The Therapy Edit - On 5 ways to quickly lift your mood

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

Today I share 5 simple ways to lift your mood, for those moments you feel a bit 'meh'. These small things are all completely free and within grasp. So try them now, or store them away for a grey day.

Hello and welcome to the Therapy Edit podcast with me, psychotherapist Anna Martha. I'll be bringing you weekly 10 minute episodes to encourage and support your emotional well-being. Hello and welcome to today's episode of The Therapy Edit. It's just me today, not a guest. And I think I just wanted to start by saying how much I appreciate you, how much I think about you and wonder whether you're listening as you're stomping through a field perhaps or you're getting stuff done at home or maybe on the way to or the way back in the quiet car after a drop off.

But I really appreciate you. I really appreciate you listening and turning up and yeah, just wanted to say thank you. And today's episode is five things to lift your mood. Five things that really help me when I'm feeling sluggish, just grey i often say to say to my friends i just am i'm in a pancake mood today i'm in a pancake mood i feel flat flat as a pancake i'm not low i'm not high i'm just meh you know what i mean those days or you just feel a bit sat of energy um and i think yeah these things these things really

lift my mood on those days and it's i think also it's growing that confidence that mood is something that's always changing, I saw a post on Fern Cotton's Grid the other day and she showed this absolutely beautiful view and she'd taken different pictures and one of them it was just so foggy it was so foggy and there was a thick fog kind of hanging over the grass and then the next picture it was just this beautifully clear day so it was the same image and the same view with just this that you know one had the fog and the other one was so clear and she was saying that you know moods come and go and I think that's so true isn't it and I'm learning to be a bit more trusting I guess of those days where I just feel flat or I feel low or I feel a bit overwhelmed and

knowing that there are certain things I can do to help and then also the other part of it's just trusting that I will feel different and my mood will change soon and that that that it's true and I think we can develop a confidence in that actually we don't always need to do lots and lots of things to fix it or spend lots of time kind of ruminating or analysing why we feel the way we do but when it comes to sometimes just doing those little things that just pick you up a little bit that that turn the light on let's say on a grey day these are those things for me So number one came out of a conversation I had recently on the mother mind way with Emma of Playful Den and she is so passionate about inspiring adults to play. I really recommend following her. She was telling us how she often just does things that are fun because we miss fun. We play as children and then somehow along the way we lose the desire or we lose the recognition of the importance of playing. You know, life gets busy and full. and actually we still have an inner child that needs to be engaged we still need to play play has such

a therapeutic purpose for us it's it's a release it's useful it's productive we're worthy of having fun we're worthy in the juggle and in the buzz of life of doing those things that make us happy that make us laugh one of the things i've been doing recently is scooting so my husband for my birthday last year, bought me a scooter and not an electric one, anything fancy, but I'm absolutely loving it. It was because my kids are so fast on their bikes and scooters that I was jogging along behind them. So he bought me this scooter, so I could keep up with them. But honestly, I have so much fun on it. I feel like a kid. I see, I see my neighbour's faces when I go by and it makes them smile and I'm often offering them a little go and they love it. And it says things and Emma was saying

she sits, she sits with her roller skates on under the desk when she's working. So she needs a cup of tea. She just rolls on into the kitchen and I love that. You know, when I heard that it made me smile, what makes you love? What makes you happy? What has got lost along the way? The things that you used to enjoy. I'm thinking about doing a climbing lesson. I used to love climbing when I was small. You know, it's not so much what you do. It's how it makes you feel. What are those things ask yourself what those things might be for you my next tip is do something different just mix it up so it's not the same old same old i've got a walk i always do and every now and again i do it backwards and somehow if i do fear i'm going to get lost because i'm so used to doing it on autopilot

but you know just mixing up routine eat something different buy something different in your food shop you know go to a different group that day if you always go to the same baby group or you know what would it be like just to do something different today, just to mix up the mundane? My next tip is to tick something off a list. I was talking to a friend the other day and she was saying that sometimes when she's feeling just a bit flat, she just adds things onto her list that she can tick off that are really easy because actually it makes us feel good to feel accomplished. So what small thing might just be on the list that keeps getting, you know, it just keeps getting

deprioritized and it's just there and it's nagging? what would it be like just to get it done? It will give you that boost of accomplishment. It might be boring, but the feeling is good. And I find it's so, it's often hard in motherhood, isn't it? To do things from start to finish because we get so interrupted. And that can be stressful. It can be stressful that we've got something we want to do.

And then, you know, it's hard to complete that thing. So what might you create for yourself? Just simply, it might be tidying a cupboard or paying a bill or doing that bit of admin that's just sitting in your inbox, you know, just getting it done and ticking it off to give yourself that feeling of, ah, it's achievement. It was a little bit, it's done, and that is a good feeling. Another one of mine is talk. We often rely now on digital communication, don't we? Does anyone else, when you get a phone call that you're not expecting, kind of look at the screen and think, ah, ah, you know, it's like a ticking time bomb in your hand, and you're not expecting

to communicate and you'd rather just they sent you a message. But there is so much value in talking. There is so much value in hearing someone's voice who you know cares about you. When was the last time you spoke to one of those people? When was the last time you actually scheduled something in your diary or message them and said, can we talk? When can we chat? Just to hear that familiar voice can be really comforting. And have that conversation that goes beyond the functional. It might just be that you rant. It might be that you just let it out. I feel like our communication is so quickly being replaced by quick messages that can so

often be concealing. You know when someone says, how are you? And you're like, yeah, fine, because actually it's too much effort to say the truth. It's too much effort to go into detail as to what might be going on in your life. But I feel like, you know, we hold it all then. We need to release this. We need to talk it out. and someone might not be able to fix your feeling,

but actually talking it through, we process it. It's a way of releasing and externalising, and that is so helpful. I feel like we're starting to underestimate how powerful that can be and what a shift that can be on our mood. I spoke to a friend the other day. I've spoken to a lot of friends in this episode, haven't I? I spoke to a friend, I spoke to a friend.

I guess it's because everything I talk about on here, You know, it's often things that are being inspired in my own life, things that I'm working through, things that I'm thinking about. Anyway, I chatted to this friend and at the end of that conversation, I said, we should do this more often. This is so nice. This is so nice to have this conversation. We should do it more often. But life doesn't tend to present those opportunities, so we have to be intentional about them. So who might you talk to? The next time we're just feeling flat like a pancake. And my final one is one that I'm always talking about. And it's that gratitude. That gratitude that is there not to shame the feeling that you might be feeling, not to remove it, but just a ring balance to it. Like it's that turning that light on in a grey room. You know, the room is still as it is, but you're just seeing it differently. And so I love to challenge myself to list 20 things I'm grateful for because that feels like, you know, when you're just feeling a bit rubbish. That feels like quite a big task, isn't it? And you can really scrape the barrel to start

with. You know, start with a cup of tea that you had. It was nice and warm and what a privilege that is because some people don't have access to the water. And then you're starting, you just get on a roll. You know, it's not then the cup of tea. It's the water. It's the home. It might be the person that made it for you. It might be, you know, something about the environment that you're in that you're grateful for. It might be the sunshine that it was coming through the windows you drank it. And I think we can often become immune to our privilege, can't we, because it normalises. And I think just acknowledging and some of these things and just taking a moment of gratitude, it can, you know, that can really shift my mood sometimes. That can take me from dragging my

feet on the school run to actually walking with a bounce in my step, walking with a bounce in my step, thinking, oh my goodness, this, there is so much about this to be grateful for. So there are some things that I hope will be helpful next time you're feeling like a pancake. And yeah, feel free to drop me a message on social media if you're finding anything else that is working for you. And as I always say, it's not what it is. It's how it makes you feel. But I think it's worth thinking sometimes, isn't it? What might those things be?

Can you write a little list to them in your phone? Can you write those things down so that next time you can just call on them and they're there for you? Speak soon. Take care. Thank you for listening to today's episode of The Therapy Edit. If you enjoyed it, please do share, subscribe and review. You can find more from me on Instagram at Anna Martha. You might like to check out my two books called Mind Over Mother and Know Your Welf. I'm also the founder of the Mother Mind Way, a platform full of guides, resources and a community with the sole focus on supporting mother's mental.

and emotional well-being. It's been lovely chatting with you. Speak soon.