or not, but a daily walk can do wonders for your spiritual health. Try getting out for a walk during your favorite time of day. If that is when the sun is shining, your walk gives you double benefit, with the light, or even triple, due to the pleasure of the sun. But,  don’t think the soothing effects of a nighttime walk don’t exist, it can do wonders too. Walking in the moonlightcan be very relaxing and is a great wonderful mood lifter.

4. Try to eat plenty of whole grains, nuts and seeds, fruits, and vegetables. All these are very much needed, and are the core ingredients of a healthy lifestyle. Keep these as the main ingredient of the meals you eat, and use the other regular ingredients, such as meat, more as an addition, not the main part of the meal. This will result in you being less tired, in a better mood, and generally feeling better.

5. Try being a boy-scout. Not meaning you have to climb trees and wear a short all day, but try to do one good deed a day. Deliberately do something nice for someone else every day.  Doing good to others, makes you feel good about yoursel, and you’ll find that your mind is taken off yourself and your blues.

6. Listen to your favorite music! Music is a great mood enhancer, especially certain types of music. Classical music has been shown to enhance mood, but also other genres can really get you going again. Just make sure you do not listen to deathrock, gothic, new wave and the likes, as those will not really increase your good mood…

7. Drink more tea. Tea relaxes the muscles that cause tension. It also sends  signals to your body to relax. It helps you drift away from your worries and stresses, and makes you enjoy. And, if you drink green tea, there are even more additional benefits, as you can read in our article about the health benefits of green tea.