Sleep, :) , and Sunlight

“If you cannot enjoy right now you will not enjoy tomorrow”

I realized that we must enjoy what we have and in order to do that we must be in a good mood. There are many ways to get into a good mood and it differs from person to person. But if we can implement activities or habits that give us good moods more often, then we will be happier and more fulfilled human beings. Being in a good mood consistently will change our lives and the people around us. People feed off of each others energy, and people can feel others people’s mood. The more happier we are, we will be able to spread that energy to people around us, leading into a positive feedback loop. The universe reflects how you feel inside. I remember driving back home from San Diego one night and my tire popped. Since I was already in a good mood, I was not phased and quickly called roadside assistance. If I was in a bad mood, I could’ve started panicking, which would’ve triggered my fight and flight response. When you anxious and/or in a fight or flight response, you will start seeing things in black and white and start making poor decisions. The more happier you are the better decisions you will make and the more fulfilling they will be.

Here are some tips on how to increase mood

Sleep

I wish we didn’t have to sleep, but we must. The older I have gotten the more I have realized the importance of sleep. Back in freshman year of university I used to pull crazy hours and sleep between 2-4 AM. If a class was before 12 pm, I would skip it if attendance was not required. None of my classes required attendance. Whatever class I did attend I fell asleep anyways. This was fine in college as all I had to do was school, but now since I have goals I want to achieve I must take my sleep seriously. The days where I am well rested, I have less to no anxiety and can focus on tasks much better. Recently I have been using Sleep Cycle – Sleep Tracker and putting tape over my mouth while I sleep so I am forced to nose breathe. So far I already feels so much better, and will report my findings in a future blog post once enough data is collected. Getting better sleep improves my mood and thus I experience more positive feelings and thoughts that day. People definitely recognize that positive energy and I notice that I uplift those around me. However I struggle to sleep early. Sometimes I go to bed early but early for me is 11:30 pm or 12 am. The normal for me is 1 am, and I am slowly changing that to be 12:30 am. Since sleeping is a big struggle of mine I am taking small but actionable steps to improve my sleep quality and hygiene. I currently average 5-6 hours of sleep per night and hope to increase that to 7-8 hours.

Smiling

Smile right now and I assure you will already feel better. (I bet your smiling right now, your teeth kind of wack tho, just kidding ;)). When we smile we release free dopamine. Sometimes I get feelings so intense I have a “Permagrin” which means I can’t help but smile. Literally google pictures of people smiling and you definitely smile. I am literally smiling right now while writing this. When you smile I bet your mind will switch and you will either be present or thinking of some happy memory. The more you smile the better mood you will be in. The better mood you are in, the more you will smile. Positive feedback loops for the win.

Sunlight

We are people of the sun. Shout out Luffy. The more healthy sunlight you get the better you will feel and your moodski will definitely improve. However not all sunlight is the same, there is healthy and unhealthy sunlight. The best sunlight is in the morning and the evening. The reason is that this sunlight helps you align your circadian rhythm and thus allows for better sleep. Also morning sunlight signals to your brain to wake up, and evening sunlight signals to your brain to relax. Getting sunlight at these two times have definitely helped me. Try it out let me know how it goes.

Morning sunlight tends best to be around 8 am to 10 am, but you can be flexible with this, anything before 12 pm works. As it approaches 12 pm, we reach a circadian dead zone, where being exposed to this sunlight does not affect our awakeness at all. For evening sunlight, its best being around sunset, or the ever so popular golden hour, take some selfies while your at it lmao.

Here is a Tik Tok from Andrew Huberman better explaining this concept:

Thank you so much for reading, lets grow together!