Learn to Overcome Negativity

Everyone feels sad and lonely sometimes. The good news is that you have more control over negative feelings than you think. Here are five mood-boosting tips that are guaranteed to help you get your groove back.

1. Expand Your Circle

Good friends and strong family ties enhance your life and shield you from depression and anxiety. Looking to make some new connections? Do something you enjoy: Sign up for a knitting class, join a book club or volunteer at your local community garden.

2. Breathe Out the Bad Mood

You can’t entirely avoid stress, but there are some great techniques you can use to prevent minor irritations from becoming major meltdowns. One of the best is deep breathing: Inhale deeply, allowing your chest and abdomen to rise to a count of four. Then exhale slowly to a count of four; repeat four times. Do this several times throughout the day, every day.

3. Lighten Up

Feeling like you need to be perfect is a direct pathway to endless guilt tripping and depression. While it's important to try to do your best in your professional and personal lives, learn to forgive yourself if your efforts aren't always flawless. Remember: Sometimes doing a “good enough” job is just fine.

4. Start a Blessings Book

Research finds that people who write down what they’re grateful for have more positive moods. Before bedtime, jot down three specific things that made you smile that day. It could be something nice you did for someone else, a new thing you learned that day, or just a good thing, like a delicious meal or a pink-tinged sunset.

5. Learn to Say "Whoa"

Many women are raised to believe that being a good mother, spouse, friend or employee means never turning down an extra project or a request for help. But trying to fulfill everyone else's needs means you don't have any time left for yourself--one of the surest paths for sapping your energy and darkening your mood. Instead, draw three columns on a piece of paper with a heading for each: Things I Must Do, Things I'd Like to Do and Things I Really Don't Want to Do. Use this list to delegate some tasks and politely turn down others. At the very least, you'll feel more in control of your time and that alone can lower your feelings of stress.