The 3 Keys to Effectively Deal With Everyday Unhappiness and Low Moods

By Starlene Hatch 01/02/2019 Leave a Comment

When you are told that your kids have multiple food allergies, autoimmune diseases that no doctor knows how to treat and to top it all off, it never ends. All these life events and working full time and trying to be a mom, wife and friend is overwhelming. I have always had an issue with depression and anxiety. My moods go all over the place sometimes. When mom isn't happy, then nobody is happy, right! That saying is so true. My kids get super cranky when I am cranky. Some days I just can't seem to pull myself out of the whole of sadness. Most of my life I have been taught that nutrition is one of the key things to boost your mood and to prevent depression. My parents always said that my brain needed food and nutrition to make the chemicals I needed to me happy and not so down. As a kid, I thought they were full of it. How did they know that? When I went to college and got a degree in Nutrition education, I learned myself that nutrition helps regulate the chemicals in your brain that effect mood. I had to admit my parents were right.

Most days I do not have time nor the energy to eat right. Even though I have a degree in nutrition and I know what I am supposed to do to be healthy, I still struggle. My main focus is always on my kids and their nutritional intake. However, I know that if I don't take care of myself, then I can't be a good mom to take care of them.

I read these three keys the other day that help you deal with every day unhappiness (depression) and just low moods.

When you don't know your happiness set point, you wouldn't know how to raise it. And raising your happiness set point is critical if you want to achieve long-lasting happiness in life. What does this mean? It's basically rating your mood or happiness on a scale from 1 to 10. 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest. Let's say that you normally range around a 6 on a daily basis. When something good happens to you like you win the lottery, then you can jump to a 9 or 10. That might stay at those numbers for a few months, but then you would drop back down to a 6.

1.Find your happiness set point.

Finding your happiness set point is where your journey to happiness begins.

The same goes for if something bad happens to you. You could drop as low as a 2 or 3 and stay there for a bit. Then you would return back up to a 6 again. If you don't know where you are currently at, then it would be hard to establish a plan.

2. Balancing Your Brain Chemistry

Balancing your brain chemistry is the safest, healthiest, and most effective way to raise your happiness set point.

It has been found by doctors and scientists that the reason people can't find their "happiness setpoint" is because their brain chemistry is all out of whack.

The 4 major brain chemicals are:

Dopamine- can be responsible for the feeling of motivation
Serotonin- is responsible for our mood
Endorphin- is for the euphoric feeling that the average person doesn't always experience.
Oxytocin- is for the belongingness we feel.

If they're balanced and working together like clockwork, we feel good. If they're not balanced, we feel stressed, depressed or just generally unhappy and we may not know exactly why.

3. Diet

Diet is the safest, healthiest, and most effective way to balance the happiness neurochemicals.

The reason why our neurochemicals get out of whack is that of diet. It's also how we can get it back in order.

According to research, the secret behind the happiness and evident longevity of Sardinians is their diet. Sardinia is a large Italian island in the Mediterranean Sea

It was found out that the modern US and European diets lack certain micro-nutrients like B vitamins and Selenium which are essential for balancing our happiness neurochemicals…

And that's why most Americans and Europeans walk around with depleted serotonin and dopamine or oxytocin.

Did you know that there are 12 foods that can balance Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Endorphin, and Oxytocin (And have a positive effect on your mood and wellbeing!)? They are not even weird foods that you have to go to some other country to get. Who has time for that? They are foods that most of us have in our pantry or fridge on a daily basis. With these foods, you can boost your mood or help relief stress just by making a simple green smoothie. Yes, it is possible for certain foods to make your mood better. Our brains get the nutrition it craves and balances the 4 chemicals that are in charge of how much we yell at the traffic on the way to work.

How am I going to get in 12 super foods to help boost my mood. Most of us don't have time for that. The fastest way to get the nutrition our brain's crave is by whipping up a quick green smoothie. These green smoothies use super foods like spinach and almonds.
A simple and effective smoothie that's particularly formulated to elevate the feelings of happiness by naturally and automatically balancing the neurochemicals.

So lets start 2019 with a bang! Try these green smoothie recipes and balance your brain chemicals every day that make you happy, less stressed, and the most important for me was NOT IRRITABLE. Being a mom with kids with multiple food allergies can make me super irritable, stressed and even angry sometimes. I get angry at the fact that my kids can't be like their friends and eat whatever they want. I would rather use food as a mood booster then medication. These smoothie recipes are brought to you by a popular food chemist from Sardinia and by Jeffrey Sampson.
You will gain much more energy, better mood, and life-long everyday happiness! Here's to a healthy 2019 Green Smoothie Style!