It’s not depression; you’ve felt this way before and got past it eventually. You know you are experiencing a low mood, a bit of a downturn. But life’s for living and you have to get back to your normal self soon. You need to know how to beat the blues before they beat you.

The Blues Are Always Temporary

You know this, don’t you? You might feel as though you are at the bottom of a pit, mired in the worst sludgy mood ever, but you know it’s going to pass. Tell yourself that it’ll be over soon. Help is on the way in the form of your natural tendency to bounce back. Your inner being wants you to be happy, so it is wired to guide you towards a better feeling place.

Why Do You Feel Blue?

You probably know exactly why you have the blues. There’s a problem in your life. Or someone said something to upset you. Or you’re worried about money. Isolate the cause, if there is one, and examine your feelings about it head-on. If there is action you can take to put it right then get to it. If there’s nothing you can do in this moment, you need to let it go. Just for now. Release it and breathe. 

Occasionally, we feel blue for no good reason. That's okay. There's no need to get anxious or worried about it. It doesn't mean you're sliding down the slope towards clinical depression. It's perfectly normal to feel like this now and again.

Look At Blue To Beat The Blues

Is there any blue sky out there? Gray will do fine. Go outside. Walk if you can. If you haven’t the time to walk, stand still and breathe deeply. Or simply open a window as wide as you can. Look at the sky. Let it fill your being with light. Doesn’t that feel good? Repeat at regular intervals. The science behind this is that light banishes melatonin production in the brain and encourages serotonin. Melatonin is the hormone responsible for sleepiness, and seratonin (which is actually necessary for the production of melatonin) is the feel-good hormone. Therefore, during waking hours, the more seratonin your body manufactures, the better you will feel.

Appreciate To Banish the Blues

We’re beating the drum of gratitude and appreciation again, and we’ll keep doing it. As we’ve said time and time again. If you are appreciating someone or something, you cannot feel bad. Gratitude, in the sense that you are glad for this thing or person in your life, and appreciation, in that you value their qualities, are on the same vibrational wavelength as love. You cannot appreciate and feel the blues. Try this: when you wake up in the morning, hit the snooze button, but try not to fall back asleep. Instead revel in your comfort and coziness. Appreciate the day ahead. Think about who and what you love the most. Your heavy waking mood will lighten and you'll face the day with gratitude instead of a sense of obligation.

Take Your Vitamins

The best way, of course, is to improve your food intake, ensuring everything you consume is healthy and of the best quality. We’re not saints in the food department ourselves, and we recognize the benefit of a good vitamin supplement. You might be surprised how your mood lifts and the blues dissipate because you have rebalanced your vitamins. The effect usually takes a few days to kick in.

Stop Eating That!

On the subject of food, you might be overdoing one particular food or drink item. It might be alcohol or maybe cookies. You know what it is. You think it will make you feel better and it will in the moment, but tomorrow, you’ll feel sludgy, guilty and miserable. So break the cycle. Stop eating or drinking that thing.

Beat the Blues With a Friend

Reach out to that person who always cheers you up. Dial their number, message them on Facebook. Do whatever it takes to get in touch with them. Make a date to meet up. Do it now.

Help Another Person

In any way you can. Hold a door open. Send your unhappy friend an uplifting message. Give some useful advice. Smile at an elderly person at the checkout (they'll carry the image of your beaming face through the whole day). Go out of your way to make yourself useful. You are not looking for any reward other than your own inner satisfaction. Without saying anything aloud, give yourself credit, congratulate yourself, be appreciative of the lovely, kind person you are. Milk the feeling for all it’s worth.  

Create a Happy Touchstone

A happy touchstone is a physical object which represents a happy memory, a person you love or anything that makes you happy. When you hold the object on your hand, and intentionally focus on it, all the warm, uplifting memories return.  

To create your touchstone, it’s best to be in a good mood. Find a suitable item. It should be durable and nice to handle. It might be a pebble, a crystal, a small wooden object – anything you can easily carry with you. 

There are two methods to imbue your touchstone with happiness. You can either hold it gently, while focusing fully on the emotions and thoughts you’d like to project into it or you can take a little longer and make a proper ritual.

Touchstone Ritual

Step 1: Cleanse your touchstone in clear water. If you can do this in a natural way such as in a stream, or ocean pool, even a fountain then that’s great. If you haven’t access to any other source of running water, then leave it out in the rain overnight, or hold it under the faucet for a few minutes. This cleansing will clear away any negative energy attached to the object

Step 2: Write down the gist of what you want your touchstone to represent. This is so you can be clear in your mind what you want to be reminded of when you use your touchstone. 

Step 3: Hold your touchstone in your cupped hands against your heart chakra and read what you wrote aloud. You don’t have to stick to the script; add anything else that occurs to you. Lift your touchstone to your lips and kiss it lightly. That’s it. 

Keep your touchstone with you and anytime you feel blue, hold it or touch it and remember the happy feelings and memories stored within. 

Live By Gandhi's Words

“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.”

Mahatma Gandhi

When you are feeling blue, remember nothing outside of you is in charge of how you feel on the inside. Only you are in control of your feelings. All you need to do is choose a way to get you from there – to here. 

Beat the blues by letting go of resistance, taking steps toward self-improvement and raising your energy levels.

Images via Pixabay