Simple Ways to Manage Your Mood

How does the body/mind connection affect your performance and moods? There are 100 billion neurons in the human brain, and each of them is busy most of the time constantly sending tiny electrical impulses from one brain cell to another by means of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. This activity is the biochemical basis of feelings.

We experience feelings of anxiety, happiness, sadness, joy, or depression depending on which part of the brain is stimulated by shifting concentrations of neurotransmitters. In turn, brain chemistry is influenced by temperature, amino acids in foods, exercise, hormonal fluctuations, light, music, and interactions with other people. Your thoughts and feelings are the result of a continuous interaction between body and mind which are physical and emotional factors.

As mentioned above, what we eat affects how we feel and act. Specific foods can react with chemicals in the brain to make us feel tired, depressed, anxious, or happy, alert, and energetic. Perhaps you've noticed that you feel sluggish and mentally dull after a big meal or lighter and more alert after smaller ones.

Here are a list of potentially stressful situations along with the recommended foods you should eat or the actions should take in order to manage the situations in a positive way.

Job Interviews

Try eating a high-protein, low-carbohydrate breakfast before the interview. Be careful not to drink too much coffee, and if you don't normally drink it, skip it altogether.

Business Lunches

Make food a low priority by eating a high protein meal about two hours beforehand. At lunch, be sure to eat a protein food first. Don't munch on the bread before the meal; you'll find your mental sharpness plummeting.

Avoiding Jet Lag

Eat lightly on the day before your flight. The day you arrive, eat meals on the schedule of your destination city. a high-protein breakfast, protein-rich lunch, and generous carbohydrate supper are best. When flying east, drink strong coffee or tea on the evening of the flight. If you're west-bound, have it before noon.

Hyper Kids

Before exciting occasions such as Christmas, feed children a high-carbohydrate dinner such as pasta, hot cereal, or baked potatoes. Keep them away from high-fat, sugary foods which prolong their hyperactivity.

Stage Fright

If you're jittery prior to making an important presentation or speech, eat one to one and one-half ounces of low-fat, carbohydrate food (no protein) to calm yourself down; if your energy needs revving up, eat three to four ounces of protein.

Severe Stress

When you're really stressed, your stomach may actually clamp shut, delaying the calming effects of solid carbohydrates. When this happens, drink your carbohydrates; tea with lots of sugar or non-diet soft drinks will do the trick.

Mood Music

Body rhythms respond to music. Loud, high-pitched music with a tempo faster than the human heartbeat (seventy to eighty beats per minute) will increase tension and energize you; low-pitched, low-volume music with tempo close to heartbeat is soothing.

Light Therapy for SAD

Bright, fluorescent light or sunlight relieves seasonal affective decline (SAD). Several hours of full-spectrum fluorescent lights (like plant lights) in the morning and evening make up for lost daylight in winter. Treatment must be continued throughout the winter, if it's stopped before longer spring days begin, depression quickly returns. Walking outside on bright winter days for even one-half hour a day also helps.