Kevin Wallace 0:12 Hello and welcome to The Good Ahead Podcast where we host conversations in the areas of mental health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disabilities. I’m your host, Kevin Wallace with New Vista. Today you’ll hear from Laura Becker, a jail triage clinician sharing her thoughts on the ways we experience mood and also explaining some steps to take in order to improve your overall mood. It can be complicated, trying to identify what might be throwing off your mood and even harder to know how to get out of different funks that we get in in life. You’ll learn today that there are some pretty simple steps we can all take to care for our mood. So thanks for joining us and enjoy the conversation. Well, welcome. Today we have with us Laura Becker, the jail triage clinician for New Vista the former Director of Emergency Services at New Vista and we’re gonna be talking a little bit about the good mood fixer upper; just what is mood and how we can help improve our mood everyday. So welcome in Laura.
Laura Becker 1:19 I’m glad to be here, Kevin.
Kevin Wallace 1:20 Let’s start out by just defining what mood is. So tell us what mood is.
Laura Becker 1:25 A mood is a state or quality of feeling at a particular time. I like to think back at times are moments in my life and what I felt like when I’m actually trying to encapsulate what a mood and the feeling of a mood is. And I kind of went back to thinking about like Christmas mornings, and opening presents and being with family, or watching a scary movie and feeling scared and anxious. All of those are feelings. And then also, like we talked about, like, you know, getting your COVID shot and that kind of relief of getting that vaccination. But there are all kinds of different moods. I mean, there’s good moods, bad moods, feeling thankful, feeling frustrated, you know, feeling overwhelmed, relaxed. But you know, I like to also think about feeling optimistic and confident.
Kevin Wallace 2:11 Yeah. So what are the things that influence our mood in everyday life? You kind of talked about how we get those moods, but talk about a little bit what what the influences are, and that we may face every day in our mood.
Laura Becker 2:25 Yeah, exactly. Like thinking about the weather, just like today, it’s nice and sunny, it is warm, but the sun is out. And always having that the sun, you know, and the brightness, I think that that makes your mood feel a lot better. But then sometimes when it hasn’t rained in a while and it’s just kind of, you know, this is a good day to take a nap those kinds of feelings to you feel kind of just cozy in your own house. There’s also you know, if you there what can affect your mood would be if you have had too much sleep, or too little sleep. So if you are feeling you know, you’ve gone a little bit without sleep, you could feel more irritated for also frustrated, those kinds of things. Or if you had too much sleep, you might feel groggy, just hard to get going. You know, feeling also feelings of hunger. Like if you haven’t had your lunch and it gets to be later in the day
Kevin Wallace 3:17 might get a little hangry
Laura Becker 3:18 might get a little hangry. Exactly. So also just like if you have a headache, you know, that can also affect your mood. But we always we were talking about like I was mentioning Christmas earlier just holidays. Holidays, you know, bring about feelings, good feelings and bad feelings. You know, there’s a lot of holiday stress at times, but also there’s a lot of good feelings.
Kevin Wallace 3:33 And then you even tie in memories into your mood. Like memories can trigger certain certain good moods or bad moods.
Laura Becker 3:45 Exactly. Like I remember that Christmas was so great. I got you know, got this as a gift or Oh, that was so stressful. I you know, overcook the turkey and the ham and, you know, messed everything up. You know, you just have exactly so many things life stressors, you know, your work can affect your mood, what you bring home with you. If we all you know, it’s hard to always leave work at the office, you sometimes bring it home with you and just trying to cope with those kinds of stressors and worries. Yeah, and how that can affect your mood while you’re at home. So and then it affects other people too.
Kevin Wallace 4:17 Yeah. And it seems like there are two different types of mood and there’s a lot of in between. So there’s good moods and there’s bad moods, then there’s you, you identify yourself somewhere along that spectrum. So let’s talk about those good moods and bad moods. Let’s get the bad out of the way. Let’s talk about the bad. How do we confront these negative effects? The things that affect our mood?
Laura Becker 4:43 Yeah, sometimes we allow ourselves to get into this negative self talk is what they call it. And you know, this is when we are being our own worst critic. It’s when we tell ourselves, we can’t be good at something sometimes when we haven’t even tried. You know one of my experience was like trying to learn how to drive a stick shift car. Yeah, it was just, I had convinced myself there was no way I was going to be able to do it. I was my own worst critic.
Kevin Wallace 5:09 Seems like such an obstacle. Yeah, you convince yourself that there’s no way you could possibly drive a stick shift.
Laura Becker 5:16 Exactly. And I just I put that, you know, I just put up a, you know, roadblock and a barrier that really didn’t even need to exist, because I hadn’t even tried. So, you know, these negative things that we tell ourselves, it can be so self destructive, and they’re toxic, you know, it decreases our motivation, just like I said, I was like, I just had no motivation to even try. You know, you, you can increase your feelings of helplessness, and it also damages your self esteem. So we have to be really careful when we’re, you know, setting ourselves up for failure. And that’s that negative self talk, you really want to be mindful of, and say, Wait, I’m creating a roadblock and a barrier to something I might be good at. And there’s, there’s no reason not to try, you know, you have to, you know, kind of step back, think about why am I doing this? And then really try to put your best foot forward and get those negative, those negative vibes and those that negative self talk out of the way.
Kevin Wallace 6:12 Yeah, in my experience, is, I’m my own worst critic. And so I, how can you become aware of your, your self critic, you’re criticizing yourself all the time? How do you how do you become aware create that awareness of self talk negative self talk,
Laura Becker 6:33 I think you have to kind of realize what you’ve kind of, you know, kind of running into, you know, internal thoughts in your head about, I’m not going to be able to do this, you know, if I, you know, I could break the car, all the excuses that we come up with all the reasons, when you’re making that list of reasons why you can’t you just have to then stop and just say, but what if, but what if I could, but you know, what, if I could do these things? Yeah. And but you know, I need to give it a shot I need to try. Right, you know, before, just, you know, you know, if you try and you fail, at least you’ve tried, yeah. So it’s always better to put that first, you know, foot forward and give it a shot.
Kevin Wallace 7:12 Good. Yeah. Because I feel like that’s, that’s probably the hardest thing, maybe in this conversation that you will have to learn to get over is to get rid of the negative self talk. And so, knowing what negative self talk is, and now knowing how to create that awareness, how can we go into the positive and let’s let’s talk about the the more positive side of mood,
Laura Becker 7:42 Yeah, let’s talk about ways that we can, like, when we find ourselves in those moments of negative self talk, or we’re feeling like we’re in a bad mood, these are some ways that we can, you know, look at improving our mood. Especially, you know, this, you know, last year, a lot of people spend a lot of time indoors, and, and I know that when it got warmer outside, the one thing that you know, it’s really important to focus on is, again, as we were mentioned the sunshine, and you know, not having your blinds closed and letting the light come into your house or spending that time outside so that you can, you know, just get that fresh air. And being outside can really, you know, taking it all in can really improve start to begin to improve your mood.
Kevin Wallace 8:18 Isn’t it such an interesting thing that the weather can affect our mood, and I know that there there’s such a thing as seasonal depression and and there are some very serious implications to the weather and how it affects us. So that’s a great step of just taking advantage of a nice day. Opening up the blinds letting the sun in, go for a walk, stuff like that can seriously do an incredible thing to your mood.
Laura Becker 8:45 Yeah, I mean, if you can remember that. Well, we just recently had that ice storm this last one. Yeah. And how that was just like when you woke up the next day was like, what’s the world gonna be like? And you know, we had to kind of unthaw but once we unthought here we are, and we’re in the you know, the end of spring heading into summer and you know, it’s beautiful here so it’s time to you know, get out and enjoy it.
Kevin Wallace 9:07 Absolutely. So that’s that’s one way so the weather, just take advantage of the sunshine and get out and enjoy a nice day if we’re able to. What happens if it is like the like an ice storm or something? It’s really gloomy outside. What do you do that?
Laura Becker 9:26 Well, I think there’s still there’s other seasons obviously summers wonderful. We’re in the midst of it right now. But also if you think about walking in the fall, with the leaves falling and the colors changing. I also like looking at all the different you know, fall decorations, you know, and then also the Christmas decorations. It’s it can be kind of fun. It’s just a couple of you know, obviously ice is one thing but walking in a couple of inches of snow or running around seeing the kids sledding and people building snowman. That’s a lot of fun to take in if you as long as you’re dressed warm.
Kevin Wallace 9:58 Yeah, and there’s always gonna be positives and negatives to every season that we’re in, right? Like, so I almost see it as you, it’s your mindset of, are you seeing the good things in those seasons more than you’re seeing the are those outweighing the negative. So even just bringing to mind the good things that you can appreciate, I’m not a winter guy. I’m just not
Laura Becker 10:21 You’re not a downhill skier? Downhill skiers would not like the sunshine.
Kevin Wallace 10:25 Right? Exactly. Yeah. So but yeah, there’s something like snowboarding, I enjoy snowboarding whenever it’s snowing outside, and I can go out and you know, take advantage of that. So that’s a positive thing that you can replace with. Well, I hate being cold, but at least I can go down this hill really fast and hopefully not break a leg. But yeah, that’s, that’s good. Okay, well, yeah, what, what’s next? What’s another?
Laura Becker 10:50 Well, another, it’s kind of what we’re talking about is when you’re outdoors is to get moving. Yeah, you know, you increase those endorphins with any exercise. So, um, you don’t have to be outside exercise. You can, you know, you know, watch YouTube videos, and do some kind of Jazzercise, or any kind of, there’s a lot of exercise.
Kevin Wallace 11:09 It’s so it’s so accessible nowadays to with YouTube, and with so many classes that you can take and participate in.
Laura Becker 11:15 Zoom.
Kevin Wallace 11:16 Yes, yeah
Laura Becker 11:16 I did a lot of zooming when during COVID A lot of workouts over zooming. There’s a lot of on YouTube, you know, to do that, you know, yoga, they have a lot of yoga that you could do. So any kind of movement, it doesn’t have to be intense running or, you know, power lifting. You can do relaxing things like yoga. And you know, there’s a lot of like Zumba things that you know, a lot of people just as long as you’re moving your body and getting that blood pumping, you’re going to increase endorphins and relief, you know, and in, improve your mood and start increasing some endorphins.
Kevin Wallace 11:48 Okay, yeah, so get active. Alright, so next step.
Laura Becker 11:52 And maybe while you’re moving, if you happen to be just taking a nice walk outside, you might be listening to a podcast or you could be listening to music. So you know, if you like, I sometimes enjoy listening to classical music because that, you know, would kind of calms me it makes me feel more relaxed. But also, you know, you know, energized energetic type songs also kind of uplift your mood. I don’t know if you have any favorite songs you like to listen to.
Kevin Wallace 12:17 Big John Mayer guy over here. Okay, love listening to John Mayer. And especially when I’m like driving or something, roll the windows down on a nice day, crank up some John Mayer. It’s that’s a great day for me.
Laura Becker 12:28 Yeah. That is that isn’t Those are great songs, right? Yes. And I like you know, I like a kind of a child of the 1970s. So I kind of like, all of those kind of, you know, songs like that. Yeah, enjoy, you know, thinking about back when I was younger, and enjoying that kind of music and, again, that the music brings up memories, memories.
Kevin Wallace 12:50 Yeah. Give you positive memories.
Laura Becker 12:52 And memories bring about feelings and how you felt and, you know, are good reminders of how you know, that make you feel good?
Kevin Wallace 12:59 Yeah. Yeah. And even if they can bring positive memories, and they can also bring negative memories, so maybe steer away from the sad songs
Laura Becker 13:07 The sad song, the sad songs. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, it’s but it’s, but music is a great way to just again, you know, get your mind kind of, you know, a way to kind of escape if you’re in a bad mood and kind of turn your mood around. And keep moving forward. Cool. Yeah.
Kevin Wallace 13:26 Okay, what’s next? What’s another step,
Laura Becker 13:28 Another good step is just to enjoy start what I call stop and smell the roses. Yeah, stop and smell the roses is when we need to get out there and start smelling some flowers. Interesting. It has been proven that flowers decrease anxiety in an increase our serotonin and people get benefits from receiving flowers, but also giving someone flowers so they they’ve measured that, to show that there’s a positive effect in your mood from giving and receiving flowers. Wow. Something I like to do is go to Kroger and Kroger always has, you know, you know, there might be one or two days old and they’re not the freshest flowers, but then they’re like $5 and there’s but they still last several days. And I like to bring them into my house, especially in the wintertime. Right? And they like bring in some you know, roses and it just it just brightens up your whole house. Yeah, attitude but also right now we’re in the height of roses blooming outside and peonies blooming outside Yeah. And so those are those smells so gorgeous.
Kevin Wallace 14:36 They do.
Laura Becker 14:36 So just that you look at you know the beauty of flowers the smell the fragrance. It all is isn’t you know, you get almost all of the senses except obviously taste Yeah. And I guess there are edible flowers.
Kevin Wallace 14:47 There are I’m sure.
Laura Becker 14:48 So you may not taste the best but they look pretty Yeah.
Kevin Wallace 14:53 Well that’s cool. And I’m in the process of gardening right now for my my home. And I’ve I’ve done We found that to be true that if you have some pretty flowers around it, it, you can’t look at those and be like, oh, like, just be a good mood.
Laura Becker 15:09 Yeah. And I think it’s also well, also with planting, it’s like, you also see that, you know, the accomplishment of not only if even if you, you know, either it’s semi grown up, you know, they just grow and yeah, it’s true, there’s not a lot to caring for something, you’re caring for something you’re to, it’s growing, it’s becoming even more beautiful for them when you and you know, it just keeps going. So it’s just, it becomes something and you’re you’re responsible for it and you’ve cared for it you’ve you’ve made this happen.
Kevin Wallace 15:37 So it gives you a sense of accomplishment when you see that it’s it’s grown and can give you pleasure through just looking at it and seeing the the process of it all. That’s right. This break in the conversation is a reminder that the good ahead podcast is brought to you by New Vista. New Vista is a community mental health center caring for Central Kentucky communities in the areas of mental health, substance use and intellectual and developmental disabilities. If you want to know more about New Vista’s services, call our 24-Hourour Helpline at 1.800.928.8000 or visit our website www.newvista.org. Okay, back to the conversation with
Laura Becker.
Laura Becker 16:29 Another way to also improve your mood, which this is one of my favorite ways is the cooking and the baking. Yeah, the smells of food because also take us back to memories. Yeah. You know, you remember what you know this in, you know, baking a pumpkin pie, fresh baked cookies, you know, those kinds of things, those the olfactory, from smelling all of those smells just can increase your, you know, improves your mood also takes you to memories and brings about good feelings. You know, and do you have a favorite smell I have several favorite smells.
Kevin Wallace 17:03 I well, I just love steak and like cooking steak. And so the smell that I get from cooking a steak is just the best. So
Laura Becker 17:14 I like I like baking cookies. Oh, that’s great. I like that. But you know, there’s other weird, you know, aside from cooking and baking, which is what I really think about with the smells, is I like fresh cut grass. And also when you blow out a match. Yeah, I love that smell. It’s kind of a random thing is random. But also with the cooking and baking there’s also that essential sense of accomplishment where you you know, have a you know, make a cookie dough baked the cookies get to eat the cookies, you can share what you’ve baked, right? You know, with other people. You know, and just making, you know, or making a lasagna, a lot of people love that Italian, you know, tomato sauce. Yeah, all that smell. And it’s just food is something that’s kind of universal that we can all share together. And bring, you know, in that makes it makes people pay to share food.
Kevin Wallace 18:07 Absolutely. So what’s next, what’s another step, Unknown Speaker 18:10 The another step would be this would be learning something, learning something new. And again, this will go back to working on that negative self talk is, you know, if you when you learn something new, there’s always a kind of a hesitant approach to like, Okay, I’ve never done this before. How will it go? You know, I’m nervous, but you kind of you know, but you give yourself that opportunity to learn something new. And like, during COVID, I learned how to use an air fryer, because we couldn’t go out to eat very easily. So I learned how to, you know, utilize an air fryer, which is something I’ve never done. And I was just like, Oh, I’m intimidated by that. But I was like, Well, I’ve got the instruction book. I’m going to try it. Yeah. And I learned something new. Did you learn anything new over COVID
Kevin Wallace 18:57 Being it being a first time homeowner just buying a house very recently. There’s always something new to learn about fixing something up whatever. Long story short, I had to replace a toilet. Oh, and that was terrifying to me. That was like you don’t want to mess up. That would be a true mess. But I learned how to do it. And thank God for YouTube yet again, to save the day and learn how to replace it. And it was good. It was like a really good sense of accomplishment after it
Laura Becker 19:29 And the money you saved.
Kevin Wallace 19:30 Yeah. Yeah. Didn’t have to didn’t have to hire a plumber for that. But yeah, it was it was definitely a very intimidating task to try to learn how to do something new like that. And then to come out of the other side of it and be like, Okay, well, I did it.
Laura Becker 19:47 Yeah. Well, what’s the next thing I can try to do? And it Yeah, and it’s, you know, that’s the thing about life is just always, you know, facing those challenges, not letting it get letting ourselves get too overwhelmed, which You know, obviously he’s, uh, you know, a mood is feeling overwhelmed. But taking that more optimistic approach and then at the end like you said, I’m just like, well, I’m surprised I did this, you know, here, here we are on the other side. So you know, learning something new the only other thing that I learned was how to drink coffee black. Yeah, hey, that’s a big one, though. It was a long road. It was like a 10 year road for me. I went from you know, cream and to, to sweet lows down to you know, just drinking, drinking regular brown water coffee,
Kevin Wallace 20:30 I know how long, so I did the same thing a while back, it took me a good like, two, three weeks of just getting past this awful taste of what black coffee is, at first. And then after like two or three weeks, it felt great.
Laura Becker 20:45 Yeah. And now it’s like, I couldn’t imagine having it the other way any other way. But it was like, and I had to kind of make a conscious decision of I just really need to, you know, ditch all the cream and the sugar. Yeah. Yeah. Adding too much. Yeah.
Kevin Wallace 21:01 If, if you’re, if you’re thinking about making the jump from putting all this junk in your coffee to going black coffee, you’ve got two people right here. Yes, crossed the other side,
Laura Becker 21:12 We can support you. Yes, we’re here for you.
Kevin Wallace 21:15 Okay, so we fired off six steps, let’s go on to the next one.
Laura Becker 21:19 The next step is to, you know, stay connected, you know, we are all like just human animals are all about connecting with people. We’re not, we don’t, we’re not isolated people, we don’t like to just be on our own. And obviously, it was, you know, it can be hard, like, during, like the ice storm or during COVID, where people were more isolated. And we’re still social distancing. And a way to stay connected, obviously, is through social media, listening to podcasts, you know, you know, watching YouTube videos, I watched during COVID, they had videos on visiting different museums, like you could go through the loop, they had like a virtual, you know, trip through the loop, and they still have those on there, you can go to different places all over Europe, or all over the world, like the Taj Mahal and take a tour of the Taj Mahal. And that’s, you know, when you can’t wait, nobody can, you know, can travel. So that was a way to kind of escape and travel and see the world when we’re still, you know, in our houses. Yeah, I enjoy. Like, there’s a lot of zoom trivia. And that’s a way to make, you know, gaming can kind of be a way to to make friends.
Kevin Wallace 22:29 Online gaming is a huge one, just go on with computer games or gaming consoles, and you can go online and connect with your friends. That way, you can even talk to them through a headset. And I know, that’s a huge way to connect with their peers.
Laura Becker 22:43 Yeah, huge way that yeah, kids, adults, everybody can connect, and stay connected through Facebook and Instagram and see pictures and share pictures. And I think that’s a good way to stay connected
Kevin Wallace 22:55 Yeah. So connecting with others, it’s, that’s huge.
Laura Becker 22:57 And I think now, you know, obviously, things are starting to get, you know, we’re getting back out into the world now, you know, post COVID. And, you know, people there are events, you know, that you’re still sitting socially distant, but they’re having outdoor concerts, and just, you know, going back to those concerts and listening to music, and I know that they’re having a lot of road races back in Lexington, you know, across, you know, Kentucky too just, you know, so people are things are starting to happen here. So that we’re starting to get, we’re starting to see some small and large gathering mostly outside, but that’s a good thing to you know, get yourself back out there, people get connected through their churches. And that’s, that’s the next thing I think about with is helping others. That is a really good way to feel. Pick up your mood is, you know, like I said, if you’re baking those cookies, and then sharing those cookies with someone, you know, who doesn’t enjoy baking, but then they get to have the, you know, that they read your book, and reap the benefits. And so another way to really help your mood is to help other people. Sometimes, like when it snows, I would always go ahead and, you know, went while I like to shuffle. It’s kind of like exercise. And so I like to shovel and I would always go ahead and shovel the snow off of you know, my walk my neighbor’s walks on either side. You know, if I had enough time, I would do people’s driveways. And I know that that just you know, then they wake up and they don’t you know, they don’t have to do it. So it’s always it always gave me a sense of oh, I help somebody else out today. Yeah, I think that’s a good way to improve your mood is just, you know, be helpful. You know, everybody’s facing something every day. So it’s you know, just try to make everybody’s life easier.
Kevin Wallace 24:42 Yeah, right. Keep an eye out for ways that you can you can just help somebody in need. And it doesn’t it doesn’t have to be some big grandiose act.
Laura Becker 24:54 Shoveling wasn’t is not changing the world made me feel better. Right. Yeah, but I think yeah, Just holding a door for someone, yeah, that’s maybe got a lot of, you know, packages that they’re trying to carry in or they’re trying to get, you know, get there, they’re carrying in their baby and then their groceries and they’re trying to get the, you know, the get the door open. And I think any way you can help someone makes their life easier. Yeah. So one of the last one of it, we’re getting kind of towards the end. But this one has to do with sleep, and our sleep hygiene and how we, you know, we really have to protect our sleep. I know, you know, like we talked about those rainy days earlier, sometimes when it’s rainy, and you want to take a nap, you know, but you have to be mindful of how long those naps are in the day. Because if you take a solid three or four hour nap in the middle of day, you’re going to have a harder time going to sleep that night. Yeah. And then you kind of messed up your sleep patterns. So you do have to protect your sleep. And that’s like I said, called sleep hygiene. Just like we’ve talked about, you know, brushing our teeth and our oral hygiene, you have to be cognizant of your sleep hygiene. So keeping like a regular sleep schedule, you know, not using your being on your phone, until like the very last minute before you put the phone down to try to go to sleep. Because then screentime can really affect you know, your ability to sleep.
Kevin Wallace 26:14 I’ve heard that the first 30 minutes of your day in the last 30 minutes of the day are some of those important times for your sleep and for your like waking up. And so I know that going to sleep with your phone and like your screentime it can really affect your sleep patterns and all that. So being aware of how you can set yourself up for a better night’s sleep is is a great step to take.
Laura Becker 26:38 Exactly because like let’s say it’s within that last 30 minutes that you’re going to go to try to sleep you see a post from a friend that either is exciting or it could be negative and then then your mind starts you know going and going and going turning wheels are turning and then you’re not able to fall asleep. So I think that that you know it just like I said, it’s you know, you rise with the sun, you go to sleep with the moon so it’s Don’t be sleeping in all day. Don’t beat sleep until noon. Those kinds of things. Yeah, get up early, you know, early bird gets the worm.
Kevin Wallace 27:11 That’s right. And then I think we got one more step.
Laura Becker 27:14 Yes. And the last step is pretty easy. It’s smiling. And just being cognizant if you are, you know, just kind of, you know, walking around and in smile, you know, just smiling, like, like I was at the grocery store recently and it was because I am vaccinated I don’t have to wear a mask and in the grocery store. And this must have been smiling because we’re so mad grocery shopped without a mask on. And this little girl came up and wanted to fist bump me. It gets she was smiling and I was smiling. And so you know, when people see people smiling it really, you know, if it you know, improves their mood you put out that good positive and energy. Yeah, smiling is universal. So like it let’s say we went to another country, if you’re smiling, they’re gonna know that you’re approachable and friendly. You know, so I think that we just have to, you know, think about you know, you don’t have to, you know, fake it till you make it you don’t have to if you’re if you’re in a bad mood, and you’re not feeling like smiling Well, you know, you could think about trying to smile is would make you make it does make you feel better. It takes actually less muscles to smile than it does to frown. So frowning, takes more muscles, so So you should always try to smile. I always liked my one of my favorite movies is elf and I always like how he says smiling is my favorite. My favorite. Exactly. So spoke you know, smiling does, you know make people happy? And it just it just will will lift your mood if you are smiling.
Kevin Wallace 28:46 Yeah. Wise words from Buddy the Elf. That’s right.
Laura Becker 28:51 It’s a great movie. Yes.
Kevin Wallace 28:53 Okay, well, those are 10 steps. Let’s recap those real quick. And so 10 steps. First one being lighten up. Go out, get some sunshine. Second one being get moving, go get active. Number three. Listen to music or podcasts something that you enjoy. Step number four, smell the roses. Stop and smell the roses. Step five, cooking and baking. Step six, learning something new. Step seven, connecting with others. Step eight, helping others. Step nine, get enough sleep. And step 10, be Buddy the Elf, smile more. Smile more. Smiling is your favorite. That’s right. And so just to wrap up, what’s a resource that we could give to also you’ve got these steps but also in any anything else for like an app or something that that people can use moving forward.
Laura Becker 29:47 I do have a couple of mood boosting resources. The first one I would suggest using is the MyStrength.com. It’s a free mobile app where you can track your mood, and it provides you with tools to help you to use use at home. Yeah, we also have a code called the you can use this code to download the app for free. Yeah, the code is seethegood yeah. seethegood. Yeah, all lowercase.
Kevin Wallace 30:12 That’s a great resource to they, they have different articles that help you and like exercises that walk you through things that that can really help influence your mood positively.
Laura Becker 30:23 Yes, and there’s also the, it’s happierhuman.com, www.happierhuman.com, it’s a it’s a mood tracker, probably one where you’re just putting in like a smiley face or a frowny face. And that way you can try, you know, track your moods throughout the week, or in the month and probably the year. So also, like healthline.com has a lot of nutrition. It has, there’s recipes for mood food. Yeah. So you could also try that. And also very well mind dot com also has some exercise and mood improving skills as well.
Kevin Wallace 31:00 Awesome. Cool. Well, great, Laura, thank you so much for this conversation. I mean, I took a lot away from this and just some very practical things that I’m going to try to apply for my life. So hopefully our listeners can take this and and apply it to their life. That’s right. Thank you for joining us in today’s episode. Just a reminder that this podcast is brought to you by New Vista. We assist individuals, children and families in the enhancement of their well being through mental health, substance use, and Intellectual and Developmental Disability Services. We see the good ahead for all individuals in our communities. Again, if you need help, call our 24-Hour Helpline at 1.800.928.8000 or visit our website at www.newvista.org. We hope you enjoyed today’s episode, and we’ll see you next time
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