While visiting my family during the Christmas holiday season in Columbus, Ohio, I stopped by the Half-Price Book Store on Lane avenue. I remember spending hours in this store while in graduate school at Ohio State. This time, I looked for specific books related to Stress Management, which will be a topic of one of my upcoming workshops. In a couple of hours, I found myself reading Melanie Greenberg’s book The Stress-Proof Brain: Master Your Emotional Response to Stress Using Mindfulness and Neuroplasticity. The author describes a program to build a stress-proof brain. Dr. Greenberg emphasized that positive emotions help to recover physiologically from stress, encourage an individual to engage and explore new things, and think more broadly. Here are three suggestions to create different types of positive mood.

Creating Positive Moods

Create interest through exploring and trying new things that help you integrate new information and expand your horizons

Create contentment through enjoying nature or beauty, practicing gratitude, or recalling positive memories, which help you have a positive focus and find a new perspective

Create engagement through challenging tasks that help you have confidence, be focused, and feel a sense of flow

Source: Greenberg, M. (2017). The stress-proof brain: Master your emotional response to stress using mindfulness and neuroplasticity. New Harbinger Publications.