‘When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad, I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don’t feel so bad.’ These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things; Sound of Music.
When grief weighs down on your shoulders when meaning disappears from life, when you realize you’re losing your grip on finances when love seems to have flown out of the window, and worst still, you run out of M&Ms when you need it the most, feeling down is outright justified.
Given that it’s unnatural for a person to consciously want to remain in grief, it is necessary to know how to cheer yourself up when feeling down.
Remember, whatever the situation may be, it’s just a phase, and it will pass, and the transition of emotions will be easier if you are enlightened about proven ways to elevate your mood.
As per the Law of Attraction, like attracts like. Therefore, if you dwell on your grief, you will attract more reasons to grieve.
If, however, you shift your focus on cheering yourself up, you will magically attract more reasons to be happy.
Ready to learn how to shift negative emotional frequencies to vibrant positivity? Take a look at these random things I do when I’m feeling down. It always works. 😊
Table of Contents
How To Cheer Yourself Up When Feeling Down
Log Out Of Social Media; Be Offline For A Day At Least
Social media is the last thing you should resort to when you’re feeling down. Mindless chatter, fake coquettish posts, condescending platitudes, and more will only make you feel worse. Log out. Stay away from the circus and feel yourself healing.
Go Out For A Long Walk
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, aka your central nervous response system, which is responsible for your stress response, is impacted in a positive way with improved blood circulation caused by walking.
In short, walking has an immediate calming effect on your nerves. Walking in greenery is an added bonus. It’s an instant stress buster.
Enjoy A Solitary Cup Of Tea
It’s my firm faith that there’s nothing in the world that a cup of good Assam 2nd harvest brew cannot heal. Camelia Sinensis is nature’s medicine for a bruised soul.
The right amount of caffeine, antioxidants, and a unique amino acid called L-theanine energizes your mind and body, improves clarity, buffs alertness and attention span, and, most importantly, boosts your mood.
Binge Watch Some Horror / Thriller Series
Trust me on this; you will start appreciating life the way it is when your brain is convinced that an apparition is breathing down your neck.
Let’s say it shocks you out of your grief and takes you to a different world where someone else is royally creeped out while you are safely cocooned on your couch.
Not the perfect remedy, and it may not be the ideal one too, but it works.
If horror and thriller are not your cups of tea, watch reality shows. That’s horror enough.
Feed A Stray Animal And Engage In Charity
Want to learn how to cheer yourself up when feeling down? Start by cheering up the lesser fortunate. A day spent helping the needy is a day well spent.
Not counting the ‘helper’s high,’ engaging in charitable activities invites meaning to your life.
If someone smiled because of you, if someone was fed because of you, if someone felt worthy because of you, the Universe would ensure that you never feel down again. 😊
Be Unresponsive To Toxic Manipulative Condescending People
We all have one of those in our lives. Just like the appendix, even the heavens are clueless about their function till they play up and cause crippling pain.
Whether or not they are the reason behind your grief, don’t text them back, don’t take their calls, or react to their emotional drama. Be unavailable. Period.
Feel Your Feelings, Cry If You Need, And Sleep For As Long As You Want
Is crying a negative display of emotions? NO. Research shows that shedding those precious pearls releases oxytocin and endorphins, which are feel-good chemicals that aid in relieving mental and physical pain.
It’s one of the many ingenious ways designed by nature to help us cope with mental / physical trauma, unlike the understanding of the toxic positivity brigade that associates tears with depression.
So, feel your feelings unapologetically, cry at a safe spot, and sleep for as long as you need to. Sleep heals like none other.
Pro Tip
Don’t let bullies bully you into feeling what they want you to feel. If they ask you to stop crying and just be happy and are not telling you how to make the magical switch of emotions, feel free to swat them on their arm with a sturdy fly swatter.
Trust me, it works. And, to get away with it without consequences, blame it all on an imaginary fly. Ta-da!!!! Magic 😊
Organize Cluttered Areas In Your Home
Decluttering cluttered areas in your home feels as good as decluttering your mind. Organizing, reorganizing, disposing of unnecessary things, and cleaning keeps you happily distracted.
Once the cleaning is done and you see the glorious transformation, you feel a sense of achievement that invariably elevates your mood. Try it to believe it, and your house will thank you too!
Get Busy With Indoor Gardening
More time you spend in greenery, the less stressed you will be. Gardening is thus a great way to bust negative (low-frequency) emotions.
If you don’t have access to vast open green spaces, get busy with indoor gardening. Bring home some new plants, make sure they are compatible with the indoors, water them, speak to them, love them, and watch them grow. It’s therapeutic.
1 Hour To Fix Your Feelings, Thoughts, and Actions
You are in control of your feelings; it’s never the other way around.
Believe it or not, ‘feelings’ per se is a choice. No matter how good or bad a situation actually is, you can choose to feel either positive or negative about it. The question is, HOW?
To answer how to cheer yourself up when feeling down, you need to take control of your feelings, thoughts, and actions, and here’s how you do it.
Make A List Of Your Favourite Things
‘Raindrops on roses and whiskers of kittens; white copper kettles and warm woolen mittens; brown paper packages tied up with strings; these are a few of my favorite things.’
Take a piece of paper and pen and make a list of everything that you love. Colors, flowers, intoxicating fragrance of fresh gardenia, petrichor, gazing aimlessly at the stars, binging on the masterpieces of Sir P.G Wodehouse, taking a long lazy stroll down the busy streets.
Make your own list, and let it go as long as it can feel the smile that eventually lingers on your face. You are happy already, and you have successfully elevated yourself to high-frequency positive emotions.
Write Down Everything You Are Grateful For (Even If It Is The Chair You Sit On)
A grateful heart is a cradle for positivity. Practicing gratitude is a powerful way to remind your brain that you are already blessed with things that millions of others are struggling for.
This will help shift your focus from ‘deficiencies’ to ‘plentitude,’ making you feel better in a very short span of time.
Create Positive Affirmations And Say It Out Loud
I am happy; I’m feeling positive and hopeful; I’m cheerful, vibrant, and full of life; I am loved, I am protected, and I am forever grateful.
Affirmations are not wishful thinking. They are powerful doses of positivity that can change your frequency from low/negative to high/positive.
There’s a lot more on the science behind affirmations. I will discuss all in detail in my forthcoming articles. Stay tuned 😊
Journal Your Mood
Identify and write down what’s pulling you down; write down if it associates with tangible reality or imagination of an outcome that may or may not happen; if it is a tangible reality, remember there’s a solution to everything, and if its imagination, tell your brain that you have nothing to be sad about, hi5 yourself and get going with a spring on your step.
Read Your Thought Pattern
If it’s essentially destructive, gloomy, and fraught with hopelessness, try thinking the exact opposite.
For example, if you’re down because you feel your partner has been distant and may be cheating on you, focus on the word ‘maybe.’ Then think that there could be other reasons why he’s distant.
In my personal experience, the truth can be a lot different than what we instinctually feel. So, why invite negative thoughts unnecessarily? Focus only on the positive outcomes instead.
In fact, your elevated energy can clear our many blockages in interpersonal relationships and other issues that may be pulling your spirit down.
What You Shouldn’t Do To Cheer Yourself Up When Feeling Down
Knowing how ‘not’ to cheer yourself up when you’re low is just as important as getting informed about how to cheer yourself up when feeling down.
The idea is to do the ‘right thing’ to elevate your mood and not the wrong ones that would make you regret your actions soon after.
Don’t Go On A Shopping Spree
Maxed-out credit cards, low bank balance, no roadmaps for successful payback unless you have a source of unlimited income, never ever shop when you are feeling low.
Given that grief, sadness, and hopelessness impair decision-making, the financial debt you’ll enter for cheering yourself up by blowing money on things that may blend into irrelevance soon enough will be the cause of greater grief later on.
Buy yourself some coffee instead.
Don’t Gossip About Those That Have Put You In This Cloud Of Gloom
Words spoken in grief and anger are always regretted later. To avoid putting your foot in your mouth, stay safe from the gossip group.
While gossiping does give you a temporary high, there will be plenty to regret later. Be safe. Never gossip under low emotional frequency.
Don’t Invite Addictions Or Self-Harm
Recreational drugs, alcohol, smoking, and trying to inflict physical pain on self in the history of time it has done no one any good.
All that addictions can get you into is a perpetual downward spiral. If you find yourself getting drawn into it, get help immediately. Put your feelings aside, dial a helpline, and let someone help you feel better.
Don’t Blurt On Social Media
By the time you realize your slip, the damage is done! If you are down, log out of social media immediately.
Don’t post your opinions, don’t blurt your anger, and don’t malign anybody’s image, even if they deserve it.
People have dented their careers, relationships, and even self-image over it. Resume social media only when you get into a lighter mood.
It’s A Phase, And It Will Pass
Of the many ways how to cheer yourself up when feeling down, the fact that ‘it’s just a phase and it will pass’ has worked magic on me.
The more I repeat it, the better I feel, then I get busy with my favorite things, one of which is pouring out a bit of my heart into these articles.
Is there something different you do to cheer yourself up when feeling down? Do share; you may help someone defeat gloom and enter into a brighter, happier, and hopeful day!
Also read: 100+ Positive Affirmations For Healing Your Health