Know Someone With Diabetes? Exercise May Be a Big Help
For people who have diabetes—or almost any other disease, for that matter—the benefits of exercise can’t be overstated. Exercise helps control weight, lower blood pressure, lower harmful LDL cholesterol and triglycerides, raise healthy HDL cholesterol, strengthen muscles and bones, reduce anxiety, and improve your general well-being. There are added benefits for people with diabetes: exercise lowers blood glucose levels and boosts your body’s sensitivity to insulin, countering insulin resistance.
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🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Hugs Are a Feel Good Thing
Give Yourself a Hug
You know those warm fuzzies you feel when you get a hug from a pal? You actually trigger that same release of oxytocin and reduction of cortisol in yourself via touch. Expert in the field of self-compassion Kristin Neff says squeezing, stroking, or rocking your body when you’re nervous can effectively tap into feel-good sensations—excellent for when your self-confidence is faltering before a presentation.
🍎 Health Hack ~Avoid Holiday Stress
Don’t Forget to Check In With Yourself
It’s easy to get caught up with preparing dinner or wrapping gifts until your fingers fall off, but be sure to take a few seconds to ask what’s going on with you.
“Do a daily check-in with yourself each morning to see what you need, just for you, that day,” Patel says. “It could be the simplest thing like your morning coffee alone, a 30-minute walk with your favorite music, or drinking a green juice to fuel your body.”
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Stand Straight & Tall
Straighten Up
You’ve likely heard that certain power stances—standing like Super Woman, for example—instantly boost your self-confidence, making you look mighty when you feel puny. It turns out, you don’t even need to leave your chair to strike that pose: Simply sitting up straight and lifting your chest can make you feel more confident than slouching over, science says.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Make Sleep a Priority
When we sleep, our brains recharge, ensuring we wake up alert and clear-headed. Without enough rest, our energy, attention and memory are reduced and stress hormones go through the roof. Thus, happy people make sleep a priority.
🍎 Health Hack ~ Don’t Let Emails Rule You
Urgent” Emails
E-mails cause more stress for women than men because women feel greater pressure to respond immediately. So try turning off your e-mail alerts, and check your inbox when the timing is right for you.
Stress happens—chalk it up to the holidays, work, or gloomy weather persisting. Next time you’re feeling stressed, keep tension in check by exercising, catching up with a friend, or devoting a few minutes to your favorite hobby.
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🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ LOL and Laugh a Lot
Laugh!Â
What makes you laugh? Do it! Sometimes watching a comedy or even a YouTube clip can take you out of you slump. So can recalling a funny experience in your life and re-telling it to the friend or spouse you shared it with. Laughter keeps things light and real.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Start The Day Right
Every day is a clean slate. Once it gets going, though, it can get away from you, and the next thing you know, it’s time for bed, and you didn’t focus on what you planned to. Avoid this by starting every day writing down one thing you’re grateful for. Write down and reflect on what’s good. It’s simple, but it starts off your day on the right foot before you jump back into the daily grind.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ Ignite the Dopamine
Jump Start Your Dopamine With Exercise
Dopamine, a chemical that plays a role in happiness, is a neurotransmitter in the brain that’s necessary for feelings of pleasure and happiness.
Many studies suggest that as we age, we’re constantly losing our stores of dopamine, which is why we need to constantly seek out experiences that release dopamine.
The best way to increase your brain’s dopamine production? Exercise. So run, lift, jump, play — and get happy.
🤗 Feel Good Hack ~ You Really Are Strong
Remember How Far You’ve Come
While most advice you hear says that if you want to be happy you need to forget about the negative things in the past, researchers at the University of California, Davis found the opposite to be true. When you take time to remember the challenges you’ve overcome, it can heighten your feelings of gratitude in the present. The key is to focus on being grateful for the progress you’ve made instead of resenting the ways difficult times have held you back.
