How to Feel Better: 7 Science-Based Tips to Boost Your Mood

3. Pursue Your Desired Emotions

How to Make Yourself Feel Better Mentally

Kendra Cherry, MS, is the author of the “Everything Psychology Book (2nd Edition)” and has written thousands of articles on diverse psychology topics. Kendra holds a Master of Science degree in education from Boise State University with a primary research interest in educational psychology and a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Idaho State University with additional coursework in substance use and case management.

Updated on March 28, 2023
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David Susman, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist with experience providing treatment to individuals with mental illness and substance use concerns.

Verywell / Bailey Mariner

Everyone has times when they don’t feel their best. Whether you are struggling with a low mood, anxiety, stress, or just a lack of motivation, it’s tough to feel good when you’re not quite at 100%. This can leave you wondering how to feel better mentally.

Whenever you are down or stressed, it can be helpful to look for things you can do to make yourself feel better quickly. While there are things that are simply outside of your control, there are lots of actionable steps you can take to seize control and boost your mood. Here’s how to make yourself feel better starting today.

Take a Break

Sometimes just walking away from something for a few minutes can help when you’re feeling stressed, overworked, burned out, or exhausted. Step away from what you are working on and give yourself some time to think about something else.

Researchers have found that even taking short breaks can help improve your ability to pay attention.

One study compared people who took a short, five-minute break to those who did not get a break. Those who took a break engaged in a variety of activities including listening to music and sitting quietly. The results showed that those who had taken a break performed better on tasks that required sustained attention.  

Go for a Walk

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that adults over the age of 18 get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week. Getting out and moving for a little more than 20 minutes a day is not only good for your physical health and longevity, but it’s also a great way to feel better in the here and now.

Physical activity is linked to reductions in depression and improved mood, so a quick walk around the neighborhood can be a good way to start feeling better right away.

In addition to reaping the benefits of exercise, being outside in nature can also provide mental health benefits as well. One study found that participants who spent time walking in a natural environment reported lower levels of rumination. So if you want to clear your head and feel better, head for the nearest green space such as a park or nature trail.

Crank Up the Music

Listening to music can be an enjoyable experience, but there is also evidence that music has psychological benefits including having an influence on your moods. One 2013 study found that listening to upbeat songs could improve happiness and boost mood relatively quickly.  

The next time you’re feeling down, break out your favorite playlist of catchy, upbeat, motivational music for a quick mood boost.

Do Something Nice for Someone Else

Helping others, often referred to as prosocial behaviors, can also be a great way to feel better right now. Whether it’s helping out a neighbor, assisting a friend, or volunteering for a local organization, doing good for others can leave you with positive emotions that researchers have dubbed a “warm glow.”

If you are looking for a way to generate some good feelings, think about things that you can do to help your friends, family, neighbors, or community. A few ideas you might want to explore include:

• Fixing a meal for a friend in need
• Shoveling a sidewalk for an elderly neighbor
• Participating in a neighborhood cleanup
• Making a donation to an online fundraiser

Research even suggests that prosocial behaviors and generosity are linked to a number of mental health benefits including increased happiness and decreased mortality.

Talk to a Friend

When you are feeling stuck in a negative mindset, sometimes just spending a few minutes chatting or texting with a good friend is enough to put you in a better state of mind. Social support is a key factor in emotional well-being. Research has found that lack of social support is linked to a number of negative outcomes including increased loneliness and decreased resilience to stress.  

The good news, however, is that social support is more about quality rather than quantity. As long as you feel like you have people you are close to and who will stand by you, then you can reap the rewards of social support.

When you want to feel better fast, reach out to a close friend or loved one who can listen, offer advice, or just share some laughs.

Plan Something

According to one study, researchers found that people who are able to balance living in the here and now with planning for the future are more resistant to negative moods and resilient in the face of stress. The study looked at two different ways of managing stress: mindfulness and proactive coping.

Mindfulness involves living in the moment, while proactive coping involves planning for things as a way to minimize future stress. The results showed that making plans for the future was helpful for managing daily stress, but it was best used when coupled with living in the present.

Such findings suggest that it’s important to find joy in the moment and that when you are struggling to cope, thinking about things that you want to do in the future can help you manage difficult feelings and stressful moments.

Simple Ways to Make Yourself Feel Better Fast

• Bake cookies
• Dance
• Do yoga
• Eat a healthy, delicious meal
• Make a playlist of your favorite songs
• Meditate
• Play with your dog
• Practice a hobby
• Read a book
• Take a relaxing hot bath
• Watch a funny online video
• Watch your favorite movie or tv show
• Write in a gratitude journal

Get Advice From The Verywell Mind Podcast

Hosted by Editor-in-Chief and therapist Amy Morin, LCSW, this episode of The Verywell Mind Podcast shares a way to boost your mood when you’re feeling down.

A Word From Verywell

Everyone faces moments when they are feeling stressed, unmotivated, or unhappy. There are many different ways to feel better, but it is important to figure out what works best for you.

Some people might find that a brisk walk around the block is enough to pull them out of a bad mood, while others may be best served by spending some time volunteering to help others or planning something (such as a vacation or event) that they can look forward to.

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

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2. Hoffman BM, Babyak MA, Craighead WE, et al. Exercise and pharmacotherapy in patients with major depression: one-year follow-up of the SMILE study. Psychosom Med. 2011;73(2):127-133. doi:10.1097/PSY.0b013e31820433a5
3. Bratman GN, Hamilton JP, Hahn KS, Daily GC, Gross JJ. Nature experience reduces rumination and subgenual prefrontal cortex activation. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2015;112(28):8567-8572.
4. • Ferguson YL, Sheldon KM. Trying to be happier really can work: Two experimental studies. The Journal of Positive Psychology. 2013;8(1):23-33. doi:10.1080/17439760.2012.747000
5. Park SQ, Kahnt T, Dogan A, Strang S, Fehr E, Tobler PN. A neural link between generosity and happiness. Nat Commun. 2017;8(1):15964. doi:10.1038/ncomms15964
6. Poulin MJ, Brown SL, Dillard AJ, Smith DM. Giving to others and the association between stress and mortality. Am J Public Health. 2013;103(9):1649-1655. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2012.300876
7. Harandi TF, Taghinasab MM, Nayeri TD. The correlation of social support with mental health: A meta-analysis. Electron Physician. 2017;9(9):5212-5222. doi:10.19082/5212
8. Polk MG, Smith EL, Zhang L-R, Neupert SD. Thinking ahead and staying in the present: Implications for reactivity to daily stressors. Personality and Individual Differences. 2020;161:109971. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.109971

By Kendra Cherry
Kendra Cherry, MS, is the author of the “Everything Psychology Book (2nd Edition)” and has written thousands of articles on diverse psychology topics. Kendra holds a Master of Science degree in education from Boise State University with a primary research interest in educational psychology and a Bachelor of Science in psychology from Idaho State University with additional coursework in substance use and case management.

How to Feel Better: 7 Science-Based Tips to Boost Your Mood

Strategies to boost positive emotions, decrease negative, and feel better.

Source: Image by Mark Mook from Pixabay

Do you tend to feel a lot of negative emotions? Do you feel bad about yourself? Or do you feel unhappy about your place in the world? The science has shown us that we actually have a lot of control over our feelings and well-being (take the well-being quiz to see where you’re at). So here are 7 science-based tips to help you feel better.

1. Strengthen Positive Connections in Your Brain

The more we use the parts of our brain that are responsible for positivity, the stronger those parts will get. Working with positive information, positive memories, and positive attention make all those things stronger. And building these more basic skills can help us be more effective at things like positive thinking, which makes us feel better. One way to use positive information more often is to memorize positive words. Researchers (Bradley & Lang, 1999) have even tested words to see which ones are the most positive. Check out my positivity workbook for a collection of positive words to use as your ‘word of the day’ or in memory games to build these positive connections.

2. Explore Your Emotional Goals

How do you define ‘feel better’? If you don’t know the answer, then how are you supposed to get there? Take a moment to ask yourself what exact emotions or experiences do you want to have when you ‘feel better’? Here are some emotions to reflect on. Try to identify the top 1 or 2 emotions you want to feel.

3. Pursue Your Desired Emotions

Once you know which emotions would make you feel better, you can take action to experience them more often. If you want to feel excitement, for example, plan a trip to do something new and invigorating. If, on the other hand, you want to feel relaxed, plan to get a massage, or learn how to engage in deep breathing. By knowing what your emotional goals are, you can more easily achieve them.

4. Practice Gratitude

When we’re not feeling good, it can be hard to be grateful for anything. But practicing gratitude for the things in our lives that are going well can help us feel better. By doing so, we shift our focus onto the good rather than the bad. You can write a gratitude journal or share your gratitude with others. Both of these are good ways to cultivate gratitude skills.

5. Try Not to Feel Bad About Feeling Bad

If you just want to feel bad for a little while, that’s okay. Negative emotions have important functions that actually help us take better care of ourselves. Sadness can help us get support from others, anxiety can help us prepare for threats, and anger can help us stand up for what we believe in. But just be careful that you’re not holding onto negative emotions that aren’t benefiting you. Let go of resentments, shame, and self-blame in exchange for taking actions to improve your life.

6. Treat Yourself Better

I’ve been thinking a lot about how we can treat ourselves better for an article I recently wrote on knowing your worth. It’s not always easy to boost self-esteem or self-worth because we often set up our lives in ways that confirm what we already believe about ourselves. But we can start by being self-compassionate—by giving ourselves a break for not feeling good all the time. And we can feel even better by better understanding the people or experiences that make us feel bad and learning how to say ‘no’ to those people of experiences. By treating ourselves better in small ways, we can build momentum and self-efficacy that can hopefully help us feel better in time.

7. Shift Your Focus

We often feel worse after a breakup, job loss, or other rejection. If we focus on how we were rejected or failed, we’re likely only making it worse, stewing in our emotions until they become unbearable. Shifting our attention to something else can make a massive difference. If we’re up for it, we can shift to focusing on the positive things—we can savor the good times or imagine good things in our future. Or, we can simply live in the present moment. Even picking up an object, like a pen, and naming everything we see, feel, and maybe even smell can help us shift our focus away from the negative.

Bradley, M. M., & Lang, P. J. (1999). Affective norms for English words (ANEW): Instruction manual and affective ratings (Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 25-36). Technical report C-1, the center for research in psychophysiology, University of Florida.