Self-care and boost your mood for the week!

Here at Scientia we’ve been talking a lot about how self-care and how we can lift our moods in this unfamiliar time we find ourselves in. In our everyday lives we’ve been working our how to help ourselves, but how can we help you too?  We’ve listed some of our favourite activities that we think will help boost your well-being and start your days off positively!

It sounds simple, but doing a few simple self-care things regularly can really make a difference to your well-being. Turns out when we take care of ourselves, we have more motivation to get up and go, boosting our mental health, levels of positivity and general well-being- who knew?!...

“Self-care is giving the world the best of you, instead of what’s left of you”

Ways to boost your mood:

There are so many ways to boost your mood, it’s all about doing simple and small things that can affect how your day / week ends up!

Mood boosting breakfast recipes to kick start your day the right way:

Banana and chocolate overnight oats is simple, easy and delicious to make, if we don’t say so ourselves. All you’ll need is almond milk, vanilla protein powder, one ripe banana, ½ tbsp cocoa powder (over 70% cocoa) and 75g rolled oats. Find the recipe here

Poached eggs & smashed avocado on toast has easily become everyone’s go-to meal and is perfect for a quick, simple nutritious meal morning or night. There’s nothing better than poached egg, smashed avocado on toast and if you don’t pop the yolk on Instagram are you even living in 2020?! All you need is one/two egg, one avocado, some wholemeal bread and a sprinkle of salt and pepper or even chilli if you fancy spicing it up. Find the recipe here 

We all love pancake day right? so what’s stopping us from treating ourselves every morning? Especially if it puts us in a good mood… Instead of loading them with tonnes of sugar, why not choose the healthier (yet still yummy) option. Banana pancakes are a great way to add health benefits to your morning as well as curing your sweet craving without the calories. All you need to do is mash up the bananas, stir in eggs, baking powder, milk, and vanilla for more flavour. Best of all, it only takes 10 minutes! Find the recipe here 

Greek yogurt with honey and granola… simple effective and packed full of happy ingredients. A creamy spoonful of Greek yogurt increases levels of pleasure-boosting neurotransmitters… winner. Honey is that spoonful of sweetness, with compounds that might even help fight depression by reducing inflammation in the brain. If your feeling really adventurous throw some fruit on there too! Find the recipe here

Ready steady omelette… Grab your eggs, your avocado, some olive oil, and spinach and let’s get cookin. Start your day in a delicious way that also helps boost your happy hormones! Find the recipe here 

Snacks to make you feel good and boost your mood:

Banana chips 

Kale chips 

Frozen banana, peanut butter and chocolate sarnies 

Gooey, oaty, banana flapjacks 

Coconut & cacao protein energy balls 

Podcasts:

Luanna - Luisa Zissman and Anna Williamson

The BOF Podcast

Happy place - Fearne Cotton

Things you can’t ask yer mum- Lizzy Hadfield & Lindsey Holland

Give me strength - Alice Liveing

In summary, take some time for self-care (whatever that means to you) and no matter what you’re doing for your community right now, it’s important to look after numero uno too, that’s fundamentally what mood boosting is all about!

By simply choosing to do a couple of these self-care activities you can help to improve your mood and your well-being with hardly any effort.  So, there’s no excuse not to try them out, and if you do let us know what you think!