4 simple mood-enhancing tips

The following tips will help you get through difficult times, or, if you're taking mood-enhancing medication, increase their effectiveness.

• People at a retirement community who took a drumming class felt more energetic and less depressed six weeks after the class than before they started it.
• Researchers speculate that drumming helps to relax your body.
• Whacking a few beats out on your desk may help, but joining or starting a weekly drumming circle may help more, particularly since it provides camaraderie with others, which also helps with depression.

• Research shows that the physiology of smiling actually makes you feel happy.
• If you need a little extra help in the smile department, watch a comedy, read the comics or a funny book, or ask a friend to tell you a joke every day.

• First thing in the morning, lie on your back with your head hanging over the edge of your bed.
• Grip a two-kilogram or four-kilogram (five to 10 pound) dumbbell with both hands and extend it behind your head, letting your arms hang down towards the floor.
• Take 10 deep breaths, trying to expand your ribcage as much as possible.
• Bring the weight back and place it on the bed beside you.
• Shift yourself onto the bed so that your head is supported, and take another ten deep breaths.
• Repeat three times.
• The stretch will open your ribcage and chest, making it easier to take a deep breath.
• Apparently the most common unrecognized source of mild depression is restricted trunk flexibility, which interferes with full breathing.
• Most people with mild depression are shallow breathers because their chest and stomach are too tight to allow full, easy breathing.

• Drink one or two cups of coffee or tea each morning.
• Regular, modest caffeine intake decreases the risk of depression by more than 50 per cent.