Now I know what you are thinking…. “I am so sick of these “life hacks in (x) steps” and to be honest so am I.

In life I don’t think there are any real “shortcuts” to get what you want…well no legal ones anyway (lol).

However many of us have days where our mood is incredibly low and it can be hard to snap out of it and break the downward spiral. The steps outlined below are simple, effective but can be hard to implement because they can be uncomfortable (especially number 3!). But seeing as there are no shortcuts, I promise, if you perform these steps correctly, you WILL feel better than you did before doing them.

How this came about:

2020 was a hard year for me, I broke up with my long-term girlfriend, went back to living by myself and felt incredibly lonely as over the preceding few years had alienated many of my close friends due to the toxic relationship I had found myself in.

Some days I really struggled to motivate myself to do anything at all and had a real hard time reversing the low moods I often found myself in.

So… what did I do?

I knew from reading many books on mindset / personal development and from my own experiences, that several things do help with maintaining more of a positive outlook.

These things were:

-Gratitude

-Exercise

-Positive self-image

-Getting a jolt of adrenaline

-Overcoming an obstacle

-Focussing on the small victories

I already did these things individually; making my bed in the morning was my small victory, gratitude in the evening, exercising 4 times a week etc… but these are great maintainers of mood, but didn’t help in situations where I started in the day in a very low place.

So I figured I needed a routine that I could do in 15 mins and would have an overwhelming effect on my mood by compounding the boost I got from doing the above individually.

The idea behind the method below is that alone, you would get a small increase in your mood, but doing some of these one after the other, then you will see a much bigger change.

The method:

Note: I am not a medical professional and can’t give medial advice. All I can do is tell you what has worked for me and for others who have tried it. Always seek independent medical advice if you are worried about performing any steps within this method.

Mins 0 to 3: Think of 3 things that you are truly grateful for. These can be big or small but when you think of them, try to really feel the positive emotion behind the gratitude and list the reasons why you feel grateful. At this stage it is OK if it feels phony and silly… this is only the first of 4 steps.

Mins 3 to 6: Do 10 to 20 burpees! These are a great way to use a lot of your bodies muscles as well as get oxygen flooding your system because of the heavy cardio-vascular use when performing this exercise. If you are unsure on how to do a burpee, then search how to do them on YouTube and don’t be put off, just do the best you can.

Mins 6 to 9: Cold shower time! Now I did say this method was SIMPLE but HARD. This is probably the most uncomfortable part of the 15 mins but has many positive effects all rolled in to one. The easiest way to do this is to not think about it too much and just GET IT OVER AND DONE WITH!

Put on a song that makes you want to conquer the world, set a timer for 40 seconds, stand under the shower head, count down from 10 and once you get to 0, turn on the cold water full blast! The aim here is to stay under the cold water until the timer goes off.

The cold water gives you a jolt of adrenaline, opens up your airways and makes you gasp, taking in more oxygen in to your system. Try to get your breathing under control under the water so you are breathing normally by the end of it. Remember, it is only 30 seconds of your life and the benefits will be HUGE!

Note: I will go under the cold for 30 secs, turn off the water, soap up/shampoo my whole body and use the cold water to wash it all off. That way I get clean and I get the cold shower and probably spend 60 to 90 seconds under the running cold water.

Mins 9 to 15: Dress in something that makes you feel good. Get out of the shower, laugh and smile, get dry and get dressed. Our appearance on the outside can affect how we feel on the inside. Whenever I have done these few steps, I dress better than I would do normally for what I have planned for that day because it has to feel special.

And finally: Reflect back on what you did, how you feel now compared to how you felt before doing any of this. Feel pride in the victory of over-coming some hard mental objections to those burpees and the cold water, look at how good you look in the mirror then go out there and kick some BUTT!

As always, please let me know what your methods are for over-coming a low mood and if you try this one, please tell me how it went!