Happiness strengthens your immune system
Do you know a grumpy person who always seems to be getting sick? That may be no coincidence: Research is now finding a link between happiness and a stronger immune system. In a 2003 experiment, 350 adults volunteered to get exposed to the common cold (don’t worry, they were well-compensated). Before exposure, researchers called them six times in two weeks and asked how much they had experienced nine positive emotions—such as feeling energetic, pleased, and calm—that day. After five days in quarantine, the participants with the most positive emotions were less likely to have developed a cold.
Stress and Anxiety
🍎 Health Hack ~ Laughter is the Best Medicine
Have a Laugh
Read a few pages of a funny book, watch a clip of your favorite comedian, or call a friend who always cracks you up. Laughter obviously lightens your mood, plus it stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles. It makes your brain release more feel-good endorphins. And it can relax your muscles and help your circulation.
🍎 Health Hack ~ Christmas Day
Modify Eating Your Times to Jive with your Relatives’
Do your in-laws’ meal schedules fly in the face of yours? Here’s how to compromise: Say they wake up later than you do and serve a late breakfast at 10:30. Then they skip lunch and serve Christmas ‘dinner’ at 3 p.m. To keep your blood sugar steady without overdoing it on calories, have an early-morning snack (such as a piece of whole-grain toast) before your relatives rise and shine. Their late breakfast will count as your ‘real’ breakfast, plus some of your lunch. Enjoy the 3 p.m. meal – but don’t overdo it! – and have a small snack at around 8 p.m.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Christmas
Live in the moment.
We can get bogged down with preparing the Christmas dinner and making sure that everyone is having a great time. When this happens you realise that Christmas went by in a blur, for the wrong reasons. Take time this year to watch your loved ones open their presents. Savour your food and drink. Be grateful for who you’re spending your time with. When you focus on the good things in your life, you get more good things to be grateful for.
🍎 Health Hack ~ Need a Mood Boost?
Indulge in some tasty foods such as dark chocolate, leafy greens and other folate-rich foods, blueberries, chamomile or lavender tea, and magnesium-rich seeds such as pumpkin or sunflower seeds. Nutrients in these foods are thought to be related to emotional health.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Make Date Night a Priority
Date night. Make your marriage a priority and get out for some grown-up time. Connecting and communicating with your significant other is good for your health.
🍎 Health Hack ~ 3 Tips for Healthy Holiday Eating
- Take 10 before taking seconds. It takes a few minutes for your stomach’s “I’m getting full” signal to get to your brain. After finishing your first helping, take a 10-minute break. Make conversation. Drink some water. Then recheck your appetite. You might realize you are full or want only a small portion of seconds.
- Distance helps the heart stay healthy. At a party, don’t stand next to the food table. That makes it harder to mindlessly reach for food as you talk. If you know you are prone to recreational eating, pop a mint or a stick of gum so you won’t keep reaching for the chips.
- Don’t go out with an empty tank. Before setting out for a party, eat something so you don’t arrive famished. Excellent pre-party snacks combine complex carbohydrates with protein and unsaturated fat, like apple slices with peanut butter or a slice of turkey and cheese on whole-wheat pita bread.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Catch a Ride on the Sun
Get Outside
Step outdoors for a few minutes to pull some weeds, sit in the sunshine, or just get some fresh air. Research shows that time outside can give you more energy, a better memory, and less anxiety. Even if you’re in a city, notice trees, flowers, and parks. Soak up nature to give yourself a boost.
Feel Good Hack ~ Clear Your Mind
Take a brief meditation break. It’s simple: Sit quietly, close your eyes, and focus on your breathing. When you get distracted, just bring your attention back to your breath.
When you’re done, you could feel more positive and patient. That’s just what you need to shift the energy of your day and help you bounce back from stress.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Happiness is Good for Your Heart
Love and happiness may not actually originate in the heart, but they are good for it. For example, a 2005 paper found that happiness predicts lower heart rate and blood pressure. In the study, participants rated their happiness over 30 times in one day and then again three years later. The initially happiest participants had a lower heart rate on follow-up (about six beats slower per minute), and the happiest participants during the follow-up had better blood pressure.
