Feeling blue is something we all go through. But rather than cycling downwards into a negativity spiral, let’s correct your course of action to help you fight the blues for good. In this article, we’ll share 15 things to do when you’re feeling blue. The suggestions in this list have been tested by someone who has experienced the blues a lot in life and you’ll likely find that trying one or even all of the suggestions in this list ends up changing your mood pretty quickly. So, let’s fight those blues on tactic at a time.
Believe it or not, taking a shower can be the most therapeutic and healthy way to combat feeling blue. Often, when we’re experiencing a bit of a depression, our self care routine goes out the window. However, cleansing your body and washing your hair can refresh you. Many people in history have talked about the healing powers of water. Being in it can help wash away the sadness in your day. If you’ve been feeling a bit groggier than usual, try washing yourself with some lavender soap and shampoo which is known for helping people out of depressive or even anxiety driven states. Check out our article on feeling anxious.
The number one cause of feeling blue are our thoughts. Your thoughts can be powerful enough to make you cry, even when nothing bad is happening to you at all. The best way to overcome feeling blue is by learning to overpower your mind through a regular meditation practice. If your thoughts are out of control, that means your left brain is overactive. To minimize this, you can practice meditation to build up your right brain to greatly reduce toxic thoughts. You can install the free Declutter The Mind meditation app to practice daily or follow along to the YouTube video below.
Re-watching your favorite old shows and movies can help you overcome feeling blue. By putting on a funny show you used to watch growing up, you’ll remember some of the happy memories that came along with watching it the first time. In the winter, whenever I’m feeling blue or sad, I tend to watch Disney+ to rewatch some childhood holiday themed movies. And it always gives me the pick-me-up I need. The great thing about Disney is that while there can be some villains or sad moments in their movies, most of the action tends to be uplifting. And you’ll probably start singing to some of your favorite songs even if you’ve been feeling blue for weeks.
For over a year now, every night before I go to bed I read a positive book. And this has helped me stop feeling blue for the same amount of time. If you don’t know where to start you can check out Learned Optimism, Nonviolent Communication, No Self No Problem, Personality Isn’t Permanent, The Compassion Code, or The Power of Kindness. All of these books talk about how to overcome bad moments or difficult situations in an uplifting way. You’ll likely go to sleep feeling relaxed. And by reading positive books each night, you won’t spend your time comparing yourself to others on social media or doing something you’ll regret. It’s one of the good habits you can develop that’ll help change your feeling blue state.
Who’s your most positive and optimistic friend? Maybe it’s time to catch up with them and spend some time with them. However, rather than telling them a million things that are going wrong in your life, use your time with them to figure out how they stay positive. What can you learn from them so that you can change your own situation. By studying their optimism and trying to mimic it, you’ll slowly transform yourself from feeling blue to being happy. Use your time with them to ask them questions about what their daily habits are, how they deal with tough situations, and how they keep their mind at peace. Plus, people love talking about themselves. By putting the emphasis on them instead of yourself, you’ll see them become more energized which will help you too. And you’ll end up learning how to be a good friend even when you’re not feeling at your best.
A happy person overcomes feeling blue by spending their time helping other people instead of themselves. It sounds counterintuitive but it’s true. By putting an emphasis on caring and helping others, you end up indirectly helping yourself too. The one thing that tends to happen is that since your focus is on helping someone else, your thoughts are no longer keeping you down because they’re distracted with the work you’re doing for others. Also, when you see how happy you’ve made other people, you start to feel good about yourself. If you were to do one act of kindness per day, you’d end up having far fewer feeling blue days than ever before. Try it and see for yourself.
As we hinted at earlier, your left brain often makes you feel blue. But by developing your right brain, you can stop feeling blue. Meditation is one example of a right brain activity. But there are actually tons of creative activities that are right brained too: like graphic design, painting, drawing, sewing, photography, crafts, creating or listening to music, dancing, upcycling furniture, visiting a museum or art gallery, creating a time capsule, changing your hairstyle, creative writing, and so much more. By spending as much time as possible focusing on right brain activities, you’ll not only increase your creativity abilities, you’ll also silence the left brain which screams my life is falling apart at you non-stop.
With the pandemic and job loss, most people either physically can’t travel or can’t afford to. Planning a vacation isn’t about going on one, it’s about planning for one. The planning of a vacation often brings about much more happiness than being on one. And being on a vacation can be pretty sweet too. You can spend some of your time planning how you’ll relax on a vacation and where to travel to. Consider changing your computer background to a place you’d love to travel to that looks calming, peaceful, and a good time. You can watch videos on YouTube about the places you want to travel to and check it out. If you own a treadmill that uses iFit, you can even run or walk along trails of those vacation destinations from your home. Bringing the vacation life into your world, even if travel isn’t a possibility right now.
Speaking of treadmills, have you thought about going for a walk to help beat the blues? Head outdoors for a stroll around your neighbourhood listening to your favorite songs. A little bit of sunshine everyday (especially in the cold, winter months) can do you a lot of good. Traditionally, people lived outdoors. These days, people are staying inside more than ever before. No wonder so many are feeling blue! By being out in nature for a long walk once a day, you’ll be able to see and experience the wonders of the world. Squirrels playing with leaves, a cold windy breeze touching your skin, or waves crashing against a boulder can help make you feel a sense of happiness.
When feeling blue, you can always turn to a pet as a healthy solution to your sadness. When you’re having a bad day, your pet senses that something is wrong and immediately wants to cuddle. And sometimes that’s exactly what you need to feel better. How wonderful is it to be able to rant about something that’s bothering you with zero judgement? Try this with a dog and you’ll see why people who own pets tend to be happier. And if you don’t have a furry friend, maybe it’s time to get one. They’ll even encourage you to go on daily walks (which we just talked about).
While our brains like to wallow a bit while we’re feeling blue, it’s much healthier for you to focus on what’s going right in life. I know this can be especially tough if you’re going through something tragic like a job loss, breakup, or sudden tragedy. But especially in these darker times, you need to think about what things you’re grateful for. If coming up with a gratitude list is especially difficult, you can check out ours for inspiration. Studies show that people who practice gratitude daily tend to experience happiness more.
Sometimes when things aren’t going well in life and we’re feeling blue, we simply need an environment change. But we can’t always change our environment exactly when we want to. If changing your environment is out of the question, consider giving your home a facelift. As we’ve mentioned a few times in this article, right brain activities help combat feeling blue. Decorating your home, home office, or room uses a ton of creativity. Maybe you can splurge on some new decor, inspirational art, or plants. You don’t need to spend a ton of cash to make a noticeable difference in the environment. But the change up can help uplift your mood. Plus, the act of reworking your environment can help you feel like a substantial change.
If you’re feeling blue but noticed that it’s just a today thing rather than something happening for a while now, sleeping could help you feel better. If you’ve been feeling blue for a few days or weeks, we don’t really recommend this tip for you. Some researchers say that sleep is the most important thing we do. It allows our bodies to rest and refuel. Plus, dreams are your brain’s way of processing information of what’s been happening to you lately. If you’re in a bit of a rut, your brain can help you pinpoint the exact problem if you’re unsure of it. After all, not all blues can be pinpointed to a bad moment. Sometimes, we feel blue with no explanation. Still, sleep can be a therapeutic way to cope with the blues.
So, how long have you been feeling blue anyways? Has it been a week, a month, or only a day? You can use a mood tracker or journal to track your mood multiple times throughout your day. Events will likely happen throughout the day which will bring about different emotions. By practicing meditation, you can learn to control your emotions which will help you experience more positive moods regularly. If you notice that you’ve been feeling blue during a certain time of year, after a specific type of event, or that there is no cause of blues, it might be a good idea to check with a doctor. You might need to take supplements or vitamins as there may be a lack of iron or other imbalance which needs to be corrected. But it’s important to remember that we all feel the blues sometimes. So, if you’re asking yourself what is wrong with me, just know that you’re going to be okay.
Feeling blue can be a cause of having bad habits. To transform your mood from a blue to a vibrant yellow, you’ll need to create a new habit. The good news is that to have a big transformation in life, you don’t actually need a list of things to change about yourself. You’re already pretty awesome as you are. Just making one small tweak can uplift your mood drastically. Your new habit can be one of the things we’ve mentioned on this list already such as going for daily walks, reading a positive book before bed, or doing a daily act of kindness. By focusing on right brained activities, you’ll silence those loud, negative thoughts that are bringing you down.
Using just one or even a mix of the suggestions above, you can stop feeling blue for good. Negative feelings are only temporary and bad times don’t last. If your blues are coming from a specific hardship, you can reach out to a professional for some guidance on how to improve your situation. We hope we’ve encouraged you to fight the blues in a healthy and positive way. We genuinely want you to feel better soon, we’re cheering you on from the sidelines and wishing you all the best as you overcome this momentary struggle.
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