Smile Away the Doom and Gloom

By GOODWIN, Emma

There’s so much doom and gloom out there, and as I had a lot of positive feedback about last week’s topic of laughter, I thought I would discuss positive thought this week and how it can benefit your health.

Many people start feeling depressed around the 40-year mark, and with the amount of investment companies going belly up at the moment, there’s probably a few people feeling very sorry for themselves and heading to the doctor for a course of anti- depressants.

We’re also in the grips of winter and the old seasonal affective disorder can play havoc with our mental health.

To start with, increase your intake of mood-boosting chemicals by eating fish such as salmon, kippers or haddock that are high in omega-3 fatty acids.

Try to get outdoors. While it may not look like the sun is out, we still need to get vitamin D and help our serotonin levels to enhance our moods.

Also a brisk walk gets the circulation going and gives you a sense of achievement.

Giving it all you’ve got at work may please your boss, but it could be at the detriment of your health, as relationships with family and friends could be suffering.

While you don’t need to tell your boss to take their job and shove it, you do need to look at balancing your life.

Professor Jane Plant, a chief scientific adviser to the British Government says, “Smiling is a way of tricking your brain into thinking that everything’s okay, even if it’s not. People who are mildly depressed should do their best to show the world a happy face as that will improve people’s reaction to you and lift your mood.”

This was from her book Beating Stress, Anxiety and Depression (written with co-author, Janet Stephenson).

The authors suggest reducing the amount of emailing and texting we do and revert back to face to face contact.

They go on to say emailing and texting are individualistic and isolating processes.

So get on the phone if you can’t bear to look someone in the eye and get some interaction going.

In the meantime, I would like to share this Sanskrit saying that someone – ironically – emailed me.

“Yesterday is but a dream, tomorrow is only a vision. But today, well lived, makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a vision of hope.

“Look well, therefore, to this day, for it is life, the very life of life.”

(c) 2008 Evening Standard; Palmerston North, New Zealand. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.