Practical Prescriptions to Feel Better Right Now
Wise & Well Weekly: Advice from our experts, great reads, and your feedback
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wellness, helping you make tomorrow a little better than today — thanks to Wise & Well writers and readers on Medium.
Welcome back to your weekly dose of wellness, helping you make tomorrow a little better than today. Please consider subscribing if you haven’t already, to get this newsletter in our inbox each Sunday. Below you’ll find links to our best recent articles, some insightful reader feedback, and a bit of random wisdom. But first, this week’s feature, only on Wise & Well:
Specific Mood Boosters from Wise & Well Experts
Few things are more abundant than advice on how to boost our moods, other than maybe bad moods, sadness and depression. Suggestions are often the usual stuff: exercise more, eat well, sleep better, socialize more. All good advice. But how about something more specific? How about constructive little things that can be turned into lifelong habits? The doctors, clinical therapists, life coaches and other Wise & Well experts write about mental health and moods all the time, so they offered up some wonderfully useful ideas when I asked them:
What one thing can a person do right now, today, to feel better mentally? Something that will boost mood today and, if practiced over time, improve mental well-being?
Keep a picture of a favorite person in your phone or wallet. Whenever you’re feeling down, look at that face and remind yourself what you like about that individual. It can even be a fictional character, or a long-dead hero. My patients constantly remind me that humans are visually oriented. Images reach our emotional centers more quickly and strongly than do words. When we feel down, we repetitively activate circuits in the brain that focus on ourselves and our negative feelings. A picture pulls us out of those loops and connects us with positive parts of the world.
— John Kruse MD, PhD
Smile every time your cell phone rings. Fake smiles release the same feel-good hormones that a real smile unleashes. And the bonus is the smile will automatically “lift” your voice, making you sound more pleasant and vibrant to the caller. After a while, this can become an easy feel-good habit
— Annie Foley, MD
We often think about relationships as the people we are closest to in our lives. But even brief personal interactions with more casual acquaintances (what psychologists describe as “weak ties”) can improve well-being. People who engage in more casual interactions — chatting with the barista at your favorite coffee shop, making small talk with a neighbor on your morning walk, sharing a story about your weekend with a colleague — on a given day feel happier. In fact, having more weak ties is a better predictor of happiness than having more strong ties. So here’s an easy way to feel better — foster your weak ties.
— Catherine Sanderson, PhD
Self-compassion is a frequently overlooked catalyst for change and enhanced well-being. When we acknowledge our failings and regrets in the spirit of forgiveness, we offset the immobilizing effects of negativity and shame, and can then move forward. “Research indicates that self-compassion is one of the most powerful sources of coping and resilience we have available to us, radically improving our mental and physical well-being,” writes self-compassion expert Kristin Neff. Next time, instead of berating yourself, consider viewing your actions with the same kindness and forgiveness you might offer to a child or your closest friend.
— Gail Post, Ph.D.
Speak kindly and non-judgmentally to yourself. It is essential to living a mentally healthy life. Practicing self-compassion breaks is a quick and effective way to start. Here’s how to do it:
1. Call to mind a recent stressor.
2. Acknowledge that you’re struggling with painful feelings. For example, say to yourself, “This hurts,“ or “This is a moment of suffering.”
3. Recognize this is part of being human. Other people experience this. You’re not alone.
4. Place a hand over your heart and say, “May I be kind to myself.” Other iterations include, “May I forgive myself” or “May I accept myself.”
— Giana Porpiglia, LMHC
Get up, go outside, and walk into the woods. Be present. Turn off your podcasts and music. View the sights; listen to the sounds; sniff the smells; hug a tree. Your mood will soar; your step will bounce; your blood pressure and stress hormones will decline as your mental health improves. The feeling will persist for hours, even days. The Japanese call this Shinrin-yoku or “forest bathing.” Science supports its value. But you do not need the research. Just test it for yourself and feel great.
— Stephen Schimpff, MD, MACP
Walk the dog. Spending even 10 minutes outdoors, moving your body, and making another creature happy is a triple whammy for those feel-good brain chemicals.
— Elizabeth Knight, PhD
HEALTHY READING
A selection of this week’s informative and insightful articles:
Why the Delay In My Cancer Treatment was So Infuriating
Her doctor said waiting a couple weeks to start her cancer treatment wouldn’t make a difference. As a physician, she suspected otherwise. Now there’s evidence that she was right, and she wants everyone to know: If you have cancer, advocate for quick treatment as if your life depends on it.
—By Annie Foley
We Must Stop Gauging Health by Body Weight
Weight and health are related, but not as clearly and directly as we pretend they are. This health coach and nurse practitioner explains the flaws in using BMI to gauge health, how it leads to fat shaming and serious inequities in healthcare for Black people and other groups, and what we should be measuring instead.
— By Elizabeth Knight, PhD
Failing the Smell Test Could Kill You
When this medical doctor lost his sense of smell after catching Covid, it reminded him how important smell is. Here, he explains why smell is vital to physical and mental health and helps protect us against the deadly epidemic of loneliness.
—By John Kruse, PhD
Here’s What Happens When People Brew Alcohol in Their Intestines
When a woman was detained for erratic driving, a breathalyzer test revealed a blood-alcohol level more than four times the legal limit, and she failed other sobriety tests. But she had not been drinking. Turns out in some people, the human digestive system can become a brewery, and thought auto-brewery syndrome is rare, it can happen to anyone.
—By Denny Pencheva, MD
Why Brushing Your Teeth is Good For Your Mind
Poor oral hygiene is linked to higher risk of cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Learn why, and of course what to do to protect yourself (and kids, if you have any).
—By Robert Roy Britt
YOUR INSIGHTS
Thoughtful reader comments on recent Wise & Well stories:
“I am an alcoholic in recovery and can attest to how difficult it has been to re-wire my brain. The mental obsession for alcohol takes a long time to subside, but it does subside over time. There’s a reason why it’s recommended to change “people, places and things” when deciding to be sober. For a long time I tried to keep the exact same lifestyle, minus the drinking, and that just led me to keep relapsing.”
—Victoria, re: Brain Plasticity Can Foster Alcohol Addiction, But Also Recovery by Gillian May
“Growing up I naively wanted to be happy all the time, but with the benefit of hindsight, it’s the struggles that make the triumphs worth it. If everything was vanilla perfect all the time, we’d go mad.”
—Quy Langridge-Tien, re: Life is Hard. Here’s How to Cope by Robert Roy Britt
“I have this lifelong delusion that someday I might fall in love with running. While it hasn’t happened yet, I love the people I run with when I run. The power of joining a community of runners can not be overstated!”
—Chris Arestides, re: Running for Skeptics and Beginners by Elizabeth Knight, PhD
RANDOM BIT OF WISDOM
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.”
―John Lennon
If you like what you see, please follow Wise & Well on Medium. Meanwhile, I hope we’ve helped you make tomorrow a little better than today. — Rob