Green juice and gratitude: 5 ways to boost your mood today

1) EAT CLEAN Eat clean, simple foods. Recharge with green juices and protein shakes, eat your chicken and tofu and don’t worry about all of the extra things. It’s okay to be simple with your foods – no matter what anyone may say. If you’re not the world’s best chef, you don’t need to figure out ten different ways to incorporate kale into your meals. Protein shakes and kale chips work just fine to fulfill that. Remember, “increasing the variety of a food increases how much everyone eats.” (H/T)

2) SHOW GRATITUDE “The benefits of gratitude start with the dopamine system, because feeling grateful activates the brain stem region that produces dopamine,” author Alex Korb, PhD, has explained. When you can remember what you are grateful for, and express your gratitude to others, you will increase the dopamine in your system and therefore increase your overall mood. It really is as easy as just telling the people in your life who you are thankful for that you are thankful for them.

3) SWEAT Working out is essential to your wellness. Studies consistently show that physical exercise is linked with higher brain power and happiness. “A 3 month exercise regimen increased bloodflow to the part of your brain focused on memory and learning by 30%,” John J. Ratey explains in Spark.

4) CHOOSE POSITIVITY It is so easy to complain – about the annoying person you sit next to at the office, about your coffee not being hot enough or even about how things aren’t going right in your life for one reason or another. The key, though, to increasing your mood is simply changing your mindset. See things in a positive light – choose optimism over pessimism. Rather than complaining, just take a moment to reconsider the situation and choose whether or not you want to complain or if you would rather put positivity out into the atmosphere. “Positive expectations do predict better health and this relationship is partially due to the goals people set in their daily lives,” according to the Journal of Happiness Studies. (H/T)

5) CREATE YOUR LUCK “By being more outgoing, open to new ideas, following hunches, and being optimistic, lucky people create possibilities.” (H/T) Going hand-in-hand with optimism, you create your own luck when you choose your own thoughts. Choosing to see the best in a situation can be hard, but mark my words, it will help you lead a more positive life – even when it seems impossible.