put on a happy face

[QuilterMom]

http://www.publix.com/wellness/green...1&childId=1343

Feeling more blue than bold? Try these natural mood boosters - they may be just what the doctor ordered for minor bouts of depression.
It's only natural to feel a little down now and then. After all, there are dozens - maybe hundreds - of factors that can send your spirits plunging faster than a falling ton of bricks. Funky biorhythms. Out-of-control hormones. Stress. Diet. Exercise (the lack of it). The list goes on.

According to the National Institutes of Health, modern research is showing that depression occurs when "neural circuits responsible for the regulation of moods, thinking, sleep, appetite, and behavior fail to function properly, and that critical neurotransmitters - chemicals used by nerve cells to communicate - are out of balance." And while true depression (feelings of sadness or hopelessness that last for an extended period of time) should be treated by a physician, you can usually shake off a bout of the blues naturally. Here are six tips to try.

1. Stretch your options. Practicing yoga positions like "Downward Dog," "Happy Baby," and "Child's Pose" can coax out a smile by easing pent-up emotions and tensed muscles, says Elizabeth Hedgpeth, Ph.D., a sports psychologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "Being able to control your body movements makes you feel more in control of your life and destiny."

Deep abdominal breathing, which is essential to yoga's practice, can be used outside the studio, too. "You clear your mind and become centered in the Zen mode," she says. "Your energy becomes directed, instead of being scattered as if a sparkler were in your brain."

Any kind of exercise burns stress-induced adrenaline while releasing feel-good beta-endorphins - body chemicals that are sources of pleasure and relief. "That's why post-workout you often have an afterglow," Hedgpeth says. It's also why therapists recommend exercise as a tool to fight depression and anxiety.
2. Snooze or lose. Two-thirds of Americans report having insomnia a few nights or more weekly, reports the National Sleep Foundation.

As we snooze, our body replenishes itself by releasing reparative hormones and processing and storing the day's memories. "Interrupt this process prematurely, and the consequences are crankiness, slowed reaction time, hampered creativity, and, most of all, daytime drowsiness," says James B. Maas, Ph.D., a Cornell University psychology professor in Ithaca, New York, and author of Power Sleep (HarperCollins, 1999).

A University of Florida in Gainesville survey of workers recently found that a good night's sleep may even stop a bad mood from seeping into the next day, as reported in the Journal of Applied Psychology.


3. Make someone happy. If you've ever run errands for an ill neighbor, held a bake sale to raise funds for your children's band trip, or babysat for your church's day care center, you've experienced the powerful effect of helping someone else. "It gets your mind off yourself and your problems," says John Rynearson, executive vice president of Civitan International, a charity based in Birmingham, Alabama. "You come away feeling you've done a wonderful thing."
4. Get some rays. Step outside on a sunny day to avoid Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), in which the lack of sunshine makes us feel blue. But there's more than emotion involved, as University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia sleep researchers recently found: In the absence of sunlight, the brain's serotonin levels drop. The body's circadian clock becomes unwound, so sleep and mood suffer.

Jamie Pope, R.D., a nutrition professor at Vanderbilt School of Nursing in Nashville, Tennessee, says that even if the sun's release of melatonin in our skin makes us feel better, it's wise to protect skin with sunscreen. "Premature aging doesn't make us feel better," she says.

5. Power up. Without riboflavin, niacin, and the B vitamins in food or supplements, you feel listless, Pope says. Brains sapped of tryptophan - the precursor of serotonin, the mood-elevating brain chemical - become depressed, reports the American Medical Association's Archives of General Psychiatry.
The best source of riboflavin is low-fat milk, while meat and whole grains help replenish other B vitamins and boost energy through increased production of red blood cells. "But you only need 100 percent of the recommended amount, included in most multivitamins," Pope says. Tryptophan is plentiful in chocolate, oats, bananas, dried dates, milk, and cottage cheese.

Another vital nutrient is folic acid. Found in green leafy vegetables, nuts, potatoes, and rice, folic acid gives you oomph by increasing energy-enhancing red blood cells. The University of California-Los Angeles School of Medicine implicated a folic acid deficiency as one of the causes of chronic fatigue syndrome.

6. Indulge in this simple pleasure. Treat yourself to a bit of dark chocolate, which is rich in phytochemicals that can help prevent blood vessels from clogging. "The sugar in chocolate boosts the chemical serotonin in your brain, which has a calming effect when you're anxious," Pope says. And the fat boosts endorphins. Of course, as with everything else in life, happiness comes by avoiding going overboard - even with chocolate, she adds.

[baxjul]

Thanks Kim!