Mood Lifters

Everyone feels a bit lonely or sad at sometime in their lives. Even the great men and women of the Bible experienced feelings of sadness or emotional stress. I have been collecting mood lifting ideas from friends, and have come up with several good things that will not destroy your finances.

There is a tendency to believe that buying something expensive will make a person feel better. This may be true but the feeling soon passes and then the realization that such extravagance has broken the budget can bring on a worse depression. In particular, having something with a label on it seems to make people feel better. However, once you are at home, no one knows what the signature is on your shoes or your sunglasses. It is surprising how boys and girls as young as 12, strongly desire to have a name label on their jeans or their shirts. They do not realize that they are making rich people richer, and making themselves much poorer.

Having lived long before such labels existed, I never desired them. Knowing how to make many things brought a degree of contentment to the older generation, and many of us were never impressed with a signature on a product. When you can make your own things, you can also add your own signature to them, whether it be hand

It is tempting to go out and buy something for a mood lifter, but for those who do not want to harm their bank account or collect too many pairs of shoes, there are alternatives. Calling a friend, if she is of a cheerful nature, is always helpful. Doing something for someone else can help that self-pitying feeling to disappear. If you have a stash of fabric, sewing something new for the home or something new to wear, can lighten a cloudy mood.

If every sense is tested, it is possible to find things that give the mood an instant lift:

Scent: Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil and add a tablespoon of chocolate flavored coffee beans or ground coffee.

Sound: The dollar stores often have very good soothing music on CDs, which make the sad heart smile again. If you can't do that, singing a song does amazing things for the mood.

Sight: Often, just cleaning up a corner of the house and staging it for photographs, can make you feel happier.

Taste: Various flavors, like orange, mint, cinnamon, strawberries or chocolate, can help.

Touch: This is an even more interesting area. Apparently, we deprive ourselves of much pleasure by limiting our choices in life. If we spend all day only doing one thing, we do not receive the good feelings in our sense of touch. Handling fabrics and yarn, kneading bread, preparing food, hanging out clothes and bringing them in when dry, ironing, making the bed with fresh sheets, ---the list is endless--translates the feeling from the touching of the fingers, to the brain. If we only swept the floor all day, or only used the keyboard all day, we would not receive the extraordinary benefits that the touch brings. In the old days before shopping was a popular hobby, women used to lift their moods by visiting a friend, or washing their hair, writing a letter, singing, making cinnamon rolls, or maybe putting on a newly ironed dress. In those days everything was ironed, and each garment felt brand new when we wore it. If clothes were dried in the sun, it seemed to put a special starch in it. These things caused no harm, while making things better than they were before.

I am looking forward to seeing what people can add to this list of mood lifters.