'Weatherproof' Your Home for Rainy Day Blues
When it's been raining non-stop, it's hard not to get the blues. Here are some ways to use your home to lift your mood
We may live in the tropics, but we get our fair share of horribly rainy days that make us ill and cause flash floods … and bring on the rainy day blues. Such seasonal blues can develop into depression, which experts call Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or winter depression. The Singapore Psychiatrist confirms that even sunny Singapore is not immune to SAD.
While depression is a serious illness that calls for professional help, there are easy and practical things you can do at home to lift your spirits (or avoid getting blue):
While depression is a serious illness that calls for professional help, there are easy and practical things you can do at home to lift your spirits (or avoid getting blue):
Foods high in tryptophan also help to regulate moods. Examples include chicken, milk, yogurt, bananas, tuna and sunflower seeds, and multivitamins that contain vitamins B3, B6 and C, folic acid and zinc.
Find your happy scent, and fill your home with it
Aromatherapy may seem like something you only get at the spa, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it at home. Orange and jasmine fragrances reduce anxiety, while lavender is calming and relaxing. A scent that reminds you of childhood or your favourite overseas holiday can also improve your mood.
9 Aromas That’ll Boost Your Health at Home
Aromatherapy may seem like something you only get at the spa, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it at home. Orange and jasmine fragrances reduce anxiety, while lavender is calming and relaxing. A scent that reminds you of childhood or your favourite overseas holiday can also improve your mood.
9 Aromas That’ll Boost Your Health at Home
Brighten up with lamps that mimic sunlight
Because it’s the lack of sunlight that often causes SAD, many psychiatrists prescribe phototherapy, or the daily exposure to a sunlight-mimicking glow that increases dopamine.
Because it’s the lack of sunlight that often causes SAD, many psychiatrists prescribe phototherapy, or the daily exposure to a sunlight-mimicking glow that increases dopamine.
Create a bedroom atmosphere that encourages sleep
The seasonal change where it’s darker and cooler longer can also mess with your body clock, thereby causing SAD. Kit out your bedroom so that it encourages a consistent circadian rhythm in a space that induces a cosy sleep followed by sunlight-mimicking lamps that turn on at the same time every morning.
Your Bedroom Could be Keeping You Awake
The seasonal change where it’s darker and cooler longer can also mess with your body clock, thereby causing SAD. Kit out your bedroom so that it encourages a consistent circadian rhythm in a space that induces a cosy sleep followed by sunlight-mimicking lamps that turn on at the same time every morning.
Your Bedroom Could be Keeping You Awake
Bring some plants in
House plants can improve your health, writes Anne Ellard on Houzz Australia. “Studies have shown that hospital patients who have flowers or plants in their room, or who look out onto a garden from their room, often recover more quickly than those who have no plants around them … Plants help to increase our levels of positivity and make us feel more secure and relaxed. They can also help with loneliness and depression.”
Read more planting stories
House plants can improve your health, writes Anne Ellard on Houzz Australia. “Studies have shown that hospital patients who have flowers or plants in their room, or who look out onto a garden from their room, often recover more quickly than those who have no plants around them … Plants help to increase our levels of positivity and make us feel more secure and relaxed. They can also help with loneliness and depression.”
Read more planting stories
Decorate with your favourite colours
Colour has an effect on your well-being, Priya Naik writes on Houzz Singapore. Certain colours evoke calm and relaxation, or cheer and energy. Even if your favourite hue doesn’t affect you in the traditional sense of colour theory, being surrounded by it can lift your mood.
8 Ways to Add Colour to Your Home Without Paint
Colour has an effect on your well-being, Priya Naik writes on Houzz Singapore. Certain colours evoke calm and relaxation, or cheer and energy. Even if your favourite hue doesn’t affect you in the traditional sense of colour theory, being surrounded by it can lift your mood.
8 Ways to Add Colour to Your Home Without Paint
Make space for exercise
Remember that line in the movie Legally Blonde? “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.” If you can’t go for your daily run, have a space inside your house where you can get those endorphins pumping.
Tell us
Do you get the rainy day blues? What’s your favourite lift-me-up?
More
Read more home-health stories
Remember that line in the movie Legally Blonde? “Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don’t shoot their husbands, they just don’t.” If you can’t go for your daily run, have a space inside your house where you can get those endorphins pumping.
Tell us
Do you get the rainy day blues? What’s your favourite lift-me-up?
More
Read more home-health stories
When you’re hungry, you can get short-tempered (hence the modern term ‘hangry’), so you reach for blood-sugar-regulating foods such as yogurt, grapefruit and tomatoes.
Have dopamine-rich foods on hand too, such as lean meat, dairy, fish and eggs. Dopamine is the chemical in our brain that improves concentration and alertness, and reduces lethargy and low moods.