Deep breathing has numerous health benefits: it decreases your stress response, blood pressure, and heart rate, making you calmer. Shallow breathing is associated with tension and anxiety. Many people don’t breathe deeply due to societal pressures to have a flat stomach. Breathing deeply will push your lower stomach out.  Since deep breathing is unnatural for many, you must make a…

We all love a good laugh—that type of laugh where you can barely breathe because of how funny a joke was. While cheesy, according to science, laughter is the best medicine. Short-term effects include organ stimulation, stress relief, and tension relief. Long-term effects include immune system development, pain relief, a more positive mindset, and mood improvement.  The benefits of watching…

Do you ever get tired of the endless depressing stories presented on the news? Watching the news helps keep you informed of current events. But watching too much, especially considering the negative tone of most channels, can harm your mental health. Covid-19 news has added a whole other layer of stress to people.  Because of these things, looking at Good…

Your parents might have told you to avoid caffeine like the plague if you don’t want to damage your health. According to several studies, however, coffee and tea have both been linked to a reduced risk of depression. There are many other benefits. Caffeine also boosts energy levels and might protect you from neurodegenerative disorders (including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease,…

Have you ever been so overwhelmed with work (or life in general) that you slip into a cycle of anxiety? Sometimes breathing the right way is the best way to calm your mind and focus. We tend to tense up and breathe less deeply and quicker when stressed. Then, because you’re breathing so fast and shallow, you actually make yourself…

You might think that only listening to happy music will make you happy, but it turns out that sad songs might boost your mood. A study done at the Freie Universität Berlin in Germany found that sad music actually evokes positive emotions. Sometimes, listening to the music helped them release and process their emotions.  Perhaps the biggest benefit was the…

Have you ever felt anxious and nothing seems to make you feel better? A warm bath might be what you need. Numerous studies have shown that taking baths can decrease depression, stress, tension-anxiety, and anger-hostility. They help relax your mind and give you some much needed time for yourself. You can also try meditating to get an extra perk! Along…

There are a lot of things that contribute to happiness, some of which are easier to do than others. According to Medical News Today, a good night’s sleep is proven to increase both happiness and well-being. A study by Dr. Tang and colleagues concluded that better sleep (in the sense of quality and quantity) increased happiness as much as 8…

In a 2019 article by Positive Psychology, the health benefits of gratitude are explored. According to the Greater Good Science Center, the following are proven benefits of practicing gratitude: increased happiness, positive mood, more satisfaction with life, less materialistic, less likely to experience burnout, better physical health, better sleep, less fatigue, lower levels of cellular inflammation, greater resiliency, and development…

So often we block our own happiness by carrying around the weight of our guilt and regrets. For you to fully live your life, you have to begin to let go. It is important to know that we can only interact with the world at our current level of consciousness. So often we blame ourselves for the things we said…