There are many benefits of having a good sense of humor and laughing each day. Laughter, when it’s shared between friends and family, can actually improve your relationship. It can also have a domino effect by being contagious. All you need is for one person to begin laughing and others will soon join in the fun. Laughing actually triggers physical changes in the body which means there are health benefits of humor as well as emotional ones.

The health benefits of humor and laughter include reducing the effects of stress, lessening the sensation of pain, and giving you a boost of energy. You can also expect to feel better emotionally after laughing, particularly if the laughs were deep, sustained belly laughs. Laughter can also boost your immune system which could keep your entire body healthier.

Some experts believe laughing can be as good for you as exercise. In fact, some experts think of laughter as jogging for the inside of the body. The good thing about laughter is that you don’t need any special equipment, don’t have to pay for classes, and it can be enjoyed anywhere. Best of all, it’s free!

Humor and laughter reduce stress. You can’t be stressed out if you’re laughing; it’s simply impossible. When you laugh the body releases endorphins which help reduce stress. It also improves your mood which can have a large part to play in how stressed you feel. Laughter relaxes your muscles and can help you remain happier for up to 45 minutes after the laughter stops.

How do you get humor back into your life if it seems to be non-existent? There are a number of things you can do.

* Start with a smile. Smiling, like laughter, is contagious. If you’re already smiling it will be much easier for you to break into laughter. Think about something pleasant or enjoyable. Then when something does or says something silly or funny, you’ll be laughing with them before you know it.

* Move toward laughter whenever you hear it. In most cases, if someone is laughing loud enough for others to hear them, it’s unlikely they’ll be upset if you come near. You can actually ask people, “what’s so funny,” and they’ll likely tell you so you can join in the fun.

* Spend time with people who are fun to be with. Children are great for being able to laugh easily. Some adults can easily laugh at themselves or at funny things that happen around them. When they start laughing, it’s easy to get caught up in the joy, too.

* Watch older comedies that you found funny in the past. Some of the newer comedies simply aren’t as funny as they’d like us to believe. Find comedies that make you laugh and enjoy them regularly.

You may have heard the song lyrics “Money makes the world go around.” That may be partially true. However, you may want to try humor instead. Learn how to get fun back into your life and feel good by laughing every day.

The brain uses neurotransmitters to allow brain cells to communicate with one another. An imbalance in neurotransmitters can produce symptoms of depression, obesity, carbohydrate cravings, migraine headaches, and anxiety. If you can build up the neurotransmitters such as melatonin or serotonin, you can effectively improve your mood during the winter months.

One way to increase serotonin is to take St. John’s Wort which has been used for centuries to treat depression, melancholy, or hysteria. Build up serotonin levels in your brain and you may notice a marked improvement in your sleep patterns, sex drive, and body temperature. St. John’s Wort, a natural winter mood booster, is used in some countries rather than prescribing Prozac or other anti-depressants.

Besides St. John’s Wort, you may also want to consider taking Gingko Biloba or Ginseng. Both of these are said to improve both mood and symptoms of depression. You may be able to find these herbs, along with St. John’s Wort, at discount stores or dollar stores, but you may want to visit a health food store to determine which the best choice is for you.

Another natural way to boost your mood during the winter months is to get outside as much as possible. Natural daylight is one way to increase the production of serotonin. Of course, with the weather being colder, you may have to bundle up and brave the cold to get the extra sunlight, but your brain and your mood will thank you.

Increase your intake of vitamin B6, a precursor to creating serotonin, which is found in fish, lentils, potatoes, spinach, carrots, and sunflower seeds. L-tryptophan, another amino acid precursor, is also great for boosting moods. You can find L-tryptophan in foods such as baked potatoes with their skins on, roasted pumpkin seeds, and kelp.

Despite the fact you may not feel like doing much, exercise is also a good natural winter mood booster. If you take up skiing, snow-shoeing, or some other sport which will get you outside, you’ll receive the benefit of the natural sunlight as well as exercise to help you feel better. Of course, any type of exercise will make you feel better, so if you can’t exercise outside, doing exercises indoors will suffice.

If you’re experiencing symptoms of winter blues or SAD, you may want to give one or more of these natural winter mood boosters a try. You may find using these ideas can help you look forward to the winter months rather than dreading them.

Aromatherapy is not a new technique, although it is only in recent years that it has become more well known. It is the use of essential oils which come from flowers, herbs, shrubs, or fruits and are said to promote health and mental wellbeing. In most cases, the oils are added to bath water, used as a spray on bedding, and sometimes simply inhaled to derive the healthful benefits.

Aromatherapy can do wondrous things to energize, calm, or help beat the winter blues. Essential oils stimulate the sense of smell and can stimulate our memories, emotions, and instincts. The aromas can affect our entire being and psyche. However, it is not a substitute for proper medical care and should not be used as such. It can, however, be a complement to traditional medicine as well as being used in a non-medical way.

One of the most common herbs used by people with mild depression or winter blues is Lavender Officinalis. It has a calming effect on emotions as well as helping to bring clarity of thought. Lavender essential oil is considered to be one of the safest oils used for aromatherapy and can reduce tension, hysteria, and help you sleep. You might notice that lavender is used in some children’s bath wash or powder products as a means to help children relax so they, and their parents, can get some rest.

To make your own aromatherapy oil blends, you’ll want to have an unscented lotion or carrier oil as a base, such as olive oil, almond oil, or jojoba oil. Add a few drops of one or two essential oils to the carrier oil. You can also prepare larger quantities by adding a total of five or ten drops of essential oil to eight ounces of carrier oil. These oils can also be added to shampoo, conditioner, bubble baths, and Epsom salt.

Petitgrain, bergamot, lavender, and lemon are used to help brighten your mood and calm you. Mix together:

25 drops of petitgrain
30 drops of bergamot
20 drops of lavender
25 drops of lemon

This mixture can be stored in a 5 milliliter bottle. Put five to eight drops on a room diffuser, breathe from the bottle, add it to carrier oil, or add it to bath salts.

Citrus blends like the one above are particularly effective for brightening a person’s moods. Here are a few other blends you may want to try.

* For emotional wellbeing: 2 drops Clary sage, 2 drops Frankincense, and 1 drop Sandalwood. Blend this with one tablespoon almond oil and use it for a relaxing massage.

* To beat the winter blues: 4 drops Bergamot, 4 drops Lemon, and 2 drops Ylang-ylang. Can be added directly to bath water or mixed with unscented bubble bath.

These aromatherapy oil blends to help beat winter blues may not bring people with severe depression out of it, but they can do wonders for those who are mildly depressed or simply have the winter blahs. Give them a try; you may have found an easy method for brightening your mood during the long and cold winter months.

SAD is a type of depression which affects millions of people in the United States and around the world. While most of the people affected are women, men also suffer from this sometimes debilitating disorder. As stated above, people with SAD often crave carbohydrates and sugary treats because their body needs serotonin which helps regulate hunger and affects mood-enhancing chemicals. Unfortunately, when anyone eats too many sweets, extra pounds also creep onto the body.

Things to do:

* Eat complex carbohydrates found in fruits and vegetables. Choosing the most colorful vegetables and fruits will not only help you avoid simple carbs, but they may actually help brighten your day with their colors. Some dieticians suggest their patients with SAD eat as many as four cups of brightly colored fruits and vegetables a day.

* Eat three servings of protein a day. The protein helps fill you up, gives you energy, and helps build muscle.

* You may want to keep the following foods on hand for when you feel you need a mid-afternoon snack: oatmeal, nuts, peanut butter, prewashed vegetables, air-popped popcorn, whole grain crackers or bread, turkey, fruit, or cottage cheese.

* Bananas are a good choice if you want something sweet. Not only do they curb the appetite for sugar, they also can help enhance your mood because they contain both dopamine and serotonin.

Things not to do:

* Avoid consuming too much caffeine. Caffeine has been shown to suppress serotonin levels, so you’re actually compounding the problem when drinking coffee. If you must drink it, wait until after the mid-day meal so there is still plenty of daylight left to keep you from getting too tired.

* Avoid sweet treats and simple carbohydrates. This would include white bread and rice. Eating too many simple carbs raises your blood sugar level and then drops it just as quickly, which leads to the afternoon slump many people feel.

* Don’t skip meals as a general rule, not only during the winter months. The longer you wait between meals, the hungrier you will be. You will also notice a dip in concentration and more of a tendency to make poor food choices.

Following these food dos and don’ts to beat winter blues will help improve the way you feel as well, as help you avoid putting on extra pounds. When the winter months are over, you can feel better about the way you dealt with SAD this year and feel good about not having extra weight to lose before summer months arrive.