Myths and Facts about Your Mood

Myth: Music always lift your mood

Fact: Music improves your mood, but it is not always because according to some research studies moods of people improved only when they listened to some type of music, but their mood didn’t change when they listen to instrumental music.

Myth: Exercise makes your mood bad

Fact: Exercise helps improve your mood by improving blood flow; creating new neurons and improving dopamine and serotonin levels.

Myth: A change in weather doesn’t have any effect on your mood

Fact: A change in weather affects your mood. According to several studies moods can be affected by weather. Good moods are associated with sunlight and bad ones are with cloudy days and also by warmer temperatures at the end of winter – which is typically described as spring fever. Similarly, another seasonal-related disorder – SAD (seasonal affective disorder) – mostly occur in winter.

SAD may be due to variations in sunlight and duration of days during winter as days tend to remain shorter during winter with varying amounts of sunlight – owing to which body responds differently to sunlight.

Myth: Older people or elderly people tend to be in bad moods

Fact: This is not true, but in reality, as a person grows older, he or she becomes more and more positive in his or her approach owing to their inherent belief that they must make most of their limited number of leftover years. That’s why older people – either consciously or subconsciously tend to focus more on positive thoughts. Another possibility is rather physiological to remain positive. In this case, the part of the brain associated with emotions could become active after being exposed to positive images rather then becoming activated in response to negative images.

Myth: Talking to strangers can make your mood dull

Fact: The fact is that even a brief talk with any stranger is enough to elevate mood. This is according to a research study done by the University of British Columbia. The reason behind this is that people become more conscious and try to behave very politely in a cheerful manner when they are around strangers. Such a behaviour puts compounding effect on their moods – which eventually become better.