Top Seven Reasons Why Raising Your Mood is a Good Idea

YOU WANT a better mood, and you probably have your own reasons. But there may be other sound reasons to pursue this worthy purpose that you haven't thought about before. So here are what I believe to be the seven best reasons to put in the effort to improve your mood:

1. Good moods are good for your heart. A good mood is the antithesis of stress. And frequent stress is hard on the heart. An optimistic outlook and a good attitude are positively good for the health of your heart — not just metaphorically, but physically. Read more about that.

2. Good moods improve your relationships. It is easier and more enjoyable to converse with, hug, take a trip with, or anything else with someone in a good mood. It's easier to work out problems with someone in a good mood. One good way to improve a relationship is to improve your mood.

3. Your good moods help others become happier. Far from being a selfish pursuit, raising your own mood is one of the best things you can do for others, as this study shows.

4. Good moods make you more creative. Before they were given the problem to solve, students were first put in either a bad mood or a good mood. Afterwards, 20% of the students in a bad mood successfully solved the problem. But 75% of the students in a good mood were able to do it. Read more about this study. Good moods help you cope with difficult situations and improve your ability to solve problems, which improves your mood, creating an upward spiral (which is what the picture depicts).

5. Good moods make your immune system more vigorous. When you're in a good mood, your T-cells and NK-cells are more effective at killing off invaders and stopping the proliferation of cancer cells. Read about a good mood's impact on your immune system. And bad moods are bad for your immune system.

6. Good moods help you live longer. Having a good attitude and being in a good mood can add over seven years to your life according to this study.

7. Good moods feel good. Let's not forget about this one! Bad moods feel bad and good moods feel great.

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The Beautiful Truth

FOR EACH OF US, eventually whether we’re ready or not, someday it will come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours, or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations, and jealousies will finally disappear.

So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived at the end. It won’t matter if you’re beautiful or brilliant. Even your gender and skin color will be irrelevant.

So what will matter? How will the value of your days will be measured?

What will matter is not what you’ve bought but what you’ve built, not what you got but what you gave. What will matter is not your success but your significance. What will matter is not what you’ve learned but what you’ve taught.

What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage, and sacrifice that enriched and empowered or encouraged others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence but your character. What will matter is not how many people you knew but how many will feel a lasting loss when you’re gone. What will matter is not your memories but the memories that live with those who love you.

This post is an excerpt from an article entitled, The Beautiful Truth (author unknown).

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Being Happy Helps You Succeed

RESEARCHERS FOUND yet another practical benefit of good moods. A study by Sonja Lyubomirsky, professor of psychology at the University of California, Riverside showed "happiness is literally its own reward: It breeds success, just as success can breed happiness." Read the study here.

The New York Times News Service wrote: "While everyone knows that successful careers and relationships make people happy, new research suggests this process works both ways."

Would you like to be successful? Get happier. Here's a good place to start: The Top Ten Ways To Raise Your Mood.

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Lower Stress With Connection

HUMANS ARE equipped to stress out. We have adrenaline and cortisol and other hormones and systems that help get us geared up to tackle difficult problems.

We're also equipped to re-acquire our calm and relaxation. We have oxytocin and serotonin and other hormones and systems that help us relax and renew ourselves.

In the modern world, though, most of us don't take advantage of the calming systems as much as we could. But there's no reason you can't do more to relax and renew yourself and feel a lot better.

The best way to take advantage of your calming, relaxing, renewing systems is to connect with people. Isolation is stressful. Feeling alone is stressful. And feeling connected is soothing and comforting. Part of the reason is the effect of oxytocin. It's a hormone that serves as the counterbalance to the stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol.

Your body needs the ability to jack itself up in case of danger. But it also needs to the ability to calm itself down and soothe itself.

In previous times, we had plenty of connection. Our lives were filled with connection. But now the modern world works against it, constantly isolating us from each other. That causes more stress than necessary. The circumstances are stressing us out, but the balancing part, the soothing, calming part is not available.

But you can make it available to you. You can work around the barriers modernity puts up between us. And if you did, you'd feel calmer and happier, and you'd be healthier.

Dean Ornish found that one of the most effective treatments he provides (in his program that actually reverses the heart disease of his patients — not just slowing it or stopping it, but reversing it) is teaching his patients to connect better with their spouse and kids.

Activating the oxytocin system has some practical consequences. It doesn't just feel good; it doesn't just improve your mood. Connecting causes important physical affects on your body.

Learn more about connecting:

How to Cultivate Closeness
The Five Love Languages
Peace, Love, and Oxytocin

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