Bored? Sad? Unmotivated? 20 ways to improve your mood

When you feel bored, sad or unmotivated you still have a choice: stay in this state or change. In this article, you will find 20 practical ways to improve your mood.

"No matter how long the night may be, the dawn will always come."

African proverb.

There are moments when we are down in the dumps, oppressed by boredom sadness or the demotivation. It is part of the breath of life. Knowing how to accept these moments is an enviable ability, but this does not mean that we should give these emotions more space than necessary.

So here are 20 practical and immediate ways to improve your mood:

1. Describe your emotions. Enclosing your negative emotions in written words is the best way to detach yourself from them. When you are unmotivated, bored or in a bad mood, try using your personal diary to describe your emotions in detail: the more detailed your reflections are, the more the sense of sadness will fade.
2. Delete an activity from your to do list. Often, days that are too busy are demotivating us. Freeing your to-do list from one or more minor activities can be a great way to get motivated and… why not? set aside some time to relax.
3. Complete a small activity. When we feel overwhelmed by work and do not find the strength to start, the best way to give the right rhythm to our day is to divide one's commitments into small tasks to be completed in 30-60 minutes.
4. Congratulate yourself. It doesn't matter if you've conquered Mars or just waking up 15 minutes earlier this morning - congratulate yourself. Value each of your little successes and your mind will only look for others.
5. Listen to your favorite music. Music is one of the most powerful tools for changing and improving our mood. Put on your headphones and start your favorite playlist: nothing could be simpler.
6. Engage in an activity where you need to be fully focused. Our brains can hardly concentrate fully on more than one activity. When you are focused on an activity (practice preferably) the negative emotions magically vanish.
7. Bring out the artist in you. Among the activities that can capture your concentration, the artistic ones are the most effective: while you play an instrument, paint a picture or compose a poem, the feelings of boredom, demotivation and sadness dissolve in the beauty of art.
8. Listen to that little voice in your head and ... shut it up. Negative emotions don't come out of nowhere; they are the fruit of our thoughts and of what we continually repeat to ourselves in our mind. Try to listen carefully to what you repeat to yourself: too often we are the cause of our ills. Yell (in your mind) a nice STOP! Shut up negative thoughts.
9. Watch what you feel. Have you ever tried to observe your emotions in a detached way? Emotions have the more power over us the more we identify them with ourselves. In reality we are not our thoughts or our emotions. Imagine watching your emotions projected onto a screen, just like you would a movie. Detach from it.
10. Watch a movie. We love movies because they have the ability to transport us to another dimension. In this article, you will find a list of the 30 best films to find motivation.
11. Watch a show. If you don't have time for a film, settle for a show: the most recent series have nothing to envy to the best films shown in the cinema.
12. Reward yourself. We often achieve important results but we forget to reward ourselves, already captured by the next goal. But without rewarding ourselves, every new goal loses its charm and we find ourselves deprived of stimuli.
13. Talk to someone special about how you feel. Sharing our emotions with someone special makes us feel lighter immediately. Often it is an alternative point of view that we need in a moment of difficulty.
14. Plastic. The link between mind and body is much deeper than we might imagine. When we are bored, unmotivated and out of sorts, we tend to immobility and sedentary lifestyle: find the right motivation with a little healthy sporting activity.
15. Go for a run in the fresh air. The substances released during intense aerobic activity are very powerful drugs that can instantly change our mood. Do you want to put? Lose weight and improve your mood: what are you waiting for to do your run?
16. Solve a problem. However small it may be, a solved problem is always a source of great satisfaction. Try solving a problem the next time you're in a bad mood - you might be surprised at the effects.
17. Stop repeating to yourself "I should ..." and "I shouldn't ...". If you read the GetPersonalGrowth Blog there is a 99,9% chance that you are looking for rules, advice or tips to tackle a life problem or challenge. Isn't it the never confessed goal of personal growth to provide simple rules of life? Yet too many "should ..." and "shouldn't ..." do nothing but lock us in a cage from which it is difficult to escape. Replace your shoulds with wishes. Words often matter more than we might think.
18. Laugh. Have you ever laughed alone, perhaps in front of a mirror? Try, even if you don't feel like it, try to look at yourself and simulate a laugh: it's funny ;-) If we laugh when we are happy it is equally true that we are happy when we laugh. As already mentioned, the link between body and mind is much deeper than we might imagine.
19. You cry. As we grow up we tend to suppress our emotions, hiding them deep inside. But emotions are little bastards who present us the bill when we least expect it. Unleash your bad moments - cry if necessary.
20. Breathe. Breathing is the most natural and powerful gesture at our disposal. By controlling our breathing we can affect our emotions. Try some of these breathing techniques and let me know what you think.